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CNN This Morning
Gov. Tim Walz Makes Debut As Harris VP Pick; Gov. Shapiro Welcomes VP Candidate Walz; American Gabby Thomas Sprints To 200M Gold. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired August 07, 2024 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[05:31:04]
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, 5:30 a.m. here in Washington. A live look at New York City on this Wednesday morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.
He has been a teacher, a football coach, a congressman, and a governor. Now Tim Walz has been selected to be Kamala Harris' right- hand man.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. TIM WALZ, D-MINN, VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So, we got 91 days. My God, that's easy. We'll sleep when we're dead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Walz played out his role as attack dog against the Trump-Vance ticket as his coming out rally last night in Philadelphia, and he and Harris are going to hit the campaign trail today in those critical blue wall states, including Wisconsin and Michigan.
Let's bring in CNN national political reporter Daniel Strauss, and Torey Van Oot, Twin Cities reporter for Axios. Good morning to both of you.
Torey, I actually want to start with you since this is your hometown governor. You cover what's going on in the state day in and day out. You saw some of the attack lines that Walz rolled out against the Trump-Vance ticket. And we're already, of course, going to see them go after him as extraordinarily liberal. The Trump campaign sending this email saying that Walz will help Harris unleash hell on Earth among other things.
What's true, what's exaggerated? How is Walz viewed in the state of Minnesota?
TOREY VAN OOT, TWIN CITIES REPORTER, AXIOS (via Webex by Cisco): Well, it's one of those situations where more than one thing can be true, right, and how liberal someone is might be in the eye of the beholder. As you mentioned, we got an introduction to Walz last night. This
Coach Walz, as Vice President Harris called him. Midwestern former teacher, high school football defensive coach. Gun owner who didn't enter politics until his 40s. Represented a purple district in Congress. Salt of the Earth Midwestern uncle vibes. That's the Tim Walz the Harris campaign is going to try to put forward as they try to reach, as you mentioned, those blue wall voters and connect with more moderate swaths of rural America.
Since being elected governor and particularly, since Democrats won full control here in Minnesota, he has passed and signed a long list of progressive priorities -- issues on Democrats' wish list. Paid family leave, legal marijuana, driver's license for undocumented immigrants. Those same things that made him a favorite of the left flank in this veepstakes contest will become lines of attacks for Republicans this fall.
HUNT: Daniel Strauss, there was a lot of conversation ahead of this pick about the chemistry between these two people -- between Kamala Harris and Tim Walz -- about why she selected him.
And I actually spoke to Cedric Richmond, who was a co-chair -- you know, a former Biden adviser, but he was one of the, like, last people in this room -- this very close-knit circle that knew kind of how this decision was being made. And I asked him last night about what Tim Walz aspires to be. Whether he wants to be president or not and what role that may or may not have played in Harris deciding to select him as her vice presidential running mate.
Let's watch that and we'll talk about it. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CEDRIC RICHMOND, CO-CHAIR, HARRIS-WALZ CAMPAIGN: She wanted someone who would always put the American people first. She wanted someone who understood the role of the Vice President of the United States, and she wanted someone she had chemistry with. Governor Walz fit that mold and he expressed that he didn't have ambition to be president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: He expressed that he didn't have ambition to be president. What do you make of that?
DANIEL STRAUSS, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: I mean, he said that in an interview to be potentially the vice president as the sitting chair of the DGA, which is a position lot of governors usually have prior to running for president.
[05:35:00]
But he had a very, very low national profile prior to sort of a grassroots burst of energy elevating him into contention to be Harris' running mate. And that really does underscore an argument that maybe he wasn't overly ambitious, at least on the surface. But at the same time, all these governors, all these senators -- they all look in the mirror and want to be president on day.
HUNT: It seems clear that he -- at least the way that he handled his interview with Harris in this regard was reassuring to her.
STRAUSS: Yeah. It's -- I mean, in the clip you played there are a lot of the usual cliches you hear when a presidential ticket picks a vice presidential nominee. But the one unique word in there was "chemistry." That is not a word you usually hear. And I think that clearly was the deciding factor for Harris.
HUNT: Yeah.
Torey, one of the things that they, of course, have focused on with Walz was this sort of folksy charm and his appeal in the Midwest. But I will say he also has had a couple of attacks against the Trump ticket that have resonated online, in many ways, in a way that you might not associate with a Midwestern dad necessarily.
He had this line about calling the Trump-Vance ticket weird, which he used again last night. And then he actually kind of went there -- this also kind of an extremely online thing. It's a reference to something that is not true about J.D. Vance. But watch this joke that he told and just kind of look at how he -- how he nods to it. Just watch it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WALZ: And I've got to tell you, I can't wait to debate the guy.
(CHEERING)
WALZ: That is, if he's willing to get off the couch and show up, so.
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
WALZ: You see what I did there?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Don't forget that "see what I did there." So he was clearly acknowledging what was going on here.
Were you -- I was kind of surprised he went there, I'm not going to lie, especially in this big debut.
OOT: Yeah, my mouth dropped. But he -- I think he knows what the role is. And I will say Gov. Walz is 60 years old. He's a 60-year-old man from Minnesota, but he does have a 20-something daughter in her young 20s and a teenage son. So he knows what's on TikTok. That's something he says here to us. You know, he's seeing what the kids are saying on TikTok. And he does have a sense of humor as you saw from that attack line and that sort of off-the-cuff vibe is something we've seen a lot here in person in Minnesota.
HUNT: Very interesting. All right. Daniel Strauss, Torey Van Oot, thank you both very much for being here this morning. I really appreciate it.
All right. Coming up next, why Kamala Harris didn't choose Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as her VP pick.
Plus, another gold medal for Team USA in Paris. We'll have more Olympic highlights coming up on Bleacher Report.
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[05:42:05]
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GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO, (D) PENNSYLVANIA: So if I hear you right, and I think I do, you're chanting "He's a weirdo."
(CHEERING)
SHAPIRO: If you're chanting "He's a weirdo" then you heard of my good friend and our next vice president, Tim Walz.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: The Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro lost the spot of Kamala Harris' VP pick to Tim Walz -- but, man, he did hype up the Philadelphia crowd last night.
Shapiro had been widely perceived as a more moderate choice. He was favored by some Democrats and some anti-Trump Republicans. Sources tell CNN he seemed overly ambitious during his vetting interview with Harris while Walz came across as more collaborative and told Harris he did not have any ambitions to run for president one day. One of her advisers, Cedric Richmond, told me that on our air last night.
Regardless, Shapiro went out of his way to demonstrate that there were no hard feelings when he spoke to that Philly crowd last night.
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SHAPIRO: I am going to continue to pour my heart and soul into serving you every single day as your governor.
(CHEERING)
SHAPIRO: And I'm going to be working my tail off to make sure we make Kamala Harris and Tim Walz the next leaders of the United States of America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right. Joining me now, Axios publisher, Nicholas Johnston. And congressional reporter for The Hill, Mychael Schnell. Good morning to both of you.
Nick Johnston, let me start with you. We had --
NICHOLAS JOHNSTON, PUBLISHER, AXIOS: Good morning.
HUNT: -- a little -- a little conversation at this table earlier this week.
JOHNSTON: I owe you a dollar. You were right. Instead of Shapiro it was Walz.
HUNT: I had thought it was going to be Shapiro and then late in the game it sort of switched.
JOHNSTON: Yeah.
HUNT: And here we are with Walz at the top of the ticket.
Republicans have been seizing on this.
JOHNSTON: Yeah.
HUNT: You had people like -- I mean, Kellyanne Conway tweeted that she basically was relieved for Republicans. That Trump supporters should be relieved that the pick was Walz and not Josh Shapiro because Shapiro would have been a threat.
There's also been some attacks against Democrats and their views toward Israel. I want to show you --
JOHNSTON: Yeah.
HUNT: -- a little bit of what J.D. Vance had to say in the wake of all of this. Let's watch that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), U.S. VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We know that Josh Shapiro, in particular, was attacked mercilessly from the far left for being Jewish. For not being anti-Israel enough. And, of course, he ran away from his own positions. But the fact that you're letting antisemites within the Democrat Party drives so much of the conversation and so much of the decision-making for Kamala Harris.
[05:45:00]
Who does Kamala Harris answer to? Does she answer to the American people, or does she answer to the far left of her own party?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: At one point, there was also a reference to Hamas.
JOHNSTON: Right.
HUNT: What do you make of this criticism and this choice?
JOHNSTON: I mean, Republicans have been trying to figure out a way to attack this new Democratic ticket. I -- we've struggled to -- they don't have a nickname for Kamala Harris yet, I don't think, on Truth Social.
And so, a new line of attack now is this one, antisemitism. I think that's a little bit of a bridge too far. Kamala Harris' husband is Jewish. The Secretary of State is Jewish. There are members of the cabinet who are Jewish.
But I think it does speak to a little bit that we talked about on Monday. There was dissent in the ranks over Josh Shapiro with some of the positions he's taken and where he's at in the party. That groundswell of support in the grassroots and online over the weekend that I think you were a better -- did a better job of picking at to see what that led to Tim Walz. And I think that Republicans do have a sense of that.
You mentioned earlier about the mood. One Republican told us at Axios that this was the Republicans -- they felt like this is the first break they've gotten in three weeks. They feel they have an in here. There's a little bit of a change in the momentum because of that.
But I think the Harris campaign, on the flip side, didn't want all that dissention. Didn't want to have a fight with the Democratic Party about their pick. And, like, I think the coolest thing I saw yesterday I think that captures that is AOC and Sen. Manchin are on board with Tim Walz. You have the two of them in agreement? OK. The Democratic Party is on board for this. Let's fight with the Republicans instead.
HUNT: Well, and I think you saw some of that -- I also think there was a little bit of a vibe shift to use the parlance that everybody seems to be --
JOHNSTON: Yeah.
HUNT: -- using between when this was announced in the morning and when you saw Tim Walz take the stage as Democrats really leaned into that kind of rural background, right?
JOHNSTON: Yeah, yeah.
HUNT: And we kind of saw some of what he brings to the table.
Mychael Schnell, I will say Josh Shapiro himself took this on -- the questions about his faith and what that means in the context of the choice here -- pretty directly last night. I mean, you could sort of tell this speech was, first of all, a very powerful one. I mean, the crowd was so excited to hear from him.
But this moment stood out not just for the content but the way it was delivered straight to camera where he clearly had a plan to address his Jewish faith in the context of the decision that Kamala Harris made. Let's watch that moment and we'll talk about it on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SHAPIRO: I lean on my family and I lean on my faith, which calls me to serve. And I am proud of my faith. Now hear me. I'm not here to preach at you all but I want to tell you what my faith teaches me. My faith teaches me that no one -- no one is required to complete the task, but neither are we free to refrain from it. That means -- that means that each of us has a responsibility to get off the sidelines, to get in the game, and to do our part. Are you ready to do your part?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So, Mychael, at one point where he said there "I'm not going to preach to you," the crowd actually started yelling at him "Preach! Preach!" which I also thought was a very interesting response to him in that moment.
What do you make of it?
MYCHAEL SCHNELL, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, THE HILL: Yeah. I mean, look, so much of Josh Shapiro's candidacy for vice president, especially in sort of the final moments of the veepstakes contention, focused on his Jewish heritage and his Judaism. And there was that effort from folks on the far left who tried to mount this pressure campaign against him, taking issue with his stance on the Israel-Hamas War and his pro-Israel bona fides.
Meanwhile, his stances on the war were pretty similar to the other vice presidential contenders. I spoke to a number of Jewish Democrats who pushed back on this, saying that he was receiving that increased scrutiny just because of his Jewish faith, saying that the -- that the focus he was receiving was antisemitic in nature.
So I think Josh Shapiro using this moment on the national stage to push back on those sentiments and to say that despite what happened, he's a very proud Jewish individual.
Let's also look at this in the context of the current moment we're living in. There is rampant antisemitism throughout the country right now. It's at historic highs after the October 7 attack from Hamas on Israel. So Josh Shapiro showing in no uncertain terms that he is proud to be Jewish and also, potentially, tamping down -- trying to tamp down on some of these Republican attacks.
I spoke to Speaker Johnson yesterday in New York City who told me that he believed that Shapiro was overlooked because of his Jewish heritage.
Shapiro, right there, (audio gap) back on some of those GOP attacks and suggesting hey, it wasn't because I'm Jewish. This administration is not antisemitic. It was for other reasons.
So a really important moment there. And again, on the national stage talking about his faith as a Jewish individual.
HUNT: Yeah.
Nick Johnston -- I mean, one of the other things that I think really stood out to me both in watching Shapiro's demeanor and --
[05:50:05]
JOHNSTON: Yeah.
HUNT: -- the way that he took the stage, in addition to the reporting about how he handled the interview with Kamala Harris where he was asking questions about what would he be able to do as vice president.
JOHNSTON: Right.
HUNT: Kind of outlining the things he did want to do. It seems pretty clear to me that he wasn't really interested in being somebody else's number two.
JOHNSTON: You know, keep an eye on this fellow. We might be talking about him again in the future. There's been a little bit of reporting about what that dynamic is like. Remember, like, what is the role of a vice president? And with that kind of partnership you don't want someone to be overshadowed.
I think there's a lot of reporting that came out, even some by Axios, about what is the vibe that the two candidates had. And maybe Kamala Harris and Tim Walz -- I think that together a lot better. Like, clicked a little more. And that conversation with Shapiro didn't go as well. I think the Shapiro folks knew it and even called afterward to say, like, maybe we should think about this as well.
Look, on one level -- like, the Harris campaign was looking at this to get the best of both worlds. You've got Walz on the ticket, which is a unifying candidate, and Josh Shapiro is still very excited and happy on stage to campaign all over Pennsylvania. And if things don't work out -- well, look for him in Iowa maybe in about 18 months.
HUNT: Uh, yeah. I think if Donald Trump is re-elected president again, I can -- yes, yes.
JOHNSTON: One to watch --
HUNT: We will see him in Des Moines.
JOHNSTON: -- absolutely.
HUNT: OK. Nick Johnston, Mychael Schnell. Thank you, guys, both very much for joining us.
All right, time now for the Olympics where American sprinter Gabby Thomas dominates in the 200 meters, cruising to the gold medal.
Amanda Davies joins us now with more from Paris. Amanda, good morning.
AMANDA DAVIES, CNN INTERNATIONAL SPORTS ANCHOR: Good morning.
It was a sensational run. It's been a project six years in the making for Gabby Thomas and her team. The 27-year-old from Atlanta, who now lives in Austin, saying it's an unbelievable, indescribable feeling to claim Olympic gold.
She beat St. Lucia's 100 champion Julien Alfred in the final, claiming victory not only for Team USA but to become the first -- the only Harvard University graduate to win track and field gold at an Olympic Games. It was watching Allyson Felix in London in 2012 that inspired her. She won seven Olympic golds in her career. So still some way to go for Gabby but she's hoping for more in the 4x100 relay still to come.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GABBY THOMAS, 200 METER GOLD MEDALIST: I thought, OK, if I get an Olympic gold medal today, what's next for me?
Because I have accomplished almost everything that I have wanted to do up until this point. You know, I got my undergraduate degree in neurobiology at Harvard, which was my dream. I went and got my master's in public health. And now, I'm an Olympic champion.
I don't know what's next and I will figure that out. But for now I'm just really enjoying where I'm at.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DAVIES: Oh my goodness for the multitalented, multiskilled Gabby Thomas.
But if she went into her finals as the favorite, then Cole Hocker's victory in the men's 1,500 was an entirely different story. It had been billed as a race for the ages. The Olympic champion against the world champion -- Jakob Ingebrigtsen against Josh Kerr. But 23-year- old Hocker, who had finished sixth in Tokyo, had very different ideas.
It was an epic run from him. He's gone from fifth place to first over the last 300 meters to set a new Olympic record on the way to taking gold ahead of Kerr in silver, with Team USA's Yared Nuguse in bronze. So it's the first time in 112 years that two American men have medaled in that medal distance event.
Elsewhere, the Emma Hayes era is well and truly in full swing with the U.S. Women's National football team. She's only been in charge since the end of May but has led them to what is set to be an epic Olympic football final against Brazil. They've produced a really hard for extra time victory over Germany. Sophia Smith's 95th minute winner making a difference to book their place in the gold medal match as they look for their first Olympic title since 2012.
But it is also set to be the legendary Marta's last-ever game for Brazil. This is her sixth Olympic Games, and she will be desperate to lead her country to a first international crown. The final is on Saturday.
Now, Simone Biles Games has come to an end with those four medals around her neck. In the lead-in, she and her teammates have been talking of it as the redemption games after that disappointment of Tokyo. She told our CNN sports colleague Coy Wire she was doing it here for no one but herself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SIMONE BILES, 7-TIME OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: Well, it was important to me because nobody forced me to be out there on that stage. I solely did it for myself. And I'm in a really good spot mentally and physically. So doing this for just me, it meant the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DAVIES: Well, later on day 12 of the Games, another brilliant day on the agenda. The USA's Katie Moon, the defending champion, heading into the women's pole vault. And we're expecting a great battle between the USA's Quincy Hall and Team G.B.'s Matthew Hudson-Smith, a former roommate of Noah Lyles, in the men's 400 meters. And women's golf is underway as well. Nelly Korda the defending champion in that one.
[05:55:04]
HUNT: Amanda, I could listen to Simone Biles talk about her game all day. I just -- I just -- I would just listen to that forever.
Thank you so much. See you tomorrow, I hope.
Coming up next here on CNN THIS MORNING, a new Democratic duo. What a Harris-Walz team (PH) will look like out on the campaign trail.
Plus, Congresswoman Angie Craig joins us live. She's going to talk to us about her home state governor being added to the top of the Democratic ticket.
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HUNT: It's Wednesday, August 7. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WALZ: Don't ever underestimate teachers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Teacher, coach, National Guardsman, now candidate for vice president Tim Walz introduces himself to America.
Plus --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VANCE: But the fact that Kamala Harris selected him I think shows really, really poor judgment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Donald Trump and J.D. Vance trying to define Walz on their terms, giving us a sneak peek at their plan of attack.
