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Speaker 3: We know now what we've all been waiting to know
Speaker 3: for the last sixteen days. Who was going to join
Speaker 3: Vice President Kamala Harris on the ticket this cycle? We
Speaker 3: now know that it is the Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walls,
Speaker 3: perhaps not known to many, but maybe known to some
Speaker 3: in part because of his viral cataloging of JD. Vance
Speaker 3: and Donald Trump as weird. Remember this on CNN earlier
Speaker 3: this summer, people.
Speaker 4: Kept talking about, look, Donald Trump is going to put
Speaker 4: women's lives at risk.
Speaker 2: That's one hundred percent true.
Speaker 4: Donald Trump is potentially going to end constitutional liberties that
Speaker 4: we have, end voting. I do believe all those things
Speaker 4: are a real possibility, but it gives him way too
Speaker 4: much power. Listen to the guy he's talking about, Hannibal
Speaker 4: Lecter and you shocking Sharks and just whatever crazy thing
Speaker 4: pops into his mind. And I thought we just give
Speaker 4: him way too much credit.
Speaker 5: Weird crazy. There you have it from Tim Walls. Fast
Speaker 5: forward Kaylee a week in change and he's now on
Speaker 5: the Democratic ticket. We're going to be seeing him at
Speaker 5: five thirty Eastern time, or so goes the schedule, alongside
Speaker 5: Kamala Harris at Temple University in Philadelphia. So we've got
Speaker 5: a race here, and the sprint begins as we bring
Speaker 5: in Gregory Cordy, Bloomberg Politics reporter with this at the
Speaker 5: table here. Gregor, you've been covering this campaign cycle since
Speaker 5: the beginning. It's not till now that we actually have
Speaker 5: a race, which is kind of remarkable. Here in the
Speaker 5: throes of August, on our way to the Chicago convention,
Speaker 5: Republicans have been trying to frame Kamala Harris, trying to
Speaker 5: identify her. They've got another job here to try to
Speaker 5: identify an essentially unknown politician when it comes to the
Speaker 5: most households and a race to frame this person into
Speaker 5: something that can help one side or the other. How's
Speaker 5: this going to work out?
Speaker 6: Yeah, he is pretty much a blank slate for most voters,
Speaker 6: and so both sides will try to sort of, as
Speaker 6: you say, frame up some sort of a reference point
Speaker 6: for who.
Speaker 7: Is this guy?
Speaker 6: And was it say about Kamala Harris that she chose
Speaker 6: him as her running mate. You know, I think what
Speaker 6: we've already seen from Republicans is that he is an
Speaker 6: extreme liberal. I'm not sure how that's going to play.
Speaker 6: He is sort of a middle American. He's got a
Speaker 6: you know, life story that is, you know what, born
Speaker 6: in a small town. Yeah, when in the Army National Guard,
Speaker 6: rose to the rank of command sergeant major. So this
Speaker 6: isn't an officer. This is the highest ranking enlisted man
Speaker 6: ever to serve in Congress. He was a teacher and
Speaker 6: a football coach before he decided to run for Congress.
Speaker 6: So those are the things we're going to hear from
Speaker 6: from Democrats. But he also, it does have a very
Speaker 6: progressive streak. As a governor. He instituted paid leave and childcare,
Speaker 6: free free lunch and breakfast at public schools, lgbtq Q rights,
Speaker 6: abortion rights, a whole litany of progressive policy positions. So yeah,
Speaker 6: he is somebody who, depending on how you look at him,
Speaker 6: could be either a very moderate or very liberal.
Speaker 3: Well, when we think more critically about some of those
Speaker 3: quote unquote progressive policy positions, free lunch for school children,
Speaker 3: paid family leave. Are these ideas that are actually unpopular
Speaker 3: or are these actually, whether or not you cast them
Speaker 3: as left right or center, things that most of America
Speaker 3: would sign on too too.
Speaker 8: Oh.
Speaker 6: I think the the what we can now call the
Speaker 6: Harris Walls ticket hopes that they are very popular, and
Speaker 6: they are if any one of these policies in isolation
Speaker 6: and you pull them, these are very popular things. What
Speaker 6: Republicans is going to try to do is sort of
Speaker 6: put them in a package of very expensive nanny state
Speaker 6: proposals that are big sign of how she's going to
Speaker 6: be big government, big spending liberal in the mold of
Speaker 6: what we have seen from Joe Biden with his Building
Speaker 6: Back Better agenda that has focused on this sort of
Speaker 6: care infrastructure of American life.
Speaker 5: People were just as surprised to learn as it was
Speaker 5: Tim Wallas as were surprised to learn it was not
Speaker 5: Josh Shapiro, which really seemed to be the narrative going
Speaker 5: into this day. The tip sheets were maybe onto something
Speaker 5: this morning in a slightly different way. But the statement
Speaker 5: from Josh Shapiro is striking if you read this. This
Speaker 5: came a couple of hours after the news leaked. As
Speaker 5: I've said repeatedly over the past several weeks, the running
Speaker 5: mate decision was a deeply personal decision for the vice president,
Speaker 5: and it was also a deeply personal decision for me.
Speaker 5: He says. Pennsylvanians elected me to a four year term
Speaker 5: as their governor, and my work here is far from finished,
Speaker 5: suggesting that this was some sort of mutual decision. I'm
Speaker 5: guessing the campaign didn't approve of this statement.
Speaker 6: Look, I mean, this is part of the game of
Speaker 6: selecting a vice president. And if you are if you
Speaker 6: can read the writing on the wall as a potential
Speaker 6: running mate and see that you're not going to get
Speaker 6: it anyway, as perhaps Roy Cooper, the governor of North
Speaker 6: Carolina did, and withdraw your name from consideration, saying it's
Speaker 6: not the right time or for personal reasons or family
Speaker 6: reasons or whatever have you, it's better to sort of
Speaker 6: bow out early. I think, you know, there's a lot
Speaker 6: of face saving here. In the end, I'm not sure
Speaker 6: how much of that really matters. I mean, there's only
Speaker 6: one person who can be vice president at a time.
Speaker 6: There's only one other person she can put on the
Speaker 6: ticket she had, you know, I think her campaign would
Speaker 6: say she had a lot of good Democrats to choose from. Yeah,
Speaker 6: the fact that she waited just as Trump did, right
Speaker 6: but to the last possible self imposed deadline to make
Speaker 6: this decision just hours before she's set to appear with
Speaker 6: with this candidate. I mean, this was something that she
Speaker 6: spent a good amount of time over the past few days,
Speaker 6: really sort of agonizing over all.
Speaker 3: Right, Gregory Cordy, who covers all things politics for us
Speaker 3: here at Bloomberg, thank you so much. It took a
Speaker 3: little bit longer than we thought, but the pick is
Speaker 3: in and we get reaction now from our signature political panel,
Speaker 3: Rick Davis and Jeanie shan Zey Noo Bloomberg Politics contributors
Speaker 3: are with us now here on Bloomberg TV and Radio.
Speaker 3: So obviously we know at this point, guys, Walls has
Speaker 3: been well received by Democrats from the AOC end of
Speaker 3: the spectrum all the way to Joe Mansion of West Virginia.
Speaker 3: It does seem that his candidacy is being welcomed with
Speaker 3: open arms. So for me, it's not even just a
Speaker 3: question of the Democratic reaction, it's the question of the
Speaker 3: Republican one, right, because they too also seem quite happy
Speaker 3: with this pick. Is Tim Walls the easiest one to
Speaker 3: run against.
Speaker 9: Well, he doesn't control any electoral votes directly, so I
Speaker 9: know Republicans were very nervous about having to fight a
Speaker 9: rearguard action against a VP like Shapiro who actually is
Speaker 9: in a state and is popular, who's got electoral votes
Speaker 9: that matter. So this simplifies things. They can tee off
Speaker 9: on him and there'll be no blowback. They've plan to
Speaker 9: lose Minnesota anyway, so that's one thing too. It does
Speaker 9: play to the sort of narrative that they've tried and
Speaker 9: frankly really unsuccessfully to pin Kamala Harrison, which is, oh, well,
Speaker 9: she's much too liberal for America. You know, coming out
Speaker 9: of the Biden administration. Biden is seen as a centrist.
Speaker 9: Kamala Harris they're trying to make her something other than that,
Speaker 9: and you know, this is their narrative, and so this
Speaker 9: kind of plays into that much harder to pin down
Speaker 9: other candidates like Kelly and Shapiro in that regard. So
Speaker 9: they're happy about this. They get this opportunity, and it's
Speaker 9: not without its controversy. Right, We've talked a little bit
Speaker 9: about you know, today the George Floyd incident and the
Speaker 9: the amount of time that the Vice president nominee Walls
Speaker 9: took as governor to get the National Guard out. There'll
Speaker 9: be all those kinds of things. There's plenty to talk about.
Speaker 9: The reality is this is a tough decision by Republicans
Speaker 9: because every day they go after Walls, they're not going
Speaker 9: after Kamala Harris. This is terrific for Kamala Harris because
Speaker 9: buying large people vote on her, not on him. So
Speaker 9: if they waste a lot of time and effort and
Speaker 9: money to define Walls, they could find out that in
Speaker 9: the meantime she has grown her image and is very
Speaker 9: popular and right now she's the only politician in this
Speaker 9: race that has higher positives than negatives, and they might
Speaker 9: miss that opportunity. So right now it's kind of a
Speaker 9: tough period of time for Republicans to figure out, like
Speaker 9: do they just give Walls a walk and go after
Speaker 9: Harris or do they jump on Walls. Today it's all Walls.
Speaker 5: A lot of interesting labels being thrown around here. Gregory
Speaker 5: Cordy just says, you need depending on the issues you pick,
Speaker 5: you could frame Tim Walls as a liberal or a moderate.
Speaker 5: I think you described him already as a populist progressive.
Speaker 5: What is that?
Speaker 10: Well, you know, I was trying to differentiate him from
Speaker 10: this notion that he is progressive. Let's face it, he
Speaker 10: did get the endorsements of the more progressive wing, from
Speaker 10: Bernie Sanders to Ilhan Omar. But many people look at
Speaker 10: Tim Waltz who know him from the Midwest and say
Speaker 10: he is something more of a populist and something that
Speaker 10: Gregory was talking about when in your conversation, this idea
Speaker 10: of populism as smaller government, stay out of our business.
Speaker 10: And Tim Waltz, when you look at it, has repeatedly
Speaker 10: said the golden rule of small town America is keep
Speaker 10: to yourself, mind your own business, and that is very
Speaker 10: popular to populists. Sorry for the double wording there as
Speaker 10: opposed to a progressive notion of big spending economic policies.
Speaker 10: And Kaylee was just talking about the fact that many
Speaker 10: of the policies he's supported, they're widely popular. And one
Speaker 10: thing when you listen to Tim Waltz defend his record,
Speaker 10: what does he say. He says, attack me any time
Speaker 10: you want. For giving every young person a free lunch
Speaker 10: at their school, that's something you can stand on attack
Speaker 10: me every time you want for helping subsidize the ridiculously
Speaker 10: expensive childcare costs in this country. So he's got a
Speaker 10: defense of that that is very attractive. And I would
Speaker 10: just say one statement that came out in support of
Speaker 10: him by Joe Manchin that you mentioned twice. Use the
Speaker 10: term that Josh you Win Grove is using in his
Speaker 10: article on the terminal now, which is normal bring back normality.
Speaker 10: That's what Tim Waltz does, normalcy in Washington. Can you
Speaker 10: imagine that's another popular thing that Democrats want to talk
Speaker 10: about with his choice.
Speaker 3: Well, Genie, as you bring up this notion of populism,
Speaker 3: that of course is also how we describe JD. Vance
Speaker 3: and Donald Trump, maybe in different ways, but it does
Speaker 3: seem that there is an attempt here to appeal to
Speaker 3: the exact same kind of voter, one in which populace
Speaker 3: messaging does resonate, specifically the American worker. We know that
Speaker 3: labor has come out in favor of Governor Walls, but
Speaker 3: labor is also a group that Trump and Vance are
Speaker 3: trying to attract. So what is the messaging that wins
Speaker 3: them over and how much daylight is there actually between
Speaker 3: the policies that both are likely to pursue.
Speaker 10: You know, I think this is a really smart choice
Speaker 10: just for that reason you described, because what the Democrats
Speaker 10: will try to do is co opt some of those
Speaker 10: moderate independents, maybe even soft and never trump Republicans who
Speaker 10: they need to win in these seven swing states. And
Speaker 10: you just take one example, an issue like gun control.
Speaker 10: Tim Waltz is famously somebody who it has guns, who
Speaker 10: uses guns, is a Second Amendment advocate, But he comes
Speaker 10: to it saying, we can have smart policies where people
Speaker 10: who use guns and are educated to use them and
Speaker 10: train to use them, can use them and have them
Speaker 10: in their homes, but we can do so safely, all
Speaker 10: the while protecting our young people in their schools. That's
Speaker 10: attractive to many people in the Middle. Yes, let people
Speaker 10: have their guns, but let's do so in a common
Speaker 10: sensical way. If you're not going to be able to
Speaker 10: have a gun, if you're on a terrorist watch list,
Speaker 10: maybe you're not allowed to have one at all. So
Speaker 10: he comes to it with that kind of approach that
Speaker 10: is attractive to people in the middle If they can
Speaker 10: co opt those people, they feel that they have a
Speaker 10: shot in some of these hard to reach middle of
Speaker 10: America towns and cities that are going to be so
Speaker 10: important in this blue wall.
Speaker 5: Reaching young people and reaching folks who may not always
Speaker 5: be politically active or interested is another part of this genie,
Speaker 5: and it's something that we talk a lot about the
Speaker 5: chemistry between these two, but also the personality, the way
Speaker 5: they project themselves in different forums here and I'm compelled
Speaker 5: by Tim Wall's command of social media, the number of
Speaker 5: young people who are aware of him from his cooking videos.
Speaker 5: This type of thing something Kamala Harris has gotten involved in,
Speaker 5: taking to Instagram or TikTok to do this kind of stuff.
Speaker 5: Here's a taste of what Tim Wallas is up to online.
Speaker 4: Just clip off the back you some shrink wrap connectors
Speaker 4: on there, tape it back together and put it back in.
Speaker 4: It's about a five minute fix and you're back on
Speaker 4: the road, safe and sound.
Speaker 1: So pro tip of the day.
Speaker 4: Second one is get out and vote for one Minnesota.
Speaker 11: Then you take it out, cut it and bone.
Speaker 1: Up and tea.
Speaker 5: Well, well, come on, bone up and tea. Kamala Harris
Speaker 5: working on dinner there. But they're not alone. Donald Trump,
Speaker 5: of course, no stranger to social media, has got his
Speaker 5: own social media company, and you might have seen him
Speaker 5: sit down for an interview with this Aiden Ross, a
Speaker 5: video gamer who's apparently very popular online. Rick he gifted
Speaker 5: Donald Trump a Tesla cyber truck and a Rolex, tapping
Speaker 5: into this sort of young macho guy thing online. How
Speaker 5: much of this presidential race and the bid to find
Speaker 5: people who are either undecided or not politically involved is
Speaker 5: going to find itself born here on social media?
Speaker 9: Yeah, it's obviously Donald Trump is leaning into sort of
Speaker 9: the social media side of the campaign. Much of his
Speaker 9: campaign is really playing out on social media. I'll admit
Speaker 9: that I don't quite understand the whole influencer craze. The
Speaker 9: idea that millions of people would follow this young man
Speaker 9: who's you know, painted up Tesla truck and a watch
Speaker 9: and gave it to Donald Trump. I mean, to me,
Speaker 9: that is kind of an odd campaign event. I'm not
Speaker 9: sure I would have gone for it. But you know,
Speaker 9: they've probably got millions of views on you know, Instagram
Speaker 9: or x or true social. So the reality is there
Speaker 9: are kind of two, you know, different campaigns playing out.
Speaker 9: There's traditional media campaign where you hold events and you
Speaker 9: talk to the press and you buy TV advertising, and
Speaker 9: then there's an entire campaign being waged out there on
Speaker 9: social media where things like world wrestling champions prevail and
Speaker 9: folks who drive Tesla trucks seem to have a real hook.
Speaker 9: Whether or not that can actually turn out votes is
Speaker 9: a big question. I don't think anybody I know thinks
Speaker 9: that that necessarily is is good fruit to pick.
Speaker 5: Jury's still out on a lot of things here with
Speaker 5: our signature panel, great analysis from Rick Davis and Genie Shanzano.
Speaker 5: Just hours after the pick, Tim walls it is and
Speaker 5: thank you both for the insights they were on Kick, Kaylee,
Speaker 5: are you familiar with the platform no Kick live streaming
Speaker 5: and gaming mad Millennial?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just missed the boat.
Speaker 8: On a lot of that.
Speaker 5: I can't watch you gaming online? No, I guess we
Speaker 5: don't do that here.
Speaker 3: You can see us here though. On Bloomberg TV and radio.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast live
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Speaker 3: Thirty While we've talked a lot about the news of
Speaker 3: the day, which is of course the presidential race and
Speaker 3: more specifically the tapping of Governor Tim Walls to be
Speaker 3: Vice President Kamala Harris's running mate, the current president of
Speaker 3: the United States has been busy today too. A readout
Speaker 3: just coming from the National Security Council spokesman saying that
Speaker 3: he just got off the phone with the leaders of
Speaker 3: Cutter and Egypt discussing diplomatic efforts to de escalate tension
Speaker 3: in the Middle East in the region and bring a
Speaker 3: ceasefire and hostage release deal to a conclusion. It's a
Speaker 3: reminder to us all, Joe that we are still awaiting
Speaker 3: retaliation from Iran and its proxies against Israel for the
Speaker 3: Israeli strikes we've seen against Hesbola and Hamas leaders in
Speaker 3: recent week.
Speaker 5: And we know the Secretary of State Anthony Blincoln met
Speaker 5: with top officials from Cutter in Egypt as well just yesterday,
Speaker 5: so we have an interesting moment here. We should also
Speaker 5: remind our listeners and viewers Joe Biden and Kamala Harris
Speaker 5: were together in the Situation room yesterday being briefed on
Speaker 5: Iran backed militia attacks against Americans in Iraq. This is
Speaker 5: a very delicate moment we're in, But Kaylee, I will
Speaker 5: say that the narrative has changed a bit here. We're
Speaker 5: seeing references to a response from Iran as a work
Speaker 5: in progress, and hope among American officials that they can
Speaker 5: prevent a retaliatory strike. We'll see how all of that goes.
Speaker 5: As Kaylee mentioned, I'm glad to be joined here at
Speaker 5: the table by Michael Allen, of course speaking global strategies
Speaker 5: and a reliable voice of ours when it comes to
Speaker 5: national security issues. Michael, it's good to see you and
Speaker 5: welcome back.
Speaker 12: Could we be in a world where there is no retaliation,
Speaker 12: it won't be for long. I think the Iranians have
Speaker 12: telegraphed that they feel like they have to do it.
Speaker 12: They were, of course, were embarrassed by the fact that
Speaker 12: they had a very senior Hamas political leader killed in
Speaker 12: in an Iranian government facility. So I think for their
Speaker 12: own sake, their own deterrence, their own toughness in the region,
Speaker 12: and the appearance that they need to give to their proxies,
Speaker 12: they have to do something.
Speaker 7: The question is what do they do directly.
Speaker 12: From their own territory versus what do their proxies do.
Speaker 7: I don't think it's either or.
Speaker 12: I think both will act in some way, shape or form.
Speaker 12: But I know the Iranians want to do it differently
Speaker 12: than last time. Last time everything was intercepted. I think
Speaker 12: they actually want to feel like they landed a punch
Speaker 12: this time.
Speaker 3: Well, as we think back to April, and it's been
Speaker 3: described to US as iron having sent it slowest things first,
Speaker 3: basically giving Israel forewarning that the attack was coming. Do
Speaker 3: you think they won't do that this time around, that
Speaker 3: not just Israel, but the other allies who came to
Speaker 3: Israel's defense, including the US, won't have as much time
Speaker 3: to prepare a response.
Speaker 12: I really do think that they will not to the
Speaker 12: degree that they telegraphed last time, and that's still up
Speaker 12: for I'll think I think they do less of it.
Speaker 7: This time around because I think they.
Speaker 12: At the end of the day, were probably losers in
Speaker 12: the equation. No people were killed, no major damage, certainly
Speaker 12: no damage to Israeli military facilities.
Speaker 7: So I think they want to be able to have
Speaker 7: a talking point. They want to claim a scalp.
Speaker 12: They want to say that we're tough and that we
Speaker 12: did something and that we're the regional hedgemon, and so
Speaker 12: I think they'll be less telegraphing and more trying to
Speaker 12: actually land a punch.
Speaker 5: You wonder to what extent that de escalates things. You
Speaker 5: were a special assistant to the President in the Bush administration.
Speaker 5: Someone else has your old job. Now, what are they
Speaker 5: telling Joe Biden about the various scenarios to plan for?
Speaker 2: Here?
Speaker 5: Do you let Iran land a punch knowing that that
Speaker 5: might be the end of the tit for tat? How
Speaker 5: do you keep guardrails on this thing without getting too involved?
Speaker 12: So, as you know, we have the head of Central
Speaker 12: Command is in the region coordinating with the Israelis. I
Speaker 12: think that we're going to do as much or more
Speaker 12: than we did last time. More yes, to try to
Speaker 12: prevent drones, missiles, whatever the case may be, from getting
Speaker 12: into Israel proper. I think that's a very appropriate role
Speaker 12: for the United States. And I'm certain that we've tried
Speaker 12: to knit up others like the Saudi's and the UAE
Speaker 12: and the region to contribute as much as they possibly can.
Speaker 12: But what I think Biden's thinking about right now is
Speaker 12: what happened last night in Baghdad. Did they target directly
Speaker 12: our troops at the Air Force base there and or
Speaker 12: will they go after directly other US embassies or naval
Speaker 12: platforms or whatever the case may be in the region.
Speaker 12: I don't think they'll go for it, but we have
Speaker 12: to be ready for it because Hesbola took a shot
Speaker 12: at US.
Speaker 7: Israel, of course killed one of their leaders.
Speaker 12: And I think the way the Iranians view thinks is
Speaker 12: that we're complicit in whatever.
Speaker 7: Israel does well.
Speaker 3: And the US has tried and true come to the
Speaker 3: defense of Israel, but has consistently decided not to go
Speaker 3: on offense in many ways as especially you bring up
Speaker 3: the attack on the base in a Rock last night
Speaker 3: that we saw in a number of US personnel we're injured.
Speaker 3: Do you expect the US could actually be offensive in
Speaker 3: the region if things escalate further.
Speaker 12: So we've all been trying to look at what Biden
Speaker 12: said previously about what his personal redlines are. Was it
Speaker 12: actually that an American get injured or that an American die?
Speaker 12: To me, that's dancing on the head of a pen.
Speaker 12: They took a shot at us, the United States thought
Speaker 12: to hit back against them in some proper way, I
Speaker 12: think we have to worry about our own deterrence in
Speaker 12: the region, so I might lean a little bit more
Speaker 12: hawkish than someone else, But yeah, I think it is
Speaker 12: something that is on Biden's play right now. They took
Speaker 12: a shot at our people. We want to prevent them
Speaker 12: from doing this. Remember they were able to kill several
Speaker 12: some weeks some months ago now at a different installation
Speaker 12: than we had in Syria, and we just don't want
Speaker 12: that to tap it again.
Speaker 5: We'll talk about all this from a distance here as
Speaker 5: we sit in Washington. As you reference, could be the
Speaker 5: same or more support that we saw last time. There
Speaker 5: were American fighter jets shooting down missiles with air to
Speaker 5: air missiles in the middle of that operation. How high
Speaker 5: could the risk get for American pilots and navigators in
Speaker 5: the middle of all of this.
Speaker 12: Well, I think it depends on how many ballistic missiles
Speaker 12: and drones the Iranians try to go right now.
Speaker 5: It's the equivalent of boots on the ground, though we're
Speaker 5: just okay.
Speaker 12: Well, yeah, it sort of sounds like it, doesn't it.
Speaker 12: I mean, we're over Israeli airspace, probably Saudi and UAE
Speaker 12: air space at different times, trying to knock all of
Speaker 12: these out. I just don't think the Iranians are going
Speaker 12: to do it exactly like last time. Not that it
Speaker 12: was easy last time, but we were able to achieve
Speaker 12: what we wanted to achieve.
Speaker 7: They're going to make it harder this go around.
Speaker 12: I think the Israelis have to be prepared that some
Speaker 12: of this is going to go through, even if in
Speaker 12: the aggregate the United States has sent more squadrons and
Speaker 12: more other equipment and the like to the region.
Speaker 3: So of course, all of this is happening against the
Speaker 3: backdrop of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, which
Speaker 3: is very highly political here in the US, if you will,
Speaker 3: and some would argue played a role in the selection
Speaker 3: of the vice president that Kamala Harris announced today. There
Speaker 3: are some in the Republican Party suggesting that the choice
Speaker 3: not to tap Governor Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, was
Speaker 3: an anti Semitic one and it was bowing to the
Speaker 3: pro Hamas forces within the Democratic Party.
Speaker 7: What do you think about that idea.
Speaker 12: I think that there's probably a little bit to it,
Speaker 12: because I think what Kamala Harris probably wants to do
Speaker 12: most of all is.
Speaker 7: Play it safe.
Speaker 12: I don't think it was the decisive factor, but was
Speaker 12: it one among many? Do they want to have another
Speaker 12: big fight about what the Democratic administration's policy is on
Speaker 12: Israel and especially two state solution in the rest.
Speaker 7: I don't think that was the number one factor, but
Speaker 7: I bet.
Speaker 12: At the back of their mind they're thinking, we're trying
Speaker 12: to unite party, We're trying to put everything back together.
Speaker 7: Let's not find an issue that splits us.
Speaker 5: Well, it's been suggested though, that Kamala Harris is not
Speaker 5: the same, even though in the same administration, not the
Speaker 5: same when it comes to Israel. As Joe Biden. John
Speaker 5: Kirby says, there's no sunlight between them. Most people in
Speaker 5: Washington don't see it that way. How about you.
Speaker 12: Well, Kirby has to say that, of course, because she
Speaker 12: still serves in the Biden administration.
Speaker 7: But I even thought.
Speaker 12: Her body language when bb was in town last week
Speaker 12: was a little bit more perfunctory than it is around Biden.
Speaker 12: I can just sort of tell with her record and
Speaker 12: the way that I think that she's responded to some
Speaker 12: of these issues in the past, she's more in tune.
Speaker 12: I believe with what the progressive wing of the Democratic
Speaker 12: party thinks about Israel. Of course, net and Yaho's unpopular
Speaker 12: almost with all Democrats and even maybe many Republicans. So
Speaker 12: if Netanyaho's not there, maybe things change a little bit
Speaker 12: or hair to win. But for now, I think it's
Speaker 12: a safe bet to assume that she would be a
Speaker 12: little bit harder on a bb Netanyahu administration than would
Speaker 12: be certainly Trump, but obviously Biden also well.
Speaker 3: Of course, Natanyahu's facing domestic pressures of his own, specifically
Speaker 3: pressure to get the hostages home to agree to some
Speaker 3: kind of ceasefire deal. Do you realistically think that happens
Speaker 3: while President Biden is still in office.
Speaker 12: I'm increasingly thinking it's just not on the table. I mean,
Speaker 12: when you go and kill the head political leader for Hamas,
Speaker 12: who is an interlocutor of yours as you try to
Speaker 12: negotiate to get a hostage deal, I feel like what
Speaker 12: the Israelis are saying is is that this is not
Speaker 12: even at the.
Speaker 7: Very top of our priority list.
Speaker 12: What's at the top is going after Hamas, finishing up
Speaker 12: whatever we can do there if their targets there are
Speaker 12: not anymore.
Speaker 7: I know that's.
Speaker 12: Something that the Israeli generals have been communicating but I
Speaker 12: think Netanyahu's ready to move on to Hezbola. I think
Speaker 12: in his mind that he cannot live with another gen
Speaker 12: sidled terrorist organization on a second border like it occurred
Speaker 12: in the South with Gaza and Hamas. I feel like
Speaker 12: he's determined to go in. That was certainly the feeling
Speaker 12: I get.
Speaker 7: The more Israelis I talk to.
Speaker 12: So I think re establishing is Raleigh deterrence around the region,
Speaker 12: and resetting things in.
Speaker 7: The Middle East for Israel are at the top of
Speaker 7: his list, and I don't think.
Speaker 12: The hostage deal is at at least among the top
Speaker 12: two or three priorities.
Speaker 3: Yes, all right, well, we have to continue to watch
Speaker 3: things in the Middle East as they develop. Thank you
Speaker 3: for helping us do so. Michael Allen, Managing director and
Speaker 3: partner at Beacon Strategies and as Joe mentioned, former special
Speaker 3: assistant to the President during the Bush administration.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch
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Speaker 5: As we add the voice of Andre Gillespie, Professor of
Speaker 5: political Science at Emory University. Professor, it's great to have you.
Speaker 5: Before I ask you about Tim Walls and this selection.
Speaker 5: I just want to finish with what we were discussing
Speaker 5: there with Laura, and that's the idea that Josh Shapiro
Speaker 5: was the wrong pick. He was getting beat up for
Speaker 5: weeks about labor, about Israel, about a number of issues
Speaker 5: that had progressives concerned, and Tim Wallas is apparently the
Speaker 5: antidote to all of those things. Why do you think
Speaker 5: she looked past the governor of Pennsylvania because we also
Speaker 5: heard about his personality. John Fetterman said he was too ambitious.
Speaker 5: He might primary Kamala Harris in twenty twenty eight. Is
Speaker 5: that the real problem or was that the real problem
Speaker 5: with him?
Speaker 11: Well, I have no way of knowing that, so I
Speaker 11: won't speculate about those issues. What I will consider are
Speaker 11: all the pluses and minuses of each of the candidates,
Speaker 11: and the way that Tim Walls checks off boxes that
Speaker 11: Vice President Harris thinks are important when you're making vice
Speaker 11: presidential choice. Vice Presidential candidates rarely make enough of a
Speaker 11: DPT to actually help a candidate win an election, so
Speaker 11: people have been studying this for decades, and some of
Speaker 11: the earliest estimates suggested that perhaps you get a slight
Speaker 11: bump in the vice presidential nominees home state. It may
Speaker 11: not be enough to make a difference in a presidential
Speaker 11: outcome unless it's a raizor thin outcome, but people do
Speaker 11: look for things like balancing out the ticket and working
Speaker 11: well together. Only Vice President Harris and the people whom
Speaker 11: she interviewed can talk about what their chemistry was, but
Speaker 11: we can look at some of the ways that Tim
Speaker 11: Walls ostensibly balances out the ticket in ways that Josh
Speaker 11: Shapiro did not. So Tim Walls is somebody who is
Speaker 11: very well received by progressives in the Democratic Party, but
Speaker 11: his manner speaks very much to folks who are in
Speaker 11: the middle, That Midwestern plane spokenness. Just the idea of
Speaker 11: the invocation of weird as actually being an effective attack
Speaker 11: line against the Trump dvance machine is something that, you know,
Speaker 11: seems really natural to him. As a Midwesterner. He really
Speaker 11: does kind of embody every man populism.
Speaker 8: He's somebody who.
Speaker 11: Was not, you know, a lawyer. He's not a business person.
Speaker 11: He was a high school teacher and a football coach. Right,
Speaker 11: he served in the military as an enlisted person. He
Speaker 11: served in Congress where he was bipartisan and where he
Speaker 11: won in a district that was Republican. So he actually
Speaker 11: can satisfy progressives, and I think that he can make
Speaker 11: a strong case for being able to reach out to
Speaker 11: folks in the middle. He's got federal experience, and he's
Speaker 11: from the Midwest, and so Jos Shapiro brought a lot
Speaker 11: of strengths to a possible ticket with Kamala Harris, but
Speaker 11: one of the things that he couldn't bring was Midwestern
Speaker 11: balance or looking at the middle of the country instead
Speaker 11: of sort of thinking about that problem that Democrats have,
Speaker 11: you know, currently have sort of in recent history of
Speaker 11: being perceived as being the party of coastal elites. Bringing
Speaker 11: somebody in from Minnesota who grew up in Nebraska on
Speaker 11: a farm, I think really does kind of speak to
Speaker 11: some of those attacks and might cause some folks in
Speaker 11: the middle to give the ticket a second look, even
Speaker 11: though at the end of the day, people are going
Speaker 11: to decide based on Kamala Harrison, on Donald Trump, and
Speaker 11: not on JD.
Speaker 5: Vance. And that's one of the smartest answers, one of
Speaker 5: the smartest answers. I've heard yet Midwestern Balance suggesting professor
Speaker 5: that geography does matter, but not in the most obvious
Speaker 5: way that we think about with a governor delivering his
Speaker 5: or her own state. It's a different, more nuanced dynamic.
Speaker 5: And with that in mind, I'll ask you what it
Speaker 5: will be to put him on stage with jd Vance
Speaker 5: if in fact there's a vice presidential debate. Jd Vance
Speaker 5: spoke earlier today, he was on his jet. I actually
Speaker 5: called Tim Wats he said, I left a voicemail, didn't
Speaker 5: get him, told him congratulations. It'll be a good ride.
Speaker 5: Maybe he'll call me back, maybe he won't. Should Tim
Speaker 5: Walls return that phone call? And should these two debate?
Speaker 8: Well, I think the.
Speaker 11: Two should debate, you know, I think it remains to
Speaker 11: be seen. I don't know if it harms, you know,
Speaker 11: either candidacy one way or the other by putting somebody
Speaker 11: who's older, whose populist roots are not going to be
Speaker 11: called into question. It actually does, and in some ways
Speaker 11: at least call out Donald Trump's choice of jd Vance
Speaker 11: as the a spokesperson for the everyday working person. Tim
Speaker 11: Walt can more than hold his own against jd Vance
Speaker 11: and it would be really interesting to see them kind
Speaker 11: of talking, you know, in a debate and debating on
Speaker 11: those kinds of issues. I think in those particular instances,
Speaker 11: what Harris is betting on is that Waltz's age is
Speaker 11: actually an advantage here. So you get the extra twenty
Speaker 11: years of life experience, you get somebody whose career did
Speaker 11: kind before he went into politics, focused on normal, everyday politics,
Speaker 11: whereas when jd. Vance went to law school, you know,
Speaker 11: he then off into kind of sort of you know,
Speaker 11: high end business and you know, you know, and it
Speaker 11: was coming with a pedigree from Yale Law School. So
Speaker 11: I think in many ways, like the balance is actually
Speaker 11: also a counter to what Donald Trump was hoping to
Speaker 11: achieve by selecting jd Vance as his spokesperson.
Speaker 5: You talk about Midwestern balance, rural sensibility might be another
Speaker 5: way to look at it. He didn't move to Saint
Speaker 5: Paul until he won the governor's race. It's gonna be
Speaker 5: interesting to see these two out on the road together, Professor.
Speaker 5: They're going to be followed by J. D Vance over
Speaker 5: the course the next four stops or something like that
Speaker 5: on the road tour this week. How will Tim Walls
Speaker 5: be framed. They're going to have a video and so forth.
Speaker 5: He's going to be introduced. There's gonna be a lot
Speaker 5: of people yelling in a big standing ovation. But how
Speaker 5: will he be framed by the campaign? Is it this
Speaker 5: way that we're talking Is it Midwestern balance, rural sensibility.
Speaker 5: What is Kambala Harris going to serve up to the
Speaker 5: crowd later today in Philadelphia.
Speaker 11: I think she's going to all of that up. I
Speaker 11: think she's going to talk about the notion of Minnesota nice.
Speaker 11: So the idea that Walt can be the attack dog,
Speaker 11: sarrogate and spokesperson that vice presidential candidate usually is, but
Speaker 11: he can do so in a way that's uplifting and
Speaker 11: that isn't mean and divisive. The idea that he can
Speaker 11: hit back and hit back hard, but still be able
Speaker 11: to hold his dignity. I think she's going to tout
Speaker 11: his bipartisan record as an overture to those voters in
Speaker 11: the middle who may still be deciding who they're going
Speaker 11: to vote for, or moderate Republicans who might still have
Speaker 11: misgivings about supporting a Trump advance ticket, especially as it
Speaker 11: has emerged since the Republican nominating convention. I think he's
Speaker 11: going to talk about his record of providing goods and
Speaker 11: services to Minnesotan's with the legislature that he has at
Speaker 11: his disposal, So talking about things like free lunch for
Speaker 11: students and parental lead, all of these types of things
Speaker 11: that Democratic voters want to hear about and that Democratic
Speaker 11: politicians are usually trying to tout and talk about. He's
Speaker 11: actually been able to produce a record in Minnesota that
Speaker 11: actually speaks to those.
Speaker 8: Kinds of things.
Speaker 5: Andrew, it's really great to have you back. Associate Professor
Speaker 5: Political Science, Emmery University, Andre Gillespie. We always look forward
Speaker 5: to the conversation. Here.
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Speaker 5: Tim Walls the pick for Kamala Harris's running mate. We
Speaker 5: have not seen them together yet, but we will a
Speaker 5: bit later on five point thirty pm Eastern time. Temple
Speaker 5: University the venue for their first event together here, and
Speaker 5: that's going to kick off a road trip that will
Speaker 5: follow here. Knowing that was the case, we were wondering, Kaylee,
Speaker 5: why it took so long for this choice to emerge.
Speaker 5: It's kind of confounding. She went bed last night, we're told,
Speaker 5: not knowing who she was going to pick. The staff
Speaker 5: was tasked with writing multiple speeches and creating the effects
Speaker 5: for multiple events depending on who she would pick. This morning,
Speaker 5: then the media leaked the news. It wasn't exactly the
Speaker 5: role out that the campaign had planned.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we do have to keep in mind because it's
Speaker 3: easy to lose sight of because everything has been so
Speaker 3: fast moving. But this was an incredibly truncated process. Well, yes,
Speaker 3: she only found out that Joe Biden wasn't running for
Speaker 3: president and wanted her to do it sixteen days ago,
Speaker 3: so she didn't have much time to think about this choice,
Speaker 3: maybe trying to soak every minute up that she could
Speaker 3: before letting the world know that it was. Indeed, Governor
Speaker 3: Walts she selected today.
Speaker 5: The democratic game of apprentice, and this case, we're told
Speaker 5: they didn't know each other terribly well before they met
Speaker 5: at the Naval Observatory last weekend. But I guess hit
Speaker 5: it off in a way that made this work. We
Speaker 5: heard a lot, Kayley, about chemistry going into this, not
Speaker 5: just geography.
Speaker 3: Yeah, indeed we did. And of course it is worth
Speaker 3: pointing out as you talk about the notion they may
Speaker 3: not have known each other very well. A lot of
Speaker 3: America probably doesn't know that's correct, Tim Walls very well.
Speaker 3: Who may have been googling when they heard the news today?
Speaker 3: Who exactly is that unless you're part of the social
Speaker 3: media crowd that got in on the weird trend he
Speaker 3: seems to have started. So on that note, let's turn
Speaker 3: now to Matt Bennett. He is executive vice president for
Speaker 3: public Affairs at Third Way and a democratic strategist. Matt,
Speaker 3: great to have you back here on Balance of Power.
Speaker 3: I'm Bloomberg TV and Radio. Obviously a lot of Democrats
Speaker 3: are celebrating this decision today. But when we consider we
Speaker 3: got a guy named Tim also being called America's dad,
Speaker 3: running with a woman, does this take you back to
Speaker 3: twenty sixteen in a way that makes you even just
Speaker 3: a little bit nervous.
Speaker 13: It does sound a little familiar, but I am not nervous.
Speaker 13: The context is very very different.
Speaker 8: Back then.
Speaker 13: We were not taking Trump as seriously as we auto.
Speaker 13: We weren't taking the third party threats seriously. All of
Speaker 13: that has changed. We know we're in a dogfight in
Speaker 13: this election. So I'm much more confident than I would
Speaker 13: otherwise be.
Speaker 5: So how does the Democratic Party or how does the ticket?
Speaker 5: I guess more specifically, here Matt Bennett frame this person
Speaker 5: most Americans have never heard of. To Kaylee's points, some
Speaker 5: know about the weird thing. He's labeled Trump and JD
Speaker 5: Vans and Republicans as weird, and that's stuck. They even
Speaker 5: have T shirts saying not weird that they're wearing at
Speaker 5: the Democrat rallies here. So is this the weird versus
Speaker 5: normal campaign?
Speaker 13: Yeah, exactly, I mean that's part of it. Like Tim
Speaker 13: Walls is about as normal a character type as you
Speaker 13: are likely to come across anywhere in American politics. I mean,
Speaker 13: he is the avuncular guy next door who can help
Speaker 13: fix your car. He's a football coach, he ice fishes.
Speaker 13: He was a very senior enlisted a guy in the
Speaker 13: United States Army and National Guard. He was a command
Speaker 13: sergeant major. I mean he checks a lot of boxes.
Speaker 13: And of course he's from the dead center middle of
Speaker 13: the country. He also is being characterized, I think incorrectly
Speaker 13: as being progressive because a lot of folks on the
Speaker 13: left were pushing for him. But in fact, if you
Speaker 13: look at his record, he's really a moderate. He was
Speaker 13: in Congress, he is his governor, and I think he's
Speaker 13: a perfect balance to the ticket for Kamala Harris.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 3: If his record is indeed more middle of the road Matt,
Speaker 3: it certainly isn't being characterized that way today by the
Speaker 3: opposition already calling him a radical liberal, dangerously liberal, perhaps
Speaker 3: describing him as leftist, a leftist leftists kind of a
Speaker 3: hard word to say. But if that already is out
Speaker 3: there percolating, how hard is it going to be for
Speaker 3: the now Harris Wall's campaign to fight back against that.
Speaker 13: I mean, they're going to have to do it a little.
Speaker 13: But remember they would call anybody. If she had picked
Speaker 13: Joe Manchin, he would have been a radical leftist, communist,
Speaker 13: socialist nutcase. I mean, that's what they do. But Tim
Speaker 13: Walls is none of those things. I mean, he wanted
Speaker 13: back in twenty eleven when he was in Congress, he
Speaker 13: voted for four trillion dollars of deficit reduction. He was
Speaker 13: part of the pay as you go caucus. He's very
Speaker 13: focused on kind of deficit and deficit reduction. He had
Speaker 13: an A plus rating from the NRA when he was
Speaker 13: in Congress. This is nobody's idea of a left wing radical.
Speaker 13: And keep in mind, of course, that while there was
Speaker 13: a lot of focus on Walls and what he's done
Speaker 13: leading up to this and today and maybe tomorrow after that,
Speaker 13: it's all about Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. It's the
Speaker 13: top of the ticket that people make their minds on,
Speaker 13: and so I think Walls will be a very good
Speaker 13: partner to her and will be a great surrogate for her,
Speaker 13: but ultimately it's up to Harris to beat Trump.
Speaker 5: Matt, what do you think of this anti semitic line
Speaker 5: that we're getting from the Trump campaign in Kamala Harris
Speaker 5: not choosing Josh Shapiro. The governor of Pennsylvania. JD Vance
Speaker 5: was on the Hugh Hewitt program, said quote, if it's
Speaker 5: not Josh Shapiro, I agree with you, this is something
Speaker 5: that Hewitt pos to him. I think they will have
Speaker 5: not picked Shapiro, frankly out of anti semitism for their
Speaker 5: own caucus and their own party. Referring to the fact
Speaker 5: that Shapiro is Jewish and has a bit of a
Speaker 5: harder line as we've learned when it comes to Israel policy.
Speaker 5: If this is something that we're going to be hearing
Speaker 5: in this campaign, how does she answer it?
Speaker 13: Well, let's speak clear. That is another example of Jdvan's
Speaker 13: being awful. He has completely abandoned all principle that apparently
Speaker 13: he once had according to his friends from law school,
Speaker 13: and now has none. That is an appalling lie. Kamala
Speaker 13: Harris is married to a Jewish man. As a Jewish
Speaker 13: person myself, I will completely reject the proposition that just
Speaker 13: because he didn't pick a Jewish guy doesn't mean she's
Speaker 13: an anti Semi. It had absolutely positively nothing whatsoever to
Speaker 13: do with that.
Speaker 7: And in fact, if you want to.
Speaker 13: Look for anti Semitism in this race, look no further
Speaker 13: than Donald Trump, who said that there were very fine
Speaker 13: people on both sides when a bunch of Nazis chanting
Speaker 13: Jews will not replace us marched in Charlottesville while he
Speaker 13: was president. So that is a ridiculous thing for fans
Speaker 13: to have said.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it does make you wonder if everyone is familiar
Speaker 3: with the second Gentleman of the United States of America.
Speaker 3: Mat It is an excellent point, and it's also worth
Speaker 3: pointing out it wasn't just Josh Shapiro that wasn't chosen.
Speaker 3: There were a number of other governors who were on
Speaker 3: this list, including senators as well, like Mark Kelly of Arizona.
Speaker 3: Everybody was looking to those representing actual battleground states. Matt,
Speaker 3: that is not what she went with here. Safely, Blue
Speaker 3: Minnesota hasn't gone for a Republican since nineteen seventy two.
Speaker 3: Is the real risk that that calculus actually backfires, That
Speaker 3: you should have had someone who could bring with him
Speaker 3: actual electoral votes that you wouldn't have had otherwise.
Speaker 13: No, that doesn't work anymore. No vice presidential nominee has
Speaker 13: delivered their state for the ticket since LBJ did it
Speaker 13: in nineteen sixty he delivered Texas. Since then, no one's
Speaker 13: done it. I mean, sometimes the ticket wins the VP state.
Speaker 13: I mean Bush won Wyoming, but it's not because Dick
Speaker 13: Cheney was on the ticket. That is just not a
Speaker 13: way that anyone who's really intimate with this process makes
Speaker 13: their calculus. The vice presidential pick probably will have limited impact.
Speaker 13: Trump was right about that the other day, but to
Speaker 13: the extent it has impact, it's really a feeling that
Speaker 13: voters will get about who Harris is and how they
Speaker 13: feel about her. That is what Walls's job is to do,
Speaker 13: is to create an image of her, and I think
Speaker 13: that kind of friendly, ubuncular, future, orient and optimistic feel
Speaker 13: is what they're going for, and I think they picked
Speaker 13: the right guy in that regard.
Speaker 5: Will we see a vice presidential debate?
Speaker 13: I hope so. I think Walls against Vance would be fantastic.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 13: Vance is a smart guy. I'm sure he's an accomplished debater,
Speaker 13: but Walls has shown I think the reason that he
Speaker 13: shot up the charts in the VP race initially was
Speaker 13: because he goes on cable television and he just has
Speaker 13: this incredibly appealing presence and the things that he says
Speaker 13: and does are really compelling. And as you noted at
Speaker 13: the top, he'd kind of coined the idea that these
Speaker 13: guys are weird. And I really like the matchup of
Speaker 13: Walls versus Vance in a.
Speaker 3: Debate, So we'll see if we get that one. We'll
Speaker 3: still see if we get Donald Trump and Kamala Harris
Speaker 3: sharing a stage. She of course agreed to appear in
Speaker 3: the debate that Donald Trump initially agreed to on September
Speaker 3: tenth on ABC. He now wants to debate on Fox
Speaker 3: on September fourth. Matt, if you were the Harris campaign
Speaker 3: or if you were advising them, should they go ahead
Speaker 3: and show up and do that debate on Fox? What
Speaker 3: is the strategy that you would suggest here?
Speaker 13: You know, I don't know what they're going to do,
Speaker 13: but I hope they do it.
Speaker 8: I mean, she would.
Speaker 13: Dismantle Donald Trump. The thing that Kamala Harris is best
Speaker 13: at is standing up and prosecuting the case against a
Speaker 13: bad guy. I mean, that's who she is. She's a prosecutor.
Speaker 13: She's very good at it. We saw her do it
Speaker 13: on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Trump, as we all know,
Speaker 13: just lies his way and bullies his way through these debates.
Speaker 13: As long as she could get a word in edgewise,
Speaker 13: and if they turn off the microphones the way they
Speaker 13: did in the Biden debate, she could. I think she
Speaker 13: would have her way with Donald Trump. So I hope
Speaker 13: she does it on Fox, on ABC, anywhere the two
Speaker 13: can meet.
Speaker 5: We spent a lot of time talking Matt Bennett about
Speaker 5: Third Party candidates. Going back to the no labels situation,
Speaker 5: Third Way was deeply invested. More recently, it's been Rfkage Junior.
Speaker 5: And there's an update to a story that we were
Speaker 5: talking about around this time yesterday, the fact that he
Speaker 5: chose to dispose of a dead bear cub in Central
Speaker 5: Park while he was on his way to a dinner
Speaker 5: at Peter Luger Steakhouse. Kind of a long story, but
Speaker 5: it's a real one. He told it himself online to
Speaker 5: Roseanne of all people, yesterday. Leave it to the crack
Speaker 5: reporters in Manhattan. We have learned that the the state's
Speaker 5: environmental conservation law has a statute of limitations, and OURFK
Speaker 5: Junior will not be charged. I guess we can say
Speaker 5: clearly now and honestly that Joe Biden will not be
Speaker 5: asked to pardon our FK Junior for this crime. An
Speaker 5: appropriate end here to this story.
Speaker 13: Probably, I don't know that he should go to jail
Speaker 13: for this, but I mean, the guy is a complete whacko,
Speaker 13: and I think it's very important for voters to understand
Speaker 13: that this is not his dad, he's not.
Speaker 7: His uncle or either of his uncles.
Speaker 13: He is a person of his own and he has
Speaker 13: some very weird ideas about all kinds of things. But
Speaker 13: if you gave AI computers a thousand years, that couldn't
Speaker 13: have written a story this strange. He is a very
Speaker 13: odd dug.
Speaker 3: I think we just found someone else in the weird
Speaker 3: category that you've thrown that word out for more than
Speaker 3: just JD Vance and Donald Trump.
Speaker 5: Like Governor how along this campaign is a going concern well, and.
Speaker 3: It also becomes the question we've debated this for months now, Matt,
Speaker 3: whether or not the poll is from what was the
Speaker 3: Joe Biden campaign now the Paris Walls campaign versus the
Speaker 3: Trump Dvance campaign. What effect, if anything RFK Junior on
Speaker 3: the ballots that he is on will have in November
Speaker 3: if he makes it that far.
Speaker 13: You know, it's a really good question, Kley. And we
Speaker 13: just don't know exactly which sidle draw from. We may
Speaker 13: never know. We're talking about very small numbers of the
Speaker 13: electorate spread out all over the country, So the only
Speaker 13: voters that really matter are the ones in swing states
Speaker 13: who decide to vote third party. And some of them
Speaker 13: are going to be motivated because they're like super anti VAXX,
Speaker 13: and they are attracted to Kennedy and they wouldn't vote
Speaker 13: for either candidate either way. Those voters really are irrelevant.
Speaker 13: The people who matter are the ones who otherwise would
Speaker 13: vote for one of the major party candidates. And I
Speaker 13: think since Harris took over in this race, the number
Speaker 13: of people who call themselves double haters who don't like
Speaker 13: either candidate has gone way down, and so the risk,
Speaker 13: I think has gone down as well, not to zero,
Speaker 13: still a real risk, and we're still focused on it,
Speaker 13: but it's not as bad.
Speaker 8: As it was.
Speaker 5: He's vying for it still. On Twitter, producer James just
Speaker 5: produced a post from x RFK Junior America's political divide.
Speaker 5: He writes sharpens with the pick of Tim Walls for DEMVP.
Speaker 5: He called Trump supporters fascist and weird, and they in
Speaker 5: turn are calling him worse than that. Hashtag Kennedy twenty
Speaker 5: four Matt Bennett. I guess we're not done talking about
Speaker 5: all three of these campaigns. He's at Third Way executive
Speaker 5: vice president Mac. Great to see you and thank you
Speaker 5: for the insights.
Speaker 1: You're listening to. The Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast catches
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Speaker 5: The big news we were waiting for. It came a
Speaker 5: little later than we were waiting for. I was checking
Speaker 5: the phone at five sick. I looked again, started to refresh.
Speaker 5: At seven, I figured I missed something that I'm on
Speaker 5: the air with Tom Keane. Still no name, but it
Speaker 5: leaked finally to the media, making us wonder after CNNAAP
Speaker 5: got their hands on this, whether she was planning to
Speaker 5: roll this out on stage at Temple University, or how
Speaker 5: exactly the thing was supposed to work. There never was
Speaker 5: a Twitter video as we expected, but it's done. Tim
Speaker 5: Walls the headline on the terminal Harris taps Minnesota's Walls
Speaker 5: for ticket in Rust Belt play, even though we're talking
Speaker 5: more lately about the sun Belt, which is interesting. I
Speaker 5: should note, by the way, if you were with us earlier,
Speaker 5: I was asking about whether Governor Shapiro was going to
Speaker 5: be their producer. Ceci says he is scheduled to appear
Speaker 5: and deliver remarks, which should be interesting to hear the
Speaker 5: way he approaches this following his statement earlier. So who
Speaker 5: is Tim Walls, the governor of Minnesota with rural sensibility,
Speaker 5: six term congressman, coach, teacher, member of the Army National Guard,
Speaker 5: started to become known to people two Sundays ago when
Speaker 5: he appeared on CNN and showed up with the word weird.
Speaker 5: Here he is.
Speaker 4: People kept talking about, Look, Donald Trump is going to
Speaker 4: put women's lives at risk. That's one hundred percent true.
Speaker 4: Donald Trump is potentially going to end constitutional liberties that
Speaker 4: we have, end voting. I do believe all those things
Speaker 4: are a real possibility, but it gives him way too
Speaker 4: much power. Listen to the guy he's talking about Hannibal
Speaker 4: Lecter and shocking sharks and just whatever crazy thing pops
Speaker 4: into his mind. And I thought, we just give him
Speaker 4: way too much credit.
Speaker 5: Shocking sharks. They were wearing He's not Weird t shirts
Speaker 5: at the Walls rally last night. And this is where
Speaker 5: we start our conversation with Brad Howard, founder President Corkoran
Speaker 5: Street Group, democratic strategist. I called you a brawler earlier, Brad.
Speaker 5: I hope that's okay, because I wanted to talk with
Speaker 5: somebody who knows what it's like to get into the
Speaker 5: fight and the fight starts today. First, just broadly this selection.
Speaker 5: I know that the progressive left did not like the
Speaker 5: idea of Josh Shapiro. They love this idea. Was this
Speaker 5: the right choice?
Speaker 8: Absolutely?
Speaker 14: I think Governor Waltz has shown an ability to appeal
Speaker 14: to rule Americans. I think he's shown ability to fight
Speaker 14: for families when he was governor. I think he's going
Speaker 14: to be a fantastic vice president. And so we have
Speaker 14: Governor Shapiro. I mean, the fact that these two were
Speaker 14: the top two choices show the diversity of the ticket,
Speaker 14: both in geography, ideology, and approach to governing.
Speaker 8: And let's be very.
Speaker 14: Clear that Governor Shapiro is still on the ticket. He's
Speaker 14: on the Democratic ticket, and he's going to work his
Speaker 14: heart out in Pennsylvania to ensure the commonwealth goes or
Speaker 14: the Harris Waltz ticket. And this is probably the most
Speaker 14: pro family ticket we have seen in decades from either party.
Speaker 14: And so while Donald Trump and Jade Vance are focusing
Speaker 14: on their extreme weird maga agenda, you're going to see
Speaker 14: Kamala Harris and Tim Waalts with family's front and center.
Speaker 5: You're of course going to hear about how he is
Speaker 5: a radical leftist from the Trump campaign, and that's that's
Speaker 5: the job of the Trump campaign saying the same thing
Speaker 5: about Kamala Harris. But there's an undercurrent here, Brad, that
Speaker 5: we have to acknowledge. On the Hugh Hewitt Show, jd Vance,
Speaker 5: of course, Donald Trump's running mate, was asked, Hugh Hewitt says,
Speaker 5: if it's not Josh Shapiro, that's because he'll be Jewish
Speaker 5: and because he's a supporter of Israel. What does that
Speaker 5: tell you about the Democratic Party if it's not Josh Shapiro.
Speaker 5: Jd Vance said, quote, if it's not Josh Shapiro, I
Speaker 5: agree with you. I think that they will have not
Speaker 5: picked Shapiro frankly out of anti Semitism in their own
Speaker 5: caucus and in their own party. That is a direct quote,
Speaker 5: and that's part of the narrative that's already on the
Speaker 5: campaign trail. Brad. How should Kamala Harris answer that? Knowing
Speaker 5: that there were progressives who thought that Josh Shapiro had
Speaker 5: the wrong ideas about Israel policy and was not sympathetic
Speaker 5: enough with Palestinians living in Gaza Go.
Speaker 14: The answer this question is Tamala Harris, and I think
Speaker 14: it actually shows how much she respects and appreciates Josh
Speaker 14: Shapiro and his ads time in public service and his
Speaker 14: position in the issues.
Speaker 8: By elevating him to you know, the runner up here essentially.
Speaker 14: I mean, if it were this would truly a problem
Speaker 14: anti Semitism, she would have never put him in the
Speaker 14: top two. That's just a ridiculous assertion paying a boy
Speaker 14: Kamala Harris whose husband is Jewish, you know.
Speaker 8: And so this is just the far.
Speaker 14: Right again trying to bully people into doing certain things.
Speaker 14: They were trying to bully Kamala into making a decision
Speaker 14: the head of ahead of her making that decision. There's
Speaker 14: only one person who can make this decision. That's Kamala Harris.
Speaker 14: She's gonna make a lot of decisions between now and
Speaker 14: November and when she's elected president, when she takes the
Speaker 14: love of office in January. And again it is just
Speaker 14: more bullying from the far right and the Trump people.
Speaker 14: They are spiraling after their disastrous pick of Jade Vance
Speaker 14: as vice president.
Speaker 8: I've never seen a vice president.
Speaker 14: Vice president will roll out go so poorly, usually get
Speaker 14: a bump after convention, have a double digit decline and
Speaker 14: drop just showcases the American people don't want what Trump
Speaker 14: and Jadie Vans are serving.
Speaker 5: Well, there was also you talk about the bullying. There
Speaker 5: was a little bit of bullying inside of the party.
Speaker 5: I don't know, Brad what you were hearing, but you've
Speaker 5: got Sean Fame going on on Sunday morning talking about
Speaker 5: Joshapiro not friendly to union labor, he was in favor
Speaker 5: of vouchers, that a wrong education policy. John Fetterman out
Speaker 5: there saying he's too ambitious, He's going to try to
Speaker 5: primary in twenty twenty eight. The knives kind of came
Speaker 5: out for the governor, didn't they.
Speaker 8: Well, I would bully. I saw that a campaign.
Speaker 14: I mean, the reason why she did this process the
Speaker 14: way she did and presenting options for voters and Democrats
Speaker 14: across the country was so they could share their opinions
Speaker 14: and their voices. There were some concerns about, you know,
Speaker 14: Governor Walts, there's some concerns about no matter who you pick,
Speaker 14: that were some concerns.
Speaker 8: But the only qubilication that matters.
Speaker 14: Is this this person ready to be president should something
Speaker 14: happen to the president. And when you look at Governor Walts,
Speaker 14: he's a member of Congress, he's an Army National Guard.
Speaker 14: He was a teacher football coach, and it's very successful
Speaker 14: governor of Minnesota. And by the way US News a
Speaker 14: whole report ranks Minnesota is the fourth best state in
Speaker 14: the country to live. And so he's got he's got
Speaker 14: a strong resume. Josh Shapiro is a valued member of
Speaker 14: the Democratic Party. He will be on the ticket running
Speaker 14: on the Democratic ticket in Comonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Speaker 8: He's got a bright future head of him.
Speaker 14: But I think it just shows how much she valued
Speaker 14: what he brought to the table by making him, you know,
Speaker 14: bringing him into the top two.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm guessing you want him to debate jd Vance.
Speaker 5: That's partly why she picked him, isn't that anything?
Speaker 8: Donald Trump?
Speaker 14: Trump is running scared from Kamala Harris, you know, to
Speaker 14: cancelor debate you would already agreed to and then demanded
Speaker 14: me on the super Friendly Audience by Fox News.
Speaker 8: Is hilarious to me. I just think it just shows
Speaker 8: the weakness.
Speaker 14: Of Donald Trump and that anytime he's genuinely challenged in
Speaker 14: any kind of substante way, he runs away from the fight.
Speaker 14: And Kamala Harris has shown every step of the way
Speaker 14: of her career, that she's ready for the fight.
Speaker 8: She's going to prosecute the case against Donald Trump. She's
Speaker 8: not going to couch her support for families. But you know,
Speaker 8: and and then that you saw that.
Speaker 14: She picked Tim wants to do so. So this is
Speaker 14: an election that I'm fired up about. I think Democrats
Speaker 14: have a great message and we've got a great pathway
Speaker 14: with victory in November.
Speaker 5: I know you're a fighter, a fighter, Brad Howard, but
Speaker 5: what is the impact what will be the impact of
Speaker 5: Minnesota nice on this campaign?
Speaker 8: Yeah, you know, there's been Western nice.
Speaker 14: I think we all know it can cut two ways.
Speaker 14: He with a smile that's very effective and sometimes even
Speaker 14: more brutal than you know, a direct attack straight to you.
Speaker 14: I've got a lot of friends within West. I'm familiar
Speaker 14: with it.
Speaker 8: I'm Southern. We we were kind of expert at that uh.
Speaker 14: And so I think what you'll see is a very effective,
Speaker 14: a very effective uh way of presenting the contrast with
Speaker 14: Jamie Vans and Donald Trump.
Speaker 8: And you know, I mean he's got a lot of credit.
Speaker 14: Recording the term weird, and it just is when you
Speaker 14: look at what they're trying to do, they're actually trying
Speaker 14: to take away freedoms from people and from families, the
Speaker 14: freedom of women to make the healthcare decisions, the freedom
Speaker 14: from families to raise their kids and support their kids in.
Speaker 8: The way that they feel is in the best way
Speaker 8: for their kids.
Speaker 14: To remove books out of libraries that they don't think
Speaker 14: kids should be reading. I mean, this is again, and
Speaker 14: you've got governor of Santa's in Florida bullying Diusney because
Speaker 14: they're not doing exactly what he wants them to do. Politically,
Speaker 14: you know, the Publican Party is no longer the party
Speaker 14: that supports you know, corporate America and.
Speaker 8: The free market system. They don't want a free market system.
Speaker 14: They want a heavy handed system that they control the
Speaker 14: morals and the values in the future decisions of these
Speaker 14: companies as long as the lines.
Speaker 8: With their political viewpoint. That's not the America we want
Speaker 8: to know.
Speaker 5: Man, we got Brad on a good day around here.
Speaker 5: This is excellent, all right. So if just lastly, last minute,
Speaker 5: if the Harris campaign is labeling the Trump camp weird,
Speaker 5: are they also saying that Tim Walls is normal? Is
Speaker 5: that the campaign weird versus normal?
Speaker 14: I think what they're saying is the ideas in the
Speaker 14: way in which they're talking about the issues of this
Speaker 14: campaign are weird, Like how does Hannibal and Shocking Sharks
Speaker 14: ever get into the rhetoric of the campaign?
Speaker 8: Trip and Jamie Vance yetting at.
Speaker 14: His son to shut out when he's on the phone,
Speaker 14: Why son's talking about pokemon? Like these are just weird
Speaker 14: things to be bringing up voluntarily. It's not like the
Speaker 14: Kamala Harris had an opera book and they pulled this
Speaker 14: out of it. They brought it up themselves. It's just
Speaker 14: very weird things. Like as a manager, I would tell
Speaker 14: my candidate like, don't alwa to say things that are
Speaker 14: going to pull attention away from your message and your policy.
Speaker 14: Can anyone tell me what the message and the policy
Speaker 14: was coming out of the R and C. No, it
Speaker 14: was just kind of a weird rambling speech from the
Speaker 14: nominee that went on for way too long and I
Speaker 14: think kind of ruined. Otherwise, was a pretty good convention, Joe,
Speaker 14: you and I were there. It was a long run
Speaker 14: comic convention. They were seamless and efficient and enthusiastic, and
Speaker 14: it just kind of ended on this weird note.
Speaker 8: And that's how they entered the general election. So you know,
Speaker 8: I just think that you look at Democrats, we were
Speaker 8: putting policy front and center.
Speaker 14: Kamala Harris every single speech is talking about reprotect her freedom.
Speaker 14: She was talking about letting you raise your kids the
Speaker 14: way you want to raise your is giving you things
Speaker 14: like make use your kids have food on the table
Speaker 14: for breakfast and much when they're at school, so that
Speaker 14: they don't you can't focus on learning if you're hungry,
Speaker 14: like little things. Giving kids the freedom to live their
Speaker 14: lives as kids, to learn and to have a bright future.
Speaker 8: That's put it's take in the selection.
Speaker 5: Never even got to the diet Mountain Dew, Brad, we
Speaker 5: just ran out of time. Get some bread's had a
Speaker 5: diet d It's great to see he's the founder of
Speaker 5: President Corporn Street Group. Brad Howard, Democratic strategist. Thanks for
Speaker 5: listening to the Balance of Power podcast. Make sure to
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Speaker 5: you get your podcasts, and you can find us live
Speaker 5: every weekday from Washington, DC at noontime Eastern at Bloomberg
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