WEBVTT

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AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome
to the "News Hour."

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The contenders for this
November's presidential
race are officially set.

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GEOFF BENNETT: Minnesota
Governor Tim Walz is joining
Democratic presidential

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nominee Kamala Harris
as her running mate this
November. And he's joining

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her on stage tonight at
a rally in Philadelphia.

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AMNA NAWAZ: Walz is a familiar
face in Minnesota and the halls
of power in Washington, D.C.,

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but a relative newcomer
to the national stage.

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Along a white picket
fence in St. Paul,

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Minnesota today, a crowd
gathers to send off Governor
Tim Walz after getting the

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call from presidential
nominee Kamala Harris to
join the Democratic ticket.

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KAMALA HARRIS, Vice President of
the United States (D) and U.S.
Presidential Candidate: Listen,

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I want you to do this with me.

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GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN), Vice
Presidential Candidate:
I would be honored,
Madam Vice President.

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AMNA NAWAZ: The duo is
up against the Republican
ticket of former President
Donald Trump and Ohio

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Senator J.D. Vance, who
went after his newly
named counterpart at a
Philadelphia rally today.

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SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), Vice
Presidential Candidate: Tim
Walz's record is a joke. He's

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been one of the most far left
radicals in the entire United
States government at any level.

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(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)

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SEN. J.D. VANCE: The reason
I didn't say a whole lot
about Tim Walz is because the

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Democrats have showed a
willingness to pull a little
switcheroo on us. So I

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don't even know if we're
actually going to get Tim
Walz out of this campaign.

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AMNA NAWAZ: Walz, a
60-year-old father of two, is
currently in his second term

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as Minnesota governor, with
a 54 percent state approval
rating in a July Morning

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Consult survey and a
reputation for a relatable,
some say, folksy approach.

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HOPE WALZ, Daughter of Tim
Walz: I think we're going
to go do the slingshot.

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GOV. TIM WALZ: Which I
don't know what it is, and
they're keeping it from me.

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AMNA NAWAZ: And though he's
racked up a substantial
political record over nearly

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two decades in public office,
Walz hasn't been very well-known
outside his home state.

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HOPE WALZ: Good job, dad.

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GOV. TIM WALZ: Oh, thanks, Hope.

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AMNA NAWAZ: In 2020,
that began to change.

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GOV. TIM WALZ: Generations of
pain is manifesting itself in

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front of the world. And
the world is watching.

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AMNA NAWAZ: After a police
officer murdered George
Floyd in Minneapolis,

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Walz condemned the
killing, and, days later,

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after some protests turned
violent, called in the National
Guard to respond to rioters.

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GOV. TIM WALZ: Everything that
we believe in, these people
are trying to destroy. So, if

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you are on the streets
tonight, it is very clear,
you are not with us. You
do not share our values.

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And we will use the full
strength of goodness and
righteousness to make
sure that this ends.

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AMNA NAWAZ: The right
criticized his response
as slow, and Walz himself

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later acknowledged the
-- quote -- "abject
failure" of that response.

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In 2023, after his party won
control of the Minnesota House
and Senate, Walz signed into

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law a laundry list of Democratic
priorities, providing free meals
to K-12 students, the largest

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child tax credit in the country,
enshrining abortion rights
into state law, increasing

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LGBTQ protections, legalizing
marijuana, and granting
voting rights to ex-offenders.

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His selection by Harris is
seen by some as a nod to the
party's progressive wing.

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JAKE TAPPER, CNN Host: Do
you think your record is
an asset to the ticket,

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or would it risk fueling
Trump's attacks as you being
a big government liberal?

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GOV. TIM WALZ: What a monster.
Kids are eating -- eating
and having full bellies

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so they can go learn. And women
are making their own health
care decisions. And we're

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a top five business state
and we also rank in the
top three of happiness.

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AMNA NAWAZ: But earlier in
his career on Capitol Hill,
he was known as a moderate.

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GOV. TIM WALZ: I intend to
come here to Washington to
provide authentic leadership.

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AMNA NAWAZ: In 2006, he flipped
his Minnesota U.S. House seat
from red to blue, becoming the

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highest-ranking enlisted
veteran ever in Congress.

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Over six terms and a dozen
years, he ranked among the
most bipartisan lawmakers,

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supported ongoing operations
in Iraq, while opposing
more boots on the ground,

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pushed for a minimum wage
hike and prescription
drug cost negotiations,

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voted against President
Obama's 2009 Wall Street
bailout plan, but backed
the Affordable Care Act.

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Before entering politics,
Walz served 24 years with
the Army National Guard,
enlisting at the age

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of 17, alongside his day
job teaching high school
social studies and coaching
football. In recent

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weeks leading up to his
selection, Walz made a
name for himself as a
willing warrior for Harris.

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Are you what this ticket
needs to be able to beat
the Trump/Vance ticket?

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GOV. TIM WALZ: Well, I
don't know about that, Amna.
What I can tell you is,

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is that we will beat
that ticket. This chaos
that Donald Trump brings,

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this dystopian view of
America, Kamala Harris'
joy, you can feel it.

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AMNA NAWAZ: Going viral
by branding the opposing
ticket in this way.

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GOV. TIM WALZ: Well, it's true.
These guys are just weird.

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AMNA NAWAZ: The Harris/Walz
campaign will spend the next
week touring swing states,

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with stops in Pennsylvania,
Wisconsin, Michigan,
North Carolina, Arizona,
and Nevada, as it

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introduces the country to a new
national political player and
potential future vice president.

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One of the biggest
challenges for the
Harris/Walz campaign will be

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introducing Governor Walz
to the American people.

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Our new PBS/NPR/Marist poll out
today shows that 71 percent of
Americans don't know who he is.

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For more on the Minnesota
governor, I'm joined now
by Twin Cities PBS reporter

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Mary Lahammer. She's
been following Walz's
career for some 20 years.

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Mary, good to see you.
Thanks for joining us.

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MARY LAHAMMER, Twin
Cities PBS: Thank you.

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AMNA NAWAZ: So you were
outside his home earlier
today as the news broke.

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Tell me a little bit about what
you heard from people out there.

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MARY LAHAMMER: Yes, it was
an interesting environment.

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An organic crowd developed.
There were folks walking
their dogs out on a
morning run, a walk,

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and decided to stay, and
they actually got to see
him depart in the motorcade,

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and just started cheering
for him out of the blue.

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And then talking to
them afterwards, they're
excited. Minnesotans
like to play an outsized

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role in national politics.
They're kind of proud of
it. I think people are
learning the statistic

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that if Walz wins three
out of the last six
Democratic vice presidents
will be from Minnesota.

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But as your poll shows,
he's got to introduce
himself to the nation.

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AMNA NAWAZ: He does have
an uphill battle there.
The vast majority of

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Americans don't know
who he is or don't know
what to think of him.

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So the campaign, as we
know, is already working to

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set that narrative with videos
like this they released today.

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GOV. TIM WALZ: I coached
football and taught social
studies for 20 years. And

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I tried to teach my students
what small-town Nebraska
taught me, respect, compromise,

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service to country. And so
when I went into government,
that's what I carried with me.

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AMNA NAWAZ: So, Mary, you have
covered him for some 20 years.

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What's the headline here
for what people need to
know about who is Tim Walz?

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MARY LAHAMMER: Yes, I
will go back to his very
first run for office.

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And I remember some trusted
sources saying you got to get
down to this rural Republican

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district where this football
coach is actually making a race
of it and eventually flipped the

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seat. I went back and studied
that debate and tried to
kind of ascertain how much he

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has changed. And it was
interesting to me to see
that he is still kind

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of -- was the fearless,
self-effacing, but aggressive,
quick kind of his feet.

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So he's been able to debate and
really pivot for a long time,

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but introducing himself to a
national audience will be new.
He's used to the Minnesota press

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corps. He's done a lot
of national news, and
was even surprised. In
our recent interview,

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we discussed how that
Republicans are weird
phrase, how we kind
of coined that phrase.

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And he was almost
embarrassed, saying, oh,
gosh, shucks. I wasn't
trying to be mean about it.

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So we will see how those
Midwestern tendencies go
on the national stage.

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AMNA NAWAZ: So, Mary, some
folks are hailing his selection
here as a nod to progressives

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of the Democratic Party. But I
had a Dem source tell me earlier
today that he's actually much

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more moderate than many in
the media make him out to
be. What do you make of that?

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MARY LAHAMMER: It depends
which office you're talking
about. When he was a member

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of Congress from a rural
previously Republican district,
he was much more of a moderate.

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Then, when he became governor
for the state and his lieutenant
governor, Peggy Flanagan,

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definitely took him in more
of a progressive stance. And
then he got an all-Democratic

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legislature, so ended up
passing just a very large list
of highly progressive items.

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So, some folks say, was it a
bait-and-switch? He originally

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ran on this concept of one
Minnesota. We are still
probably rather divided here.

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AMNA NAWAZ: Well, he
is relatively popular
at the state level,

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right? He has a 54 percent
approval rating in Minnesota.
What do his critics there say

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about him? And could any of
those become vulnerabilities
on the national stage?

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MARY LAHAMMER: Yes, a
good portion of his time
in office as governor

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has been in front of a divided
legislature. He recently had
the all-Democratic trifecta.

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But before that, he had
a lot of critics, and
he had a hard road in

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divided government. Minnesota
is a state, four Democrats, four
Republicans in Congress. We're

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slightly purple. And folks
here are very critical of
his time during the pandemic

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in particular. We had a lot
of lockdowns. Of course, we
had the riots following George

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Floyd's murder and were very
critical of him being slow to
send the National Guard out.

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Also, during the pandemic, we
had the largest fraud in the
Feeding Our Future fraud case. I

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think the governor will probably
be talking about the fact
that those cases have been

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brought to justice, and
there have been convictions
in both of those instances.

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AMNA NAWAZ: Big week
for Minnesota. We

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know you will be covering his
career moving forward as well.

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That is Mary Lahammer of Twin
Cities PBS joining us tonight.

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Mary, thank you.
Good to see you.

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MARY LAHAMMER: Thank you.