Teleprompters, presidential dreams and bad debates: Inside Tim Walz’s winning interview to be Harris VP pick
Minnesota governor scored ‘a home run’ in the final vetting interview to secure his position as Kamala Harris’s vice presidential pick
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Your support makes all the difference.In a move that is rarely encouraged in a job interview, Tim Walz sat in the dining room of the US Naval Observatory reeling off a string of his self-confessed weaknesses to Kamala Harris and her vetting team.
He doesn’t know how to use a teleprompter.
He isn’t from a swing state and is relatively unknown.
And, he’s a bad debater.
These candid admissions, however, all helped Walz ace the final interview and secure his position as Harris’s vice presidential pick over contenders Josh Shapiro and Mark Kelly.
“It was a home run,” a member of the vetting team told CNN. “Everyone loved him.”
Walz was an outsider and Harris knew the least about him compared to his Democratic adversaries when he found himself in the running.
But, insiders told CNN that Walz’s transparency over his vulnerabilities, willingness to be a team player and his revelation that he does not harbor ambitions to one day become president that went down a treat in the Democratic presidential nominee’s camp.
Walz first endorsed Harris for president on July 22 after President Joe Biden abandoned his re-election bid.
In the two weeks that followed, speculation ramped up about who Harris would pick to join her on the ticket with the candidates quickly getting whittled down.
The final shortlist was made up of three names: Walz, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly.
On Sunday, Harris and her team held final interviews – dubbed chemistry tests – with the three candidates at her home in DC.
During Walz’s interview, Harris asked him if he would run for president.
Walz said no – an answer that reportedly struck Harris.
A person involved with the vetting process told Politico that Walz acknowledged that his political career was nearing its end and that the 2024 election “is not about me.”
“And if I have to run through a brick wall, if I have to do the hard things,” he allegedly said, adding: “I’m willing to do it because I’m not angling for anything else.”
Walz went on to give a clear depiction of how he saw his potential role as vice president and said he would do whatever Harris asked of him. He was “at ease and very natural,” one senior aide who was briefed on the interview told CNN.
Asked whether he’d like to win the veepstakes, the policy maker was said to have replied that only if Harris wanted him there.
“He had a very clear understanding that it was to be a partner, but to support the president, go out and connect with America and be that governing partner,” Cedric Richmond, a White House advisor who was deeply involved in the selection process, told CNN.
While Walz was asking “‘What can I do to help?,” the pundit’s favorite Shapiro was said to be negotiating the job with the vice president, CNN reported.
Along with his loyalty and honesty, Harris also believed that Walz could attract the types of battleground state voters that Donald Trump cannot.
The former high school teacher and Army National Guard veteran “hunts, he fishes, you want to have a beer with him,” a source told the outlet. “He will play in Michigan, Wisconsin, Western Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina.”
Another Democrat and acquaintance of Walz added that “he talks and looks like a lot of the voters we’ve lost to Trump”.
Walz also set himself apart with his newly-coined buzzword for describing Trump and his vice presidential pick JD Vance: “weird”.
The critique thrust Walz into the spotlight last month and quickly went viral, with the Republican duo still struggling to shake off the unflattering adjective.
Harris herself “liked how it became a thing,” a person involved with the vetting process said.
Walz had also earned the support of Democratic heavyweights including former House speaker Nancy Pelosi and former president Barack Obama, who said in a statement Tuesday that Walz has the “values” and “integrity” to serve the American people.
On Tuesday morning, after sleeping on the matter, Harris made her final decision.
She called the Walz household to tell him she had chosen him as her running mate.
He didn’t answer the first call but picked up on her second try.
Hours later the pair took to the stage for their first rally in Philadelphia where Walz spoke publicly for the first time as the new Democratic vice presidential pick – and handed staffers a box of donuts.
Before taking to the stage, the governor had one thing left to do: practice using a teleprompter.
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