# Kamala Harris's choice of Tim Walz as VP **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** kamala-harris\ **Created:** [August 6, 2024, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-harriss-choice-of-tim-walz-as-vp/1005352 "2024-08-06T21:19:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-harriss-choice-of-tim-walz-as-vp/1005352/163 "2024-08-07T17:55:23Z")
It’s better to get any information out now. The campaign has time to respond. Harris and Walz don’t want any surprises 10 days before Election day. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-harriss-choice-of-tim-walz-as-vp/1005352/164 "2024-08-07T17:57:15Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > There seems to be a lot of confusion about Harris and her past positions. In this thread? I’m not seeing it in my daily life. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-harriss-choice-of-tim-walz-as-vp/1005352/165 "2024-08-07T17:58:55Z")
The first article linked there seems pretty good. He was able to get bipartisan things done when he had a Republican legislature, and he was able to pass a lot of very progressive bills once he had a one-vote majority. So he can coach offense AND defense! ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-harriss-choice-of-tim-walz-as-vp/1005352/166 "2024-08-07T18:06:07Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I know she said otherwise a couple years later. But it’s hard to take back what she said in 2020. > > [Harris, in 2020, said 'we have to redirect resources' from police - ABC News](https://abcnews.go.com/US/harris-2020-redirect-resources-police/story?id=112378103) If you think that’s evidence that Harris said she wants to “defund the police”, you’re very much mistaken and are making exactly the kind of mischaracterization that we always hear from the right. I have no doubt that Harris and Walz will be accused of being “far left radicals” and indeed Trump and his cronies are already doing it, but clearly this is just nonsensical political rhetoric to fire up the base… Here’s the essence of what Harris said, from your own article – and I’m sure she’d say the same thing today and that Walz would agree: > … Harris said that she believed “we have to reimagine public safety in America” and argued that “for too long, people have confused achieving public safety with putting more cops on the street.” … “in many cities in America over one-third of their city budget is placed, is paid to policing. … Meanwhile, schools are suffering.” The right sees public safety in simplistic, brute-force terms: more police, more arrests, more prisons, longer sentences. This has never worked and never will when crime is a systemic societal problem. Harris is talking about addressing the fundamental problem by providing things like better schools and more opportunities for disadvantaged youth rather than the losing proposition of over-policing. How is this “far left”, which is what you said earlier? ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-harriss-choice-of-tim-walz-as-vp/1005352/167 "2024-08-07T19:01:20Z")
So far, the major skeletons seem to be a 30 year old DUI that he took responsibity for and the fact that he resigned from military service before his unit was deployed. The Republicans are really losing their touch. Nobody has yet commented on the fact that he spent a year in China and apparently can still speak Mandarin. He’s obviously a Chinese spy. /sarcasm. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-harriss-choice-of-tim-walz-as-vp/1005352/168 "2024-08-07T19:05:49Z")
Oh, his China “connection” was brought up on Fox News. He honeymooned in China, and according to [this CNN article](https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/07/media/right-wing-media-tim-walz-harris-attacks-vp-election/index.html), was being “groomed” (the conservatives say) by the Chinese government. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-harriss-choice-of-tim-walz-as-vp/1005352/169 "2024-08-07T19:19:57Z")
I listened to the NYT podcast (_The Daily_) this morning and the most interesting thing I learned was that Congressman Walz’ district went for Trump in 2016 by 15 points and Walz _still_ retained his seat. To me this means that Walz is palpable to a significant percentage of independent and conservative voters. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-harriss-choice-of-tim-walz-as-vp/1005352/170 "2024-08-07T19:24:55Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > > [@Loach](#): > > > > Good for you. I don’t. As the Battalion CSM you are the daddy of the soldiers in the unit. You don’t abandon them when things get dicey. You certainly don’t do it for personal gain. He didn’t take a stand against the war. He left to concentrate on his campaign for Congress. The casualties in his battalion didn’t get that chance. > > So, he felt the war was unjust, so he left the military in order to run for Congress in opposition to the war. Seems to me that, by working in Congress to bring his battalion members home, he was doing a lot more good for them than he could have by remaining in the service. First you put words in my mouth now you put words in his. There is no indication that he left as a protest. He just left after signing up for more years and before he could deploy. > [@psychobunny](#): > > So far, the major skeletons seem to be a 30 year old DUI that he took responsibity for and the fact that he resigned from military service before his unit was deployed. The Republicans are really losing their touch. Nobody has yet commented on the fact that he spent a year in China and apparently can still speak Mandarin. He’s obviously a Chinese spy. /sarcasm. I doubt there will be any skeletons. Meaning new bad information. I would suspect anything bad was found out by the time he was governor. It won’t be “new” but more like “new to you.” The criticism of his military career and his DWI came out before but are now being exposed to a larger audience. If the Harris campaign didn’t know about it they would have to be very incompetent. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-harriss-choice-of-tim-walz-as-vp/1005352/171 "2024-08-07T19:26:44Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > He is getting disparaged because he rose all the way to the highest enlisted rank where he was the top enlisted soldier in his battalion but he left his unit and retired immediately after they got orders to deploy to Iraq. Leaving a hole at the top of their leadership the had to be hastily filled by someone else. He’s being disparaged because he calls himself a retired CSM despite the fact that it was a conditional promotion and he didn’t meet the conditions. He left before the promotion became permanent and retired as a master sergeant. Regarding his rank, he was promoted to Command Master Sargeant and served in that role, but that was a provisional promotion pending completion of a training program. He ended service before completing the requirements, so his rank and pay reverted to the prior rank. Lots of military folks have their rank and pay adjusted upon retiring. As for the timing of his choice to leave the National Guard, others in his unit back him fully. > **[GOP opponent who never served criticizes Gov. Tim Walz's exit from National...](https://www.startribune.com/walzs-24-years-in-national-guard-get-renewed-scrutiny-from-gop-opponent-who-didnt-serve/600216280)** > > Supporters say the governor was a great soldier who was entitled to leave when he chose. > [@](#): > > Joseph Eustice, a 32-year veteran of the guard who led the same battalion as Walz, said the governor fulfilled his duty. > > “He was a great soldier,” Eustice said. “When he chose to leave, he had every right to leave.” > > Eustice said claims to the contrary are ill-informed and possibly sour grapes by a soldier who was passed over for the promotion to command sergeant major that went to Walz. > [@](#): > > Eustice, an Ortonville teacher who describes himself as nonpartisan, said he unequivocally supports the governor’s version of events. > > “I love him as a soldier; I don’t care much for him as a politician,” Eustice said of Walz. > > Eustice said he recalled talking to Walz in 2005 when they were at Camp Ripley. He said Walz told him he was thinking about resigning the guard and running for Congress. > > “The man did nothing wrong with when he chose to leave the service; he didn’t break any rules,” he said. > > DFL Ramsey County Commissioner Trista MatasCastillo, another Guard veteran who served at the same time as Walz but didn’t know him, called Jensen’s attacks on the governor’s service “disgusting.” He also had major hearing loss that eventually required surgery to replace the bones in his ears. This sounds like someone fishing for a reason to hate on Walz. Just like I was wrong to pick on Vance serving as a combat correspondent, Vance is wrong to pick on Walz not going to Iraq or Afghanistan. He went where assigned as a National Guard member. He left to pursue a new career in politics. His timing was driven by major hearing loss. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-harriss-choice-of-tim-walz-as-vp/1005352/172 "2024-08-07T19:31:30Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > First you put words in my mouth now you put words in his. There is no indication that he left as a protest. He just left after signing up for more years and before he could deploy. I didn’t put words in your mouth and I would thank you for granting me the same courtesy! I haven’t checked his actual platform from the 2006 election, but I assume he opposed the war. Do you have any cites to the contrary? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-harriss-choice-of-tim-walz-as-vp/1005352/173 "2024-08-07T19:34:25Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > “I love him as a soldier; I don’t care much for him as a politician,” Eustice said of Walz. This says a lot about his military service. The guy could have said nothing; instead Walz left enough of an impression on him that he praises Walz’ military experience, even though they have vastly different political viewpoints. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-harriss-choice-of-tim-walz-as-vp/1005352/174 "2024-08-07T19:39:10Z")
Oh, gee, look at that. From Wikipedia: > Walz campaigned heavily against the [Iraq war](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_war) as popularity for the war was declining that year.[[35]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Walz#cite_note-iuh44-35) The cite for that sentence is [here.](https://www.npr.org/2006/11/03/6430410/minnesota-house-seat-may-depend-on-war-issues). See what you can accomplish when you actually bother to check your facts before posting? ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-harriss-choice-of-tim-walz-as-vp/1005352/175 "2024-08-07T19:43:56Z")
The “Tim Walz’s military service” argument begins and ends with the article below. One of CNN’s correspondents fact-checked this on the air a little over an hour ago – here is the online version: > **Walz retired from the Army National Guard in May 2005** , according to the Minnesota National Guard. Typically, service members need to submit papers several months before they can retire. > > A National Guard article on **his [former _- b_] unit**’s deployment states that it **received alert orders to deploy to Iraq in July 2005, two months after Walz retired**. The unit first mobilized in the fall of 2005 to Camp Shelby Mississippi to prepare for deployment, according to the unit’s history, and then deployed in March 2006 for 22 months, which the Guard said was the longest continuous deployment of any military unit during US operations in Iraq. > > **Walz filed [paperwork](https://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/112/25038731112/25038731112.pdf) with the Federal Election Commission as a candidate for Congress on February 10, 2005.** > **[Vance reopens line of attack into Walz’s military record as two veterans now...](https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/07/politics/tim-walz-military-record-vance-attack/index.html)** > > Donald Trump’s running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance stepped up his attacks on Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s portrayal of his military career, accusing him without evidence of ducking service in Iraq when he left the Army National Guard and ran for... ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-harriss-choice-of-tim-walz-as-vp/1005352/176 "2024-08-07T19:45:41Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > The “Tim Walz’s military service” argument begins and ends with the article below. Wow, a Republican sound-bite attack is bullshit, knock me over with a gentle breeze. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-harriss-choice-of-tim-walz-as-vp/1005352/177 "2024-08-07T19:47:04Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > See what you can accomplish when you actually bother to check your facts before posting? Didn’t you JUST say that you merely assumed he opposed the war? ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-harriss-choice-of-tim-walz-as-vp/1005352/178 "2024-08-07T19:47:10Z")
Funny how certain allegedly “Democratic” posters are so eager to parrot right-wing talking points. Makes you wonder what their real motivation is. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-harriss-choice-of-tim-walz-as-vp/1005352/179 "2024-08-07T19:48:26Z")
**Moderating** : Enough of this, this is not the pit. Please everyone avoid attacking each other. - For the record, you don’t have to be a Democrat to post in this thread. - Posting in this thread does not mean you’re saying you’re a Democrat. - There are posters on this board that are voting against Trump that are not Democrats believe it or not. ---
**Author:** ![DETXL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/detxl/32/19366_2.png) [@DETXL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DETXL)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-harriss-choice-of-tim-walz-as-vp/1005352/180 "2024-08-07T19:48:43Z")
At the rally in Eau Claire (still going on, but Walz has handed over to Harris at the moment) somebody in the crowd seems to have had heat stroke or something. Walz just… stopped his speech for several minutes until he was sure they’d gotten help, and that everyone else was doing okay in the heat and staying hydrated. Just, like… a kind, remarkably human vibe from him through the whole thing. And Harris and Walz seem to get on well together, from how their messaging and their personality. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-harriss-choice-of-tim-walz-as-vp/1005352/181 "2024-08-07T19:51:27Z")
And he worked in China the same year as the Tiananmen Square massacre, which apparently made it hard to discuss his becoming her running mate over there. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-harriss-choice-of-tim-walz-as-vp/1005352/182 "2024-08-07T19:53:21Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > Walz filed [paperwork](https://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/112/25038731112/25038731112.pdf) with the Federal Election Commission as a candidate for Congress on February 10, 2005. And the year before that he was already involved in politics as a volunteer for John Kerry. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-harriss-choice-of-tim-walz-as-vp/1005352.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-harriss-choice-of-tim-walz-as-vp/1005352.md?page=10)