Kamala Harris has a running mate ... he is Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
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00:00Kamala Harris has now picked her running mate,
00:03and it is Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
00:05I am surprised slash shocked
00:09that she did not pick Josh Shapiro from Pennsylvania.
00:12Me too, he was the favorite,
00:14if you looked at the betting odds,
00:15to people saying he's the popular governor of a swing state.
00:18Odds, schmods, I'm-
00:20But he's the popular governor of a swing state,
00:21bottom line, right?
00:22There are all sorts of reasons
00:25why I thought she was gonna pick Josh Shapiro.
00:27Seem to make sense.
00:28Let's bring in a guy who knows politics
00:32as well as anybody I know,
00:35and that is Alex Michelson, who is the anchor of Fox 11,
00:39The Issue Is, which is a political show
00:41that runs through California
00:43and just knows everything about politics.
00:46Alex, welcome back to TMZ Live.
00:48Well, apparently I don't know everything,
00:49because when I was co-hosting this show with you last week,
00:52we both thought that the pick was going to be Josh Shapiro,
00:55but apparently the betting odds were wrong on this one,
00:58and ultimately she chose Tim Walz.
01:00So let me just give you my take,
01:01and apparently he's a really good guy,
01:03very popular governor.
01:05He is gonna help her in the Midwest,
01:09and that's significant.
01:11But everything else aside,
01:15to me, Josh Shapiro represents exactly
01:20what the Democrats have been talking about,
01:22which is we want young, we want fresh, we want smart,
01:27and Walz is smart, but he's not young.
01:33Josh Shapiro has that spark,
01:36and I thought that's what Democrats were going for.
01:39So that shocks me as much as anything.
01:42How about you?
01:43Well, Tim Walz is a lot younger than he looks.
01:46Do you know that Brad Pitt is actually older than Tim Walz?
01:50No.
01:51He is.
01:51Tim Walz is what?
01:52He's 60-ish?
01:53He's 60, he's 60.
01:55He's less than a year older than Kamala Harris.
01:5810 years older than Josh Shapiro.
01:59Josh Shapiro, who's 51.
02:02Josh Shapiro looks more like the future,
02:05and Tim Walz, though, may be more comfortable to some people.
02:09I mean, let's talk about the appeal of Tim Walz
02:12and why she probably picked him in the end.
02:14I mean, here's a guy who not only is the governor
02:17of Minnesota, but had been a Congress member,
02:19is the chair of the National Governors Association,
02:21leading all of the governors,
02:23but in his past, he's a teacher,
02:25somebody who went to state college,
02:26who enlisted in the military and served for 24 years
02:29in the military, somebody who is a hunter,
02:33who lived in rural America and knows how to speak
02:37and interact with people that, frankly,
02:39Kamala Harris hasn't spent a whole lot of time with
02:42in her life, living in Oakland and Canada and Brentwood.
02:46Tim Walz represents a different part of America,
02:48and they hope a different part of the Democratic coalition.
02:51Alex, there's a thought out there
02:54that Kamala Harris might have been concerned
02:56about Josh Shapiro's star power,
02:59that he could actually outshine her as the VP,
03:03and that perhaps went into her decision here.
03:05Do you buy into that, that Josh Shapiro is just that good
03:09that she didn't wanna be overshadowed?
03:10Well, that was some of what was being thrown out there.
03:13John Fetterman, who is the senator from Pennsylvania,
03:17who's kind of been a rival with Josh Shapiro
03:19for many years, even though they're both Democrats
03:22in the state, probably the two most,
03:24high-profile Democrats, made that argument publicly,
03:28that Josh Shapiro is ambitious,
03:31and he may be more interested in being the top guy
03:33on the ticket, beware of him,
03:36and that Kamala Harris, you want somebody
03:38who is more loyal to you, who isn't going to outshine you.
03:42Then, of course, Republicans are putting forward
03:44the fact that he's Jewish, suggesting that Kamala Harris
03:48was afraid of pissing off the,
03:51what they call pro-Hamas wing,
03:53some might say the anti-Israel wing,
03:56by picking a Jewish man who has spent much of his life
03:59advocating for Israel.
04:02Kamala Harris would say, look, I'm married to a Jewish guy,
04:05I'm not anti-Semitic, but it'll be interesting to hear
04:08if and when she talks about why she did this.
04:10Kamala Harris has not answered a single question
04:13from any reporters about her Democratic nomination
04:17since she's been tacked in the last two weeks.
04:20She hasn't done any press conferences.
04:22Will her and Walz be able to talk with reporters
04:26over the next week as they travel the country
04:28to swing states, starting with Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
04:33Josh Shapiro's spot where he's going to be talking
04:36at the rally in showcasing how important Pennsylvania is
04:41as a swing state.
04:42So I don't think anybody legit is even suggesting
04:47that Kamala Harris is anti-Semitic,
04:49but I think there are people saying that she was kowtowing
04:53to the left wing of the Democratic Party,
04:57where there is some anti-Semitism.
04:59So speaking of that wing of the party,
05:05Walz is a progressive Democrat,
05:08and Kamala Harris has walked back a number of issues
05:14that she kind of embraced before all of this happened,
05:21to come more toward the center.
05:23By picking somebody like Walz,
05:26does it feel like it's waffling back and forth
05:30because she's walked back some of the things
05:33that he seems to be embracing?
05:35Essentially is firing up the Democratic base,
05:38the progressive base,
05:40some of whom maybe had a problem with Shapiro.
05:43And so maybe you're getting your people out,
05:46but it does not send a message to people
05:49that may be more moderate,
05:51that she's a more moderate candidate.
05:54And this is one of the opportunities
05:56that she has to define herself.
05:58Look, like 70, 80% of the country
06:00has no opinion of Tim Walz right now.
06:03And there's still big chunks of the country
06:05that are trying to figure out who is Kamala Harris.
06:07And by making this pick,
06:09which ultimately is more important about her
06:11than it is about him,
06:13because people vote for president,
06:14they don't vote for vice president,
06:15but it sends a message to people about your priorities.
06:18And by picking somebody who's more progressive
06:20as compared to somebody who's more centrist,
06:23maybe it sends a message to people
06:24that you're more focused on progressive values.
06:27Alex, if you were running her campaign,
06:29is this the first mistake that Kamala Harris has made
06:32or was this not a mistake?
06:34I think it's too early to tell.
06:36But if this race comes down on election night
06:40to Pennsylvania and say Kamala Harris loses
06:44by 0.5% of Pennsylvania,
06:46there'll be a lot of people that'll be looking back
06:48at this moment as perhaps a massive mistake
06:52when she had an opportunity to change that.
06:54Do you think that the vice presidential pick
06:58would have mattered in Pennsylvania?
07:02Because you had mentioned earlier, which is true,
07:04that people vote for president, not for vice president,
07:07but would Shapiro have made a difference
07:10in Pennsylvania, do you think?
07:11So the statistical analysis of the vice presidential picks
07:16in their home states usually shows
07:19that it helps the candidate by between 0.5% and 1.5%.
07:24So not a huge amount.
07:26But if you think about the last election in Pennsylvania,
07:29it was like 0.5% difference.
07:32So if we're at the margins,
07:34that little bit of difference could be the difference
07:38between winning Pennsylvania and winning the election
07:41and not, which is why when I was on the set
07:43with you last week, it seemed so obvious
07:46if you have the chance to pick the most popular guy
07:49in the most important state that you would pick him.
07:51And the fact that she didn't is really stunning.
07:55That's the way I see it too.
07:56Yeah.
07:57Yeah.
07:58Yeah.
07:59Yeah.
08:00Yeah.
08:00Yeah.
08:01Yeah.
08:02Yeah.