Speaking to a packed house in Michigan on Thursday, Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz gave his thoughts on this week’s presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
“So I got asked right after the debate, you know, ‘Do you think we should do another one?’ And I said, ‘Hell, every day we should do another one. Of course,’” Walz said to cheers and laughter from the audience.
The Minnesota governor lamented that Donald Trump has announced he will not agree to a second debate with Harris. And when the crowd booed, Walz said, “Give him a little break. That one left a mark.”
Walz leaned into Harris’ performance at the debate, saying “no one should have been surprised by how she performed on that debate stage,” pointing to Harris’ career of unmasking bullies and criminals as a prosecutor, district attorney, senator, and vice president.
“So when it’s a bully and there’s a time, she proved she can beat some people down if they need it, which [Trump] needed,” Walz continued. “But for the American people, she laid out a plan for an opportunity economy. A place that’s not just a concept. Go to KamalaHarris.com and you can see what’s laid out there. Read it. Tell your friends. Send it to your relative that you’re dreading seeing. Get it out to ’em.”
Walz told the crowd that those conservative relatives saw Trump’s terrible debate performance and likely know that “[s]creaming about eating cats is not a solution. It’s not a solution.” An estimated 67 million Americans watched Harris clean Trump’s clock at the debate, and Walz deftly highlighted the substantive differences between the Democratic and Republican tickets:
What Kamala Harris was talking about is things that you actually care about. They might not be sitting down at the bar talking about banning books, but they might be down there talking about ‘How can I afford a house? I’m working hard. I’m working hard. I want to have a house.’ And because that house becomes a home. To some of these folks—your real estate mogul, venture capitalist, or whatever—that’s just an asset to be traded and sold to whoever you want. For us, it’s a place we gather around the kitchen table to talk to our kids about what happened at school. That’s what [Harris] wants for you.