Why Kamala Picking Tim Walz as Her V.P. Is Actually Historic

Kamala Harris tapped Minnesota Governor Tim Walz Tuesday to join her presidential ticket, which may make way for a historic first.

Should Harris and Walz win in November, prompting Walz to step down from the governorship, Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, a citizen of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, would take his place. That means that Flanagan would become the first Native American woman to serve as a U.S. governor, as well as Minnesota’s first female governor.

Flanagan has served as Minnesota’s lieutenant governor since 2018, making her the highest-ranking Native American elected to executive office, according to her official bio.

Walz is not required to leave his office to become Harris’s running mate, and could choose to stay in the office up until the moment he is sworn into the White House. Walz, who was elected for his second term as governor in 2022, has two years left in his term.

Flanagan was first elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2015, where she served on the Subcommittee on Child Care Access and Affordability, and formed the state’s first People of Color and Indigenous Caucus.

After Flanagan was elected lieutenant governor alongside Walz in 2018, the two pushed for the highest child tax credit in the country, which Walz signed into law. The Minnesota Department of Revenue reported that the child tax credit was claimed on more than 215,000 tax returns in 2023, serving nearly 440,000 children for an average total credit of $1,244 per child.

Donald Trump is trying desperately to start a new nickname for Vice President Kamala Harris, and his latest attempt is the most pathetic one yet.

“People vote with their STOMACH, and food is now at an all time high because of Kamabla/Biden INCOMPETENCE. With them in charge, IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social Monday night.

That’s right, “Kamabla.” What would be considered a typo from any other politician appeared in four of the former president’s posts over the course of Monday night.

“Kamabla Harris is afraid to Debate me on FoxNews. She will be easier to defeat on the Debate Stage than Crooked Joe Biden, just watch,” he wrote in another post on Truth Social, referring to his outlandish pitch for an arena debate, so he could get out of one he’d previously agreed to on ABC News.

Earlier Monday, Trump had tried to blame Harris for the stock market’s dip, calling it the “KAMALA CRASH,” across several different posts—but to no avail.

It seems that Trump’s previous nicknames for Harris, including “Laughing Kamala,” “Crazy Kamala,” “Lyin’ Kamala,” and even “Dumb as a Rock Kamala,” were actually perhaps too heady for the former president. He’d rather just misspell her name and call it a day.

Last week, during an appearance on Fox News after Trump’s disastrous appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists, Trump’s former adviser Omarosa Manigault Newman criticized Trump for mispronouncing Harris’s name “as a slur.”

“He does it intentionally to harm her, to make people see the otherness of Kamala Harris,” Newman said.

Trump’s new nickname for his opponent, along with all of his previous attempts, shows that his campaign is drowning in his own rage. Unfortunately for Trump, his particular brand of vitriol only appeals to his base—and even they seem like they’re beginning to defect.

Kamala Harris has chosen her running mate, and it’s Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

Harris announced the decision Tuesday morning. “As a governor, a coach, a teacher, and a veteran, he’s delivered for working families like his,” she stated. “It’s great to have him on the team.”

It’s a fun announcement, given both Walz’s progressive credentials and how savvy he is with his attacks on Republicans. He has effectively criticized Donald Trump and J.D. Vance in TV interviews, even venturing into enemy territory on Fox News. And he’s credited with first inspiring Democrats’ “weird” attacks on Trump and the GOP, giving the party one of its most effective attack lines in years.

Walz’s internet presence has also led his supporters to turn him into incredible meme content.

He may even be a bigger Diet Mountain Dew fan than Vance.

So who is Walz?

As governor of Minnesota, Walz was in office when George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police in May 2020. He signed into law police reform legislation banning “warrior” training, restricting the use of choke holds by police, and introducing new de-escalation training for police as well as training on how to respond to people with autism and mental health issues. The bill also created an independent unit to investigate police-involved deaths and a community relations advisory council.

Last year, Walz signed into law a child tax credit plan for Minnesota, one of the most generous state plans in the country, which he said could reduce child poverty in the state by 33 percent. It was passed thanks to Walz presiding over a Democratic trifecta, with the party holding both the Minnesota House and Senate. This also allowed abortion protections, free universal school meals, paid family leave, and safeguards for gay and transgender people to become law in the state.

Before becoming governor, he served in Congress from 2007 to 2019, endearing himself to his Democratic colleagues. Several Democrats in Congress, including Nancy Pelosi, have spoken well of Walz in recent days.

“He was a great member of Congress. The people I know in Minnesota tell me he’s a great governor.… But more importantly, he’s a good guy,” said Representative Jim McGovern last week. “He’s down to earth, he’s the real deal, there’s nothing phony about him, and he calls ’em as he sees ’em, and he tells it like it is, and I appreciate the candor.”

In the past year, Walz has taken a relatively conciliatory approach to voters and protesters upset over Israel’s brutal war on Gaza, even with his record of pro-Israel advocacy in Congress.

“These are voters that are deeply concerned—as we all are. The situation in Gaza is intolerable.… We start bringing these folks back in, we listen to what they’re saying—that’s a healthy thing,” Walz said. On the campus protests, he said students “need to be able to express opinions” but also expressed concern for the safety of Jewish students on campus.

Walz’s personal story is also compelling. He grew up in rural Nebraska and served in the National Guard for 24 years, and was deployed to Europe after 9/11. He earned several commendations, including the Army Commendation Medal and two Army Achievement Medals. With a bachelor’s degree from Chadron State College in Nebraska, he taught for one year in China and later was a public school teacher in Alliance, Nebraska, and then in Mankato, Minnesota, his wife Gwen’s hometown.

While teaching geography in Mankato West High School, he served as the school football coach, taking the team to its first state championship in 1999. He also was the faculty adviser for the school’s first gay-straight alliance.

It looks like the Harris campaign recognized all of these achievements, and saw Walz as the best choice to win in November.

This story has been updated.

Elon Musk’s pro-Trump political action committee is in hot water after the North Carolina attorney general’s office announced Monday that it is looking into the group’s collection of personal data.

A complaint was made to the state election board claiming that Musk’s America PAC collected personal data instead of its promised goal of helping people register to vote. Specifically, the PAC asked website users for data such as their ZIP code, address, and a phone number in order to help them register to vote. But if the person lived in a battleground state, they were never actually registered to vote. Only those who lived in states not considered competitive were redirected to their state’s voter registration pages.

“Our office is aware of this issue and is looking into it,” said a spokesperson for the North Carolina attorney general’s office Monday. North Carolina’s inquiry follows another investigation announced Sunday by Michigan’s secretary of state over identical allegations involving Michigan residents.

“Every citizen should know exactly how their personal information is being used by PACs, especially if an entity is claiming it will help people register to vote in Michigan or any other state,” a spokesperson for the Michigan office said in a statement to CNBC.

“While the America PAC is a federal political action committee, the Department is reviewing their activities to determine if there have been any violations of state law. We will refer potential violations to the Michigan Attorney General’s office as appropriate,” the statement added.

Along with North Carolina and Michigan, users in Georgia and Wisconsin who accessed the PAC’s website also weren’t redirected to their states’ voter registration pages.

Musk and his PAC are supporting Donald Trump in the 2024 election over Vice President Kamala Harris, with the tech mogul reportedly feeling slighted after President Biden didn’t invite Tesla, Musk’s car company, to a 2021 electric vehicles summit. Musk has been pro-Trump ever since then, advocating for Trump’s anti-immigration policies in line with his own conspiracist beliefs in the racist “great replacement theory,” which claims immigrants are being imported to replace white people. Musk is an immigrant to the United States.

Donald Trump is determined to blame Monday’s stock market dip on Kamala Harris, even if that means having a meltdown posting a dumb new nickname for her over and over again.

On Monday, Wall Street had its worst day in nearly two years, as the S&P 500 fell 3 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped over 1,000 points. As markets plunged, Trump began insistently posting on Truth Social, deeming the poor market performance a “KAMALA CRASH!” or “KAMALA KRASH.”

“STOCK MARKETS CRASHING. I TOLD YOU SO!!!” wrote the former president and convicted felon. “KAMALA DOESN’T HAVE A CLUE. BIDEN IS SOUND ASLEEP. ALL CAUSED BY INEPT U.S. LEADERSHIP!”

In reality, there’s no way that the poor performance of the stock market can be placed squarely on Biden or Harris. There seem to be plenty of reasons for the crash, including a disappointing jobs report and concern that the Federal Reserve didn’t lower interest rates fast enough. Some are blaming the Bank of Japan hiking interest rates, while still others are blaming the hasty move to invest in artificial intelligence and other technologies without proof of their value. But many economic experts say that the U.S economy remains strong.

“Of course there is a massive market downturn. Kamala is even worse than Crooked Joe. Markets will NEVER accept the Radical Left Lunatic that DESTROYED San Francisco and California, as a whole,” wrote Trump on Truth Social, whose value has also been tanking. “Next move, THE GREAT DEPRESSION OF 2024! You can’t play games with MARKETS. KAMALA CRASH!!!”

Under President Joe Biden, real wages have rebounded since the pandemic and overall job growth has improved greatly. In June, 16 Nobel Prize–winning economists warned that reelecting Trump would reignite inflation.

But perhaps Trump’s meltdown isn’t about the economy at all, and instead is just a failed attempt to get a derogatory nickname for Harris to stick.

Donald Trump’s former lawyer Jenna Ellis, who played an active role in his campaign’s attempts to use fake electors to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, is now cooperating with Arizona prosecutors in that state’s election fraud case.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced Monday that Ellis had signed an agreement with the AG’s office to cooperate with their investigation in exchange for charges being dropped.

“This agreement represents a significant step forward in our case,” Mayes said in a statement. “I am grateful to Ms. Ellis for her cooperation in our investigation and prosecution. Her insights are invaluable and will greatly aid the State in proving its case in court.”

Previously, Ellis was one of 18 individuals, including Rudy Guliani, charged with trying to overturn Arizona’s election results. Ellis had been charged with nine felonies, including fraud, forgery, and conspiracy prior to the agreement. Ellis’s deal with prosecutors is going to be bad news for some of Trump’s biggest allies, both in the state of Arizona and nationally.

It’s the second such deal Ellis has struck in investigations over fake electors. In 2023, Ellis agreed to cooperate with Fulton County, Georgia, prosecutors, which led to her losing her law license in Colorado after pleading guilty to election fraud charges as part of the agreement. However, she still remains active in Republican politics, most recently complaining about the removal of strong anti-abortion language from the GOP platform at the Republican National Convention.

This story has been updated.

Nicknaming President Joe Biden “Sleepy Joe” doesn’t seem to be looking so good for Donald Trump now that he’s the old man in the race.

A Morning Consult poll published Monday revealed that voters are suddenly viewing Trump as the decrepit candidate after Biden dropped his campaign. Americans are apparently far more likely to describe Vice President Kamala Harris as healthy, mentally fit, and a strong leader than the 78-year-old Republican presidential nominee.

According to the poll, 71 percent of respondents agreed that Harris was “in good health,” while 52 percent said the same about Trump—6 percent fewer than believed the same about Trump when Biden was the presumptive Democratic nominee.

The number of respondents who thought that Trump was “mentally fit” for the job also dropped. Roughly 64 percent of respondents believed that Harris was mentally fit, while just 48 percent believed the same about Trump—a 5 percent drop from before Biden withdrew.

Meanwhile, the number of respondents who believed that Trump is too old for the job rose. Whereas just 12 percent of polled Americans believed that the 59-year-old vice president was too old to be president, 51 percent thought that Trump had aged out of the position—7 percent more than had previously felt the same when Biden was Trump’s opponent.

Voters also said they were more concerned about Trump’s erratic behavior worsening with age should he retake the White House in November. Roughly 82 percent of polled voters said that Trump’s “poor decision making” and “erratic behavior” was a major concern, while roughly three-quarters of polled respondents listed his inability to communicate effectively with the American public, U.S. officials, and foreign officials, as well as a weakened perception of strength on the international stage, as other points of “major concern.” Another 49 percent and 44 percent of polled Americans described the potential onset of illness and death as major concerns, respectively.

The conservative Supreme Court has surprisingly chosen not to help out their buddy Donald Trump for once.

On Monday, the high court declined to postpone Trump’s hush-money trial sentencing, after Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey tried to sue the state of New York to delay the legal proceedings. Bailey also sought to remove Trump’s gag order on claims that it violated the First Amendment rights of voters who could not hear the former president and convicted felon speak.

The case was a long-shot effort, but still, it is surprising given the Supreme Court’s decision to grant Trump near total immunity last month. The Supreme Court did not provide comment on their ruling.

Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on September 18. The former president’s gag order will also remain in place through his sentencing.

“Allowing Missouri to file this suit for such relief against New York would permit an extraordinary and dangerous end-run around former President Trump’s ongoing state court proceedings,” New York Attorney General Letitia James wrote in her brief.

Though the case by Bailey seemed unlikely to succeed, if the Supreme Court had ruled in Trump’s favor, it could have presented frightening ripple effects for a state to intervene in pending criminal cases in other states.

Bailey of Missouri has called the New York trial a “political witch hunt” that was “replete with legal error from the beginning.” In a statement on X on Monday, he declared he would fight on “against [Kamala Harris and Joe Biden’s] DOJ for coordinating the illicit prosecutions against President Trump.”

This story has been updated.

Republicans in Arizona who oppose Donald Trump are forming a new task force to reach out to other GOP voters in the swing state who feel alienated by the MAGA movement.

The Republican mayor of Mesa, John Giles, appeared at a press conference Monday to launch a new advisory committee to “engage Trump-skeptical Republican voters,” according to Harris’s campaign.

“I think the time has come for us as Arizona Republicans to admit the obvious, and to start saying the quiet part out loud, which is that our party’s nominee is not qualified for office,” Giles said, joined onstage by other Republicans.

Giles endorsed Harris over Trump last week in an opinion column in The Arizona Republic. “Now more than ever, we need leaders who will put country over party,” Giles wrote.

Former state Republican Representative Robin Shaw also voiced her support for Harris at the event Monday. “It is time to put partisan loyalties aside, and vote for the leadership that will truly represent who we want to be in the eyes of the world. Character matters,” Shaw said.

The event is part of Republicans for Harris, a new program announced Sunday by Harris’s presidential campaign. Similar events are scheduled to take place Monday in North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

The rollout of the “campaign within a campaign” seeking to court anti-Trump Republicans also included endorsements from 25 prominent GOP members from across the country, including former governors, lawmakers, and former Trump administration officials.

Former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham, who is also from Arizona, said she would be backing Harris.

“I might not agree with Vice President Kamala Harris on everything, but I know that she will fight for our freedom, protect our democracy and represent America with honor and dignity on the world stage,” Grisham said in a statement.

Harris’s campaign is hoping to capture moderate Republicans, whom Trump has actively sought to remove from his party. Trump also previously claimed that his party is probably 100 percent MAGA, but that’s obviously not the case.

In a swing state such as Arizona, that difference could prove to be important.

Democrat Ruben Gallego, who is running against MAGA Republican Kari Lake in Arizona’s Senate race, released a list of 39 prominent Arizona Republican and independent voters who had pledged to support him. Several included on the list were former aides to the late Senator John McCain, an outspoken Trump critic. Giles also announced his support of Gallego.

“I cannot in good conscience stand on the sidelines while extremists like Kari Lake, who have hijacked our party for the sake of personal gain, undermine the very fabric of what makes America exceptional,” said Giles in a statement released alongside Gallego’s list of endorsements.

A new poll released Monday—seemingly the first large-sample poll of Latinos since Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee—found that Harris holds a nearly 14-point lead over Trump among Hispanics in Arizona.

As Kamala Harris continues to out-fundraise Donald Trump by double margins and Trump continues to pay millions in legal fees, the former president has to find some way to line his pockets.

Trump, therefore, is hiking the membership fee of his Mar-a-Lago club to $1 million per person, from a previous rate of $700,000. The application for membership will open October 1, conveniently ahead of the 2024 election.

“Of course, the people who are most interested in this are going to look at it as a really sound investment. Why not pay a million dollars and talk to the president?” Robert Weissman of the nonprofit Public Citizen told The Guardian.

The price gouging was announced last month by Mar-a-Lago’s longtime manager Bernd Lembcke in an interview with Bloomberg. Only four spots are available, “so we are not desperate,” said Lembcke.

The list of 500 Mar-a-Lago members is not public, but at least eight past or present members of  Trump’s clubs were appointed to the Trump administration, USA Today reported in 2019, with some going on to become ambassadors to Romania, South Africa, Dominican Republic, and Hungary, despite some having no relevant experience.

In the interview with Bloomberg, Trump bragged that when he began at Mar-a-Lago, memberships were priced at only $25,000. If that were true, the rate would have increased 3,900 percent since 1985. Talk about inflation!