The Honeymoon’s Already Ending for Tim Walz

August 11, 2024

Politics tamfitronics

1. Tim Walz

What a fun honeymoon! It expires now.

The first couple of days of the Kamala Harris–Tim Walz rollout were an unquestionable success. The selection of Walz was welcomed from left to center, from New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin. The Surge attended their first rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday and can confirm that Democratic excitement registered at ear-damaging levels. That was followed by several blockbuster rallies, one of which included a (Trumpesque, honestly) showy pull-up-the-plane-to-15,000-screaming-fans power visual. Then came, of course, the fun part of being introduced to a national audience, as Walz was met with scrutiny of his military record. There’s a few different threads of criticismsome thinner gruel than others. (The one in which Walz does appear to have gone a step too far, in a clip shared by the Harris campaign itselffeatures Walz talking about restricting access to “those weapons of war, that I carried in war.” He was never deployed to a theater of combat.) The Harris campaign reportedly knew that these criticisms were coming and that Walz was upfront about them during the vetting process. Walz could do an interview to attempt to clear all this up, though the campaign is probably waiting to see if this just goes away. Speaking of interviews …

2. Kamala Harris

The road to the White House goes directly through an interview with the Surge.

Excitement! Energy! Memes! Crowds! Hope! Everything has been going Harris’ way since she entered the race. What else is there for her to do? Well, she hasn’t spoken extemporaneously in public for more than about two total minutes since Biden passed her the torch three weeks ago, and we don’t know much about how she would lead the most powerful country in the world beyond the generalities of her stump speech. The Surge understands why her campaign staffers haven’t submitted her for any interviews yet: because she’s been getting away with it. They’d prefer to ride this wave straight through the Democratic National Convention. In a brief Tarmac Q&A with traveling press on Thursday—a minimal effort to relieve growing tensions about her availability—Harris said that she wants “to get an interview scheduled before the end of the month.” Well, there’s a whole lot of month left. Yes, the Surge certainly has a conflict of interest here, as a member of the interview lobby (aka Big Interview). But it strikes us as more than a little odd that someone whose name will be on the ballot for president of the United States in less than three months—and quite sooner for when mail ballots begin sending out—has not sat down for one interview to fill in the substantial number of blanks on her candidacy. And letting more and more time pass is only going to build up the stakes. All of which is to say: Just shoot the Surge an email; we can be there in 30 minutes.

3. Donald Trump

Our big boy is feeling so left out.

Nothing in this universe is more targeted to getting under Donald Trump’s skin than multiple major television networks showing his direct competitor hosting large crowds that rival his. Nothing. He’d take waterboarding over that. And so he’s not doing great. To reclaim the attention, then, Trump called a press conference for himself to ramble about whatever. He argued that the crowd for his “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, 2021, was larger than the March on Washington in 1963. Needless to say, he was not asked to compare the disparate events but volunteered this theory on his own. Photos of the two are easy to compare because, in his words, it’s the “same real estate, same everything,” and if “you look at the picture of his crowd [and] my crowd, we actually had more people.” He then, in his infinite grace, said he was OK with people still believing (correctly) that the March on Washington was bigger than his precoup pep rally. “I’m OK with it because I liked Dr. Martin Luther King,” he said. He also told a story about nearly crashing in a helicopter with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, which did not happen. Though he was once on a helicopter with former California Gov. Jerry Brown, which was not at risk of crashing. The only thing spiraling down is Trump.

4. Nancy Pelosi

A timely book promotion tour.

Did Nancy Pelosi help squeeze Joe Biden out of the presidential race to gin up some interest ahead of her book release? Who’s to say? Whatever the case, Pelosi’s media tour this week to promote her new memoir came at a point of heightened interest in her methods. In several interviews, she shared some details about her recent moves against Biden. While insisting that she “didn’t make one call” to organize a rebellion against the president—people, instead, called her—she made clear what her priority has been this election cycle. “My goal in life was that that man would never set foot in the White House again,” she told reportersspeaking of Trump, and that she couldn’t sit idly and watch “an unfolding of events that were just putting rose petals in front of him to go there.” She got even more candid in speaking to the New Yorker. “I’ve never been that impressed with his political operation,” she said of Biden. “They won the White House. Bravo. But my concern was: this ain’t happening, and we have to make a decision for this to happen. The President has to make the decision for that to happen.” A translation for those not fluent in Pelosi: The Biden aides’ argument that Biden was the only candidate who had beaten Trump, and thus was the best candidate to beat him again, wasn’t compelling, and they needed to convince Biden of that. Not that she enjoyed doing this work. When asked by the New Yorker if she thought her relationship with Biden would survive, she said she wasn’t sure. “I hope so,” she said. “I pray so. I cry so.” Maybe they should get a coffee?

5. Josh Shapiro

A scenario.

Set aside the question of why Harris opted not to bring the Pennsylvania governor to the ticket. Speculation and reporting on that runs from a lack of chemistry between the two, to Shapiro’s selection facing too much opposition from the left, to Shapiro threatening to overshadow Harris, to—the right’s favorite explanation—antisemitism. There were also reports that Shapiro himself may have had second thoughts about leaving his governorship for what is, certainly, a boring job. That may sound like face-saving spin from a guy who could tell he wasn’t likely to get it. But let’s sketch out a scenario—one that may have run through Shapiro’s mind as well—where this turns out to be the path that works out best for Shapiro’s White House ambitions. It’s one in which Harris and Walz lose in November. If that happens, it means they probably lose Pennsylvania in a close race. That could spark a widespread belief within the Democratic Party, whether rightly or wrongly, that Harris screwed up in bypassing Shapiro for her running mate and that the party needs to get more pragmatic going forward. And the pragmatic 2028 candidate would be staring the Democrats right in the face. Not that he wants Harris–Walz to lose! But if they did …

6. Brian Kemp

Georgia—is this an important state?

Back to Trump’s spiraling. There was a moment in his campaign, prior to the current meltdown sparked by the emergence of a real opponent, when Trump was letting bygones be bygones with former Republican enemies. But the Pax Trumpicana was short-lived, and this week, during a Georgia rallyhe went after the state’s popular Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and Kemp’s wife (with some posting on the side to hammer it home). Kemp responded that Trump should “leave my family out of it,” while reiterating that he’ll do whatever he can to get Trump elected. After a wave of criticism from his fellow Republicans that this was an extremely counterproductive thing to do—really, not even close to being in his interest—Trump did say in his Thursday press conference that he’d “love” to see his relationship with Kemp be “repaired.” He reiterated, however, that he was responsible for Kemp’s election and that “when you get someone elected, they’re supposed to like you.” The Trump–Kemp saga is a long one, but it’s worth remembering why Trump believes that Kemp doesn’t “like” him: because Kemp didn’t effectively void his state’s presidential election result, using powers he didn’t have, to swing the state’s electoral votes to Trump. This is not Trump’s best turf. He needs to get back to his “A” material, like observing how the toilets don’t flush good anymore.

7. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Just the facts.

This week, in an effort to get ahead of a story from the New Yorker, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. released a video of himself explaining a 2014 incident. During a trip to upstate New York for some falconry, he picked up a dead bear cub on the side of the road and put it in his car trunk so he could skin and freeze the meat later. After returning to New York City for a dinner at Peter Luger Steak House, he recognized that he needed to get rid of the bear before catching a flight. So he and some friends thought it would be funny to dump the bear in Central Park and pretend that a bicyclist had run it over. The next day, he was amazed to see that the discovery of a dead bear cub in Central Park was a major news story. In Kennedy’s video, he is explaining all of this to Roseanne Barr. The Surge has nothing to add to this. The newsletter is now concluded.