Harris book paints Walz as authentic, but she cringed at his VP debate performance
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When Tim Walz walked into a critical meeting with Kamala Harris last summer, he seemed resigned to the Democratic presidential nominee-in-waiting opting for another contender to be her running mate.
In a new recounting by Harris, the vice president who suddenly shot to the top of the ticket, the search for her own vice presidential nominee was also extraordinarily difficult because it was so abbreviated. Walz, the two-term Minnesota governor, struck Harris with a self-defeating vibe in what amounted to a job interview.
“It was quickly clear to me that Tim had walked into that room feeling he wouldn’t get the job,” Harris writes. “The first thing he said as he sat down — I don’t even know if the door had closed behind him — was: ‘Whether or not you pick me, I’m going to do everything I can to get you elected.’”
Then he shared one of his liabilities: “He wasn’t a good debater and he never used a teleprompter.”
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But Harris liked that he had an “appealing authenticity and was genuinely self-deprecating.”
That scene was among many that Harris provides an inside peek at as part of her new book, “107 Days.” That’s the time span of her own presidential campaign that elevated Walz to the national stage.
The book hit store shelves on Tuesday, although passages have been dripping out for weeks in the lead-up.
Here are some of the sections of the book that deal with the Walz selection and his performance in the national spotlight.
The challenge Harris faced to find a VP
When Joe (Biden) picked me, he’d taken over nine weeks to thoroughly consider all his options. My deadline was August 6, a day after the roll call that would formally nominate me, Ohio’s ballot had an August 7 closing date, and they needed two names to print on the ballot. It was an excruciatingly tight time frame. My choice would impact not just the shape of the race, but also the shape of my administration.
Being a vice presidential pick is an enormous gift, vaulting someone who might have local or state recognition onto the bigger, brighter national stage. But it can also mean taking a job that, as FDR’s VP John Nance Garner so memorably said, may not be “worth a bucket of warm piss.”
How she settled on Walz
On the face of it, we had nothing in common. I’m West Coast; he’s Midwest. I was born in Oakland and grew up in a working-class urban neighborhood. He’s from a rural town of four hundred on the Nebraska plains. I worked at McDonald’s in the summer; he worked on his family’s farm. Despite those differences, Tim reminded me of everyone I grew up with. He was plainspoken, hardworking, strong, kind, and a fighter for what he believes is right. And he had a sense of humor. …
He would make the case for the people who were not in the room. Even more valuable, Tim would notice who was not in the room and would know how to reach them. Of the three candidates, this quality was authentic and unique to him.
The disappointing debate
There was more riding on Tim’s debate than there should have been. (Donald) Trump’s proposal, back in August, to debate me two more times had been withdrawn. We wanted another debate, badly. We needed it to shift our stuck polling numbers. We’d tried everything to goad or cajole Trump into it. He’d agree and then his team, who was more disciplined than he was, would pull him back.
So that meant Tim would have to be the closer.
It was not a comfortable role for him. He had fretted from the outset that he was not a good debater. I’d discounted his concerns. He was so quick and pithy in front of crowds at our rallies, I thought he’d bring those qualities to the podium. He’d prepared with Pete Buttigieg, a consummate debater, and I thought his big heart and his good humor would counter JD Vance’s malice and pessimism. But JD Vance is shape-shifter. And a shifty guy. He understood that his default meanness would play against Tim Walz’s sunny disposition and patent decency…
When Tim fell for it and started nodding and smiling at JD’s fake bipartisanship, I moaned to Doug (her husband), “What is happening?”
I told the television screen: “You’re not there to make friends with the guy who is attacking your running mate.” …
Tim felt bad he hadn’t done better. I reassured him that the election would not be won or lost on account of that debate, and in fact it had a negligible effect on our polling.
In choosing Tim, I thought that as a second-term governor and twelve-year congressman he would know what he was getting into. In hindsight, how could anyone?
How the loss landed with the Walz family
In the holding room at Howard (University), the immediate family had gathered. Then the Walz family arrived.
Tim said simply, “I’m sorry.”
His daughter, Hope, was distraught. Sobbing. I put my arms around her. “We are not defeated,” I said softly. “Our spirit is not defeated. There’s so much in your future, so much to fight for.”
