Joining us now, former Democratic New York Congressman Steve Israel,
who served in Congress with Governor Walls and former Senator
Claire McCaskill in NBC News and political
MSNBC political analyst welcome both.
So, Steve, who served with Governor Walls,
Nancy Pelosi has already flagged that he was very active
in securing better veterans benefits as I think a subcommittee
chair.
He's being portrayed by JD Vance as,
quote, progressive, whatever that means.
He does have the endorsements of both AOC and Joe
Manchin.
How do you describe Governor Walls?
Well, look, I, I think that the vice
president's decision was, was just brilliant and reflects
astute judgment not only for our politics,
but for the country. I served with Tim Walls for
10 years
in the House of Representatives and when I chaired the
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Andrea, he was at my side and I'm going to
say something about him that you really can't say about
most members of Congress.
This guy was a no flash workhorse,
quietly operational, whether it was pursuing a policy that would
protect and defend veterans or pursuing a political objective.
He just got it done and we could rely on
him.
The other thing about him that I noticed is,
yeah, everybody says he's that rural football coach,
high school football coach, and he projects that.
But this guy knows how to throw a punch.
As you were just talking about
with my friend Mitch Landrieu.
It was Tim, it was Tim Walz who figured out
how to define the the Trump candidacy
in one word rather than the usual 42 point Democratic
talking points.
And then the third thing I want to mention that
really brought brought us closer was that this guy knows
how to win
red leaning districts. This guy flipped a district that had
had two Democrats in it for in in recent memory.
He would advise me if he triple C on what
districts could be competitive,
had a message in those rural districts,
those battleground states. So you put it all together and
I think you have the perfect candidate for vice president
and a very good and solid judgment by the the
vice president.
So Claire, what about not doing Pennsylvania?
You no Democrat can win without Pennsylvania and Josh Shapiro
would have brought Pennsylvania.
You had, of course, John Fetterman,
the one of the senators,
the junior senator in dispute with the sitting governor,
which is not a great factor.
You know, at the end of the day,
I think both of those candidates were terrific.
But at the end of the day,
Andrea, this was about how Kamala Harris felt about her
partner and whether or not there was a working relationship
there that she felt
would really benefit the country.
She knows the role of vice president.
She knows what it entails.
She knows what is necessary.
She was in a great position to judge these two
candidates over who would perform that job best and who
was frankly
most qualified to be president of the United States.
I mean, we're talking about a guy who
from public high school teacher to almost
25 years the National Guard is a high-ranking non commissioned
officer to a member of Congress,
to a governor of a Midwestern state.
This is someone this resume of these two candidates are
really quite something.
And I, I don't think this was about
rejecting Josh Shapiro as much as bringing somebody to the
ticket who can plainly and clearly speak to most of
America.
This is not an elite guy.
This is not an Ivy League guy.
This is not somebody who spent much time on the
coast.
This is somebody who knows more
about cleaning the the filter on his furnace
than than JD Vance should would ever hope to know.
In fact, you know who this guy is.
He's really who JD Vance is pretending to be.
He is that salt of the earth,
normal Midwestern guy that is going to communicate.
And I agree with my friend Steve Israel.
This guy is going to slice and dice the Trump
Vance ticket with a smile on his face and a
twinkle in his eye.
Yeah. And it's, it's really striking
Steve Israel that, you know,
he can be an attack dog without appearing as an
attack dog.
He's been described by JD Vance already today,
I think, as a, you know,
left wing West Coast wannabe,
whatever West Coast wannabe means.
But it's sort of San Francisco liberal or some
one of those pejorative terms that are attached to Californians.
But there is about nothing about this guy that looks
to me
like California. Yeah. In terms of anything
California.
Yeah, of course JD Vance is going to say that.
I mean, Tim Walz's view of West Coast is the
West Coast of a lake,
one of the lakes in Minnesota.
You know, to to define him as a progressive,
as if that's a bad word,
as if fighting for Healthcare is a bad word.
Protecting the Affordable Care Act is a bad word.
Standing up for reproductive freedoms
and battling climate, you know,
as if those are bad values.
The fact of the matter is that Tim Walz still
established an ability to message and mobilize to communities that
generally voted for Republicans because they understood.
For Tim Walz, it was never about ideology.
It was about them. And that is an indispensable attribute
in politics today.