August 7, 2024, presidential campaign news

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Tim Walz speaks at a campaign rally on August 7.

Gov. Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’ vice presidential running mate, refused to drop out of his congressional race in 2005 despite an Army National Guard announcement of a possible deployment, according to a statement from his campaign at the time.

Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate, accused Walz of ducking service in Iraq when he left the guard and ran for Congress in 2005. 

Walz served in the Army National Guard for 24 years before retiring in 2005. He launched a campaign for Congress in Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District that year and was elected in November 2006. 

Walz filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission as a candidate for Congress on February 10, 2005. The next month, after the guard announced a possible deployment to Iraq within two years, Walz’s campaign issued a statement saying he intended to stay in the race.

Walz retired from the Army National Guard in May 2005, according to the Minnesota National Guard. Service members often submit their paperwork for retirement months before their retirement date. It’s unclear when Walz submitted his papers for retirement. 

In a 2009 interview for the Library of Congress, Tim Walz said he left the Army National Guard to focus full time on running for Congress, citing concerns about trying to serve at the same time and the Hatch Act, which limits political activities for federal employees. 

The Harris campaign did not immediately respond when asked about when Walz submitted his retirement paperwork. 

This post was updated with excerpts from a 2009 interview with Tim Walz.

 Kamala Harris during a campaign event in Detroit, Michigan, US, on August 7.

Vice President Kamala Harris saw – and heard – at least a flavor of the challenges facing her candidacy in Michigan.

Her Wednesday evening remarks in Detroit were interrupted by a small group of about half a dozen protestors who persistently chanted what appeared to be a pro-Palestinian message.

“Because we believe in democracy, everyone’s voice matters, but I am speaking now,” she responded, repeating a refrain she has previously used at events in response to protesters.

She then tried to talk over the protests as the crowd chanted: “Kamala! Kamala!”

While railing against her rival’s agenda, Harris said, “if you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I’m speaking.”

After a few minutes, the protesters were led out of the venue, where thousands had gathered to see Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

This is the latest reminder of the challenges facing Harris in Michigan. Her rally tonight is about 15 minutes from Dearborn, home to one of the largest Muslim and Arab-American communities in the country. Organizers of the uncommitted movement said at a press conference earlier in the day that there were no plans currently underway for a meeting with Harris while she’s in Michigan.

Vice President Kamala Harris and running mate Gov. Tim Walz deplane ahead of a rally at the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport on August 7.

Vice President Kamala Harris is capitalizing on the trappings of office — and the power of imagery — at a rally tonight in Detroit that her advisers say is the largest of the campaign so far.

Air Force Two slowly pulled into view of a crowded airport hanger, with strains of Beyoncé’s “Run the World” filling the air. Harris and her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, stepped off the plane to the song of “Freedom.”

For Democrats, it was a level of enthusiasm not seen for years at campaign rallies.

It was, in fact, taking a page out of Donald Trump’s playbook, particularly by using the magnificence of Air Force Two as a backdrop. The former president held countless rallies across the country using (a slightly larger) Air Force One.

To pull off this picture-perfect moment on an August day took the sweating sacrifice of thousands of supporters, many of whom had been waiting for more than six hours by the time Harris arrived. Several people fainted or passed out, with chants of “medic, medic” sounding throughout the evening.

A few moments after Harris took the stage, another fan fell.

“We need a medic,” Harris said. “Let’s all take care of each other.”

Campaign staffers rushed to pass out water and snacks as the political speeches wore on.

Vice President Kamala Harris emphasized her plans to help the middle class if she is elected to the White House — contrasting her vision with the policies of former President Donald Trump.

Attacking Trump, Harris said the former president “intends to take our nation backward” and hurt the middle class with policies like those outlined in Project 2025. Trump has made clear he wants little to do with the conservative blueprint and has said he doesn’t know who is behind it.

But, six of his former Cabinet secretaries helped write or collaborated on the 900-page playbook for a second Trump term published by the Heritage Foundation. 

Harris also argued that if Trump is elected he will give tax breaks to big corporations and end the Affordable Care Act.

“Unlike Donald Trump, I will always put the middle class and working families first,” she said. “When the middle class is strong, America is strong.”

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally in Romulus, Michigan, on August 7.

Vice President Kamala Harris said her campaign is “not just about us versus Donald Trump.”

She said her campaign’s vision is focused on the future, and accused Trump’s of focusing on the past.

Harris went on to promise rights for labor unions, retirement for senior citizens and affordable housing and childcare as well as affordable healthcare.

“We fight for the future,” Harris said, with the audience later chanting “we’re not going back.”

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer speaks during a campaign rally at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Romulus, Michigan, on August 7. 

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer welcomed fellow midwestern Gov. Tim Walz to Detroit on Wednesday, praising Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate selection during the Democratic ticket’s first joint rally in Michigan.

In addition to Walz being a fellow governor in the Great Lakes region and a “good Midwesterner,” Whitmer said “Tim and I get along because we both lead according to a three part strategy — get sh*t done.”

The Michigan Democrat said Walz has been an “incredibly successful governor,” in large part because he “works across the aisle to build consensus,” and noted the Minnesota Democrat’s achievements in passing infrastructure legislation, cutting taxes, providing free school lunches and protecting public safety.

“A lot of that sounds familiar. It’s because Tim and I have been trying to outdo one another on all these fronts for the last couple of years,” she joked.

Whitmer repeatedly ruled herself out of Harris’ recent running mate search, saying she intends to serve out her term through 2026. 

She and Walz, along with fellow Midwestern Govs. Tony Evers of Wisconsin and JB Pritzker of Illinois, issued endorsements for Harris nearly in unison the day after President Joe Biden exited the race, in a signal of Democratic support for Harris in the “blue wall” of the upper Midwest.

“We need a strong woman in the White House, and it’s about damn time. And a good man by her side in vice president Tim Walz,” Whitmer said.

Democratic vice presidential pick Gov. Tim Walz speaks at a campaign rally in Romulus, Michigan, on August 7.

Democratic vice presidential pick Gov. Tim Walz argued that the upcoming election in November is about determining the direction of the country.

“This election is about what direction this country’s going to go in,” he said at a rally in Michigan, adding that Donald Trump would pull the country backward.

Walz claimed Trump knows what Project 2025 is and what it will do. The former president has denied that he had anything to do with the plan and said he didn’t know who was behind it.

He also argued that if given another term, Trump would do things like “rig the economy for the ultra-wealthy” and ban abortion.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz says the students he taught while he was a football coach and social studies teacher encouraged him to run for office.

“I never thought much about it,” Walz said referring to the idea of running for Congress. “They saw in me what I hoped to instill in them, a commitment to the common good.”

Speaking at a rally in Michigan Wednesday, Walz said that while working in Congress, he learned how to “compromise without compromising my values,” and “how to work across the aisle to get good things done for people.”

Democratic vice presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz speaks at a campaign rally in Romulus, Michigan, near Detroit, on August 7.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz is back on the campaign trail Wednesday, pitching Vice President Kamala Harris as the next president.

The newly-minted running mate was speaking ahead of Harris in Detroit. Walz drew a comparison between Harris and Donald Trump, saying the former president and his running mate, JD Vance, “tried to steal the joy from this country.”

“Our next president brings the joy, she emanates the joy,” he said, before talking about his upbringing in a small Nebraska town.

“I know a little bit something about that commitment to people,” he said, referring to what he said was Harris’ commitment to Americans.

Earlier on Wednesday, Harris and Walz were greeted by cheers from the crowd on the tarmac in Michigan as they stepped off Air Force Two. They traveled to Michigan after a campaign stop in Wisconsin earlier in the day. It’s all part of a blitz around battleground states as candidates on both sides sprint to Election Day.

In the first few minutes of his speech in Michigan, Walz called for a medic to come help someone in the crowd. He spotted the person and asked for someone to give them water.

“Thank you for caring for your neighbors. Thank you for showing them what Michigan does,” he said before continuing.

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain praised Vice President Kamala Harris’s selection of Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate during the Democratic ticket’s joint campaign rally in Michigan on Wednesday, hailing the newly minted ticket as a “Democratic dynamic duo.”

He acknowledged on Wednesday that his union was “loud” in advocating for Walz to be on the ticket, telling the crowd of thousands of Michigan voters, including several UAW members, “he’s one of us.”

“A working-class guy with working-class values. He’s a teacher, a coach, a governor. He’s a proud union member. And he has always put the working class first,” he said.

He praised Harris’s record, saying, “You know where Kamala Harris was during the GM strike in 2019? On the picket line standing shoulder-to-shoulder with autoworkers.” The UAW International Executive Board voted to formally endorse Harris’ candidacy at the end of last month.

Meanwhile, Fain sharply criticized former President Donald Trump, whom he has a history of trading barbs with, proclaiming, “Every time Donald Trump gets a chance, he trashes our union and he trashes the working class. He comes to Michigan … he talks about how he’s going to bring back the auto industry. Let me tell you something, Donald Trump doesn’t know sh*t about the auto industry.”

Fain criticized Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, with characteristically sharp language, calling the former president “a scab” and the Ohio senator “a vulture.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. takes questions from reporters at a campaign event in Aurora, Colorado, on May 19.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. qualified for the ballot in New Jersey on Wednesday, the New Jersey Secretary of State ruled, after defeating a challenge to his ballot petition from a local elections attorney.

New Jersey Secretary of State Tahesha Way ruled on Wednesday to accept Kennedy’s ballot access petition, rejecting a challenge from attorney Scott Salmon arguing Kennedy violated the state’s “Sore Loser Law,” which prevents candidates who ran for office in a primary from seeking that same office in a general election as an independent candidate. 

In the ruling, Way said she believed the Sore Loser Law was inapplicable to Kennedy’s petition because Kennedy — who initially launched his presidential campaign as a Democrat seeking to challenge President Joe Biden in the primary — did not file a ballot petition for the state’s primary or conduct a write-in campaign in the state.

Way wrote that in siding against Salmon, she would accept Kennedy’s nominating petition to appear on November’s ballot in New Jersey.

In a statement to CNN, Salmon said his challenge of Kennedy’s petition helped clarify the limits of the Sore Loser Law in the state, which will benefit his work in future election cases.

Including New Jersey, Kennedy qualified for the ballot in 15 states and is eligible to receive 172 electoral college votes.

Republicans are attacking Tim Walz’s response to unrest in Minneapolis in 2020, but at the time, then-President Donald Trump said he “fully” agreed with how the Minnesota governor handled rioting in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, undercutting a key line of GOP attack this week after Walz was named Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 running mate.

The call was led by Trump, who was joined by then-Attorney General Bill Barr, then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley and then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and included a series of governors as protests across the country, some of which devolved into violent rioting, were breaking out following the police killing of Floyd on May 25.

Details from the call, during which Trump implored governors across the country to “dominate” protesters, have previously been reported, and CNN published the call’s full transcript the day it happened in 2020.

It’s not uncommon for even the most bitter of political rivals to offer tempered praise toward one another in the aftermath of a natural disaster or serious nationwide crisis – especially ones that require cooperation in responses between state and federal governments. 

But more than four years later, Trump’s praise for Walz takes on new meaning as the GOP nominee and his allies have sought to jolt Americans’ memories of the nationwide unrest that summer, linking Walz to pictures of Minneapolis engulfed in flames and the aftermath of the destruction.

Read more.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz visited the Harris campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, on Wednesday, where he rallied staffers working on the campaign that he recently joined and thanked them for their work.

Walz urged aides to “feel that excitement” and promised “we’re gonna win this” in a video posted to his social media. While shaking hands with one staffer, who yelled “let’s do this,” Walz said “we’re doing it, it’s on.”

The video features campaign staff chanting “let’s go coach,” a nod to his previous work as a high school football coach. In another nod to his past, Walz likened the campaign to high school football, telling one staffer in the video that “it’s Friday night lights.”

President Joe Biden has tasked his team with coming up with an agenda for his final six months in office, defining key priorities for the administration as he looks to secure a one-term legacy – including a robust schedule on the world stage.

On a call with political appointees across agencies Wednesday afternoon, White House chief of staff Jeff Zients laid out four main pillars for Biden’s team to execute in a lame duck period, according to audio of the call obtained by CNN.

The four pillars include:

On the fourth point, national security adviser Jake Sullivan suggested Biden would keep a busy schedule: “You can expect to see very busy months of activity, of summits and trips to ensure that we do everything we can to leave it on the field,” Sullivan said, adding that there would be “high-level summits both here and abroad.”

But before that, Sullivan said Biden’s most urgent priority “is to avoid escalation into a larger war in the Middle East and to deliver the ceasefire and hostage deal that he’s worked so hard to deliver.”

Zients told the team that Biden encouraged his top lieutenants to form a plan “to finish as strong as we started” on the Sunday that he announced he would not seek a second term.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on August 7.

Vice President Kamala Harris quieted chants from audience members at her rally in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on Wednesday calling on former President Donald Trump to be jailed by saying “the courts are going to handle that part” and insisting Democrats focus on defeating Trump in November’s election.

Harris outlined her record as a prosecutor and district attorney in California, and contrasted it with Trump’s legal troubles, including being found guilty on felony charges of falsifying business records and losing a civil suit to E. Jean Carroll, who accused her of sexual assault.

“I know Donald Trump’s type,” she said, prompting loud cheers from the audience. “In fact, I’ve been dealing with people like that my whole career.”

As the cheers died down, some audience members could be heard chanting “lock him up.” In response, Harris interrupted the chants to clarify that she’s focused on defeating Trump in the upcoming election and insisted Trump’s legal troubles be handled independently.  

Some context: The Wisconsin rally is not the first time Democratic voters have chanted “lock him up” at campaign rallies. Hundreds of voters joined in the chant during the Harris rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday. The chant is an inversion of the pledge Trump made during his 2016 presidential campaign to put then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in jail, which was embraced by supporters at his rallies.

Vice President Kamala Harris and running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz attend a campaign rally in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on August 7. 

Vice President Kamala Harris introduced her new running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to Wisconsin voters at a rally in Eau Claire on Wednesday, playing up his Midwestern roots and stressing the importance of Wisconsin in Democrats’ path to victory. 

Addressing a crowd of thousands at an outdoor venue on the outskirts of the small Wisconsin town, Harris and Walz both strongly attacked former President Donald Trump while presenting a contrast between their values and those of the Republican ticket.

Walz spoke ahead of Harris and highlighted his roots in nearby Minnesota, his record of working with Republicans as a member of Congress and his military service, noting “I proudly wore the uniform of this nation.”

“Are there Minnesotans in the house today?” Walz asked, prompting a sizable cheer.

People attend a campaign rally for Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on August 7. 

Walz jokingly boasted to the Eau Claire crowd that he knew how to pronounce the name of the town, a quip some locals in the audience responded to with applause. 

Harris similarly laid out Walz’s ties to the Midwest, while often referring to him as “coach,” a nod to his past as a high school football coach. In response, the crowd chanted “coach.” Minutes later, the crowd chanted “VP Walz” after Harris referred to Walz as “the next vice president.”

She also made clear the importance of Wisconsin in the Democrats’ path to victory in November.

The highly enthusiastic crowd maintained energy throughout the afternoon, buoyed by a performance from native Eau Claire band Bon Iver. The crowd regularly broke out in spontaneous cheers egging on her remarks. 

Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. JD Vance.

Donald Trump’s running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance said he would debate Vice President Kamala Harris if she wanted to next week, despite Vance being the bottom of the GOP ticket and Harris being the top of the Democratic ticket.  

At a campaign event in Wisconsin, Vance also falsely suggested Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz weren’t already the Democratic nominees for president and vice president and that there could be different people in those roles.

The DNC announced on Tuesday that Harris and Walz have officially been certified as the Democratic Party’s nominees for president and vice president. 

“But look, if Kamala Harris wants to honor her commitment and debate on August 13, let’s do it. I’m all game,” Vance said.

Harris had previously accepted CBS’ offer to participate in a vice-presidential debate on August 13 before President Joe Biden suspended his campaign and endorsed Harris for president. 

Harris is now saying she will honor the commitment Biden made to debate former President Donald Trump in September at a debate hosted by ABC News, but Trump has since backed out of that debate and is trying to propose a new debate hosted by Fox News.

Harris has not agreed to the new debate hosted by Fox. 

President Joe Biden said Wednesday he doesn’t have confidence there will be a peaceful transition of power if former President Donald Trump loses in November. He pointed to comments from the Republican nominee suggesting the only way he’d lose is if the election is stolen from him.

Earlier this year, Trump warned that if he lost the 2024 election it would be a “bloodbath” for the US auto industry and the country — comments Biden and his campaign quickly leapt on, claiming the former president was inciting political violence.

Biden also warned that Trump was preparing to challenge the election results again in November as he did in 2020, including by putting in place sympathetic local election officials.

The full Biden interview is expected to air on CBS Sunday morning.

Democratic Senate candidate Ruben Gallego holds a press conference after voting at South Phoenix Missionary Baptist Church during the Arizona state primary election in Phoenix, Arizona, on July 30.

Democratic Senate candidate Ruben Gallego, an Iraq War combat veteran, on Wednesday defended Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz against JD Vance’s accusations that Walz had engaged in “stolen valor” and ducked service in Iraq.

“Stolen valor is very, very serious charge. The vice presidential nominee, someone who I served with, someone who is a veteran, and was the highest ranking … Army-enlisted man to ever serve in Congress, has never claimed anything of that nature,” Gallego told reporters.

Gallego, a Marine Corps veteran who was deployed to Iraq in 2005, said, “You know, war is tough. I had some men that decided not to go to war. They had the option. They decided not to take it, and you know, for a lot of them, I don’t blame them.”

“Gov. Walz served his country honorably. And without a doubt, you know he would be an asset as vice president, especially with veterans,” he said.

Walz had left the Army National Guard after 24 years and ran for Congress in 2005, retiring two months before his unit received alert orders to deploy to Iraq.

Gallego, who had pushed for Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly to be Kamala Harris’ vice presidential pick, acknowledged that he was “disappointed” Kelly wasn’t selected, but said Walz would be able to represent the working class of the military community and is “still a great pick.”