Vice President Kamala Harris has now officially selected her presidential running mate after weeks of intense speculation following President Biden’s unprecedented decision to drop out of the presidential race last month. Harris has selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who is currently in the middle of his second term after he was first elected in 2018. Prior to his time in the governor’s mansion, Walz represented Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District from 2007 through 2019.
Walz was in office during the Black Lives Matter riots in 2020, which began in Minneapolis before spreading throughout the nation. Before a trial had occurred, Walz condemned Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin and said the infamous video of his encounter with George Floyd was “disturbing.”
Harris made the selection official with a video clip on Tuesday that many social media users denounced as “staged.”
When I called @Tim_Walz this morning to ask him to join our campaign, I shared my deep level of respect for him and the work we've done together.
We're going to unify this country and we're going to win.
Let's go get this done. pic.twitter.com/EcqZ497lyk
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 6, 2024
“The lack of humanity in this disturbing video is sickening. We will get answers and seek justice,” he said at the time. Chauvin was ultimately convicted of murder — after nationwide riots that killed more than 20 people and caused billions of dollars in property damage — though the trial has become a subject of intense controversy.
Hundreds of pages of sworn testimony from Hennepin County prosecutors have now revealed that prosecutors acknowledged the “extreme pressure” to prosecute Derrick Chauvin and three additional former Minneapolis police officers. According to a report from Alpha News, multiple employees of the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, including a prosecutor, withdrew after stating that the pressure to charge the other three officers involved, “violated professional and ethical rules.”
While on the campaign trail for Vice President Harris, Walz has referred to former President Donald Trump as a “fascist” who cannot be allowed to gain power.
“These guys are just weird. That’s who they are. So, it isn’t much else. Don’t give them the power,” Walz told a crowd of Democratic voters just days after former President Trump was nearly assassinated at a rally in western Pennsylvania.
“Look, are they a threat to democracy? Yes. Are they going to take our rights away? Yes. Are they going to put people’s lives in danger? Yes. Are they going to endanger the planet by not dealing with climate change? Yes. They’re going to do all that, but don’t lift these guys up like they’re sometimes heroes,” he continued.
“Everybody in this room knows, I know it as a teacher, a bully has no self-confidence. A bully has no strength. They have nothing. The fascists depend on fear. The fascists depend on us going back. But we’re not afraid of weird people. We’re a little bit creeped out, but we’re not afraid.”
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