CNN
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Republicans moved shortly Tuesday to attempt to outline Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, whom Vice President Kamala Harris has chosen as her running mate.
“Kamala Harris simply doubled-down on her radical imaginative and prescient for America by tapping one other left-wing extremist as her VP nominee,” the narrator says in a brand new digital video from Donald Trump’s marketing campaign that will probably be a part of an upcoming advert purchase.
The previous president’s marketing campaign, which has spent the final a number of days compiling opposition analysis on Walz, plans to assault him as somebody who’s extra liberal than each Harris and President Joe Biden, with a key deal with his document as governor for the final 4 years, senior Trump marketing campaign advisers and folks near the previous president advised CNN.
Trump’s working mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, responded to the choose Tuesday morning by saying it “highlights how radical Kamala Harris is.”
Trump’s advisers stated that whereas they’ll pull on particulars from his 12 years in Congress, their aim is to color Walz — a former trainer and Military Nationwide Guard veteran — as somebody who has been in lockstep with progressives over the past 4 years and a key champion of the Biden administration’s insurance policies.
“She discovered a 60-year-old White man who has the identical loopy concepts she does,” one of many advisers stated. “With each (Harris) and Walz, you’re going to have a number of years of varied information to undergo, however the backside line is, the place has he been for the final 4 years? The final 4 years are what matter most.”
Key focal factors of their anticipated assaults embrace arguing Walz has taken a liberal stance on the border, portray him as anti-gun and anti-cop, tying him to Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, linking him to the Biden administration’s financial insurance policies, and questioning his document on international coverage.
In Congress, Walz’s place on gun rights earned him backing from the Nationwide Rifle Affiliation. However he’s since fallen out of favor with the gun foyer over his assist for gun security actions as governor.
The Trump marketing campaign additionally plans to lean closely into Harris’ choice to not choose Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, at the same time as Trump’s advisers and many individuals near the previous president privately acknowledge they had been extra involved about Shapiro being on the ticket given the significance of profitable the battleground, the sources stated.
Congressional Republicans moved to label Walz — who represented a conservative-leaning rural district within the Home that, each earlier than and after his tenure, has been largely dominated by Republicans — as “radical.” Particularly, they centered on Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ assist for Walz and the governor’s dealing with of the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.
“Kamala Harris’ choice of Tim Walz as her working mate confirms that the Democrat Occasion will anoint probably the most radical Far Left-wing ticket in historical past,” Home GOP Convention Chair Elise Stefanik declared in an announcement.
“To the American folks: In the event you had any doubt that Kamala Harris is deeply liberal, look no additional than the truth that her VP choose was endorsed by Bernie Sanders,” South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham stated.
Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst echoed that message, calling Walz “Bernie Sanders’ alternative for VP.”