Mitch McCann: US Correspondent on Kamala Harris naming Tim Walz as her running mate for the US Election

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has selected Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate. 

The duo will appear together in their first joint rally in Philadelphia later today, before visiting other battleground states this week. 

US Correspondent Mitch McCann told Mike Hosking Wolz is uniquely normal. 

He says he has a military background, then was a high school teacher and a football coach - great jobs but not ones usually associated with someone who goes on to become a vice president. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right stateside. Mitch McCann, Morning to.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
You, morning, Mike. How are you.

Speaker 1 (00:03):
I'm well, you're gonna be loving doing what you're doing
it moment. I mean, hasn't this ended up well for you?
Living in the States, You got your new jobs. The
whole world's unfolding in a rapid pace. You've got to
be a pig and muck with us, don't you.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
Yeah, it is pretty amazing sometimes, especially at some of
these Trump rallies. I think, you know, the people there
get tiring after about fifteen minutes, but it is quite
amazing being there.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Sometimes talk to me about Tim.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Is it Wols Wolves? Yeah, it's Wols. No tea, So
Tim Wols.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
He was described this morning by commentator Mike as the
darkest of dark horses in the race because he didn't
have a huge amount of name recognition until a couple
of weeks ago. He is the governor of the state
of Minnesota. He's in his second term, and now he
is the running mate for Kamala Harris for Bryance President. Now,
one of the interesting things about Tim Wolls is he

(00:50):
as uniquely normal for this kind of job.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Mike.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
He wasn't a hot shot lawyer, He wasn't a foreign
affairs expert. He was in the National Guard for twenty years,
so he's got a military back. But then he became
a high school teacher and a football coach. Now those
are great jobs, but they're not ones usually associated with
someone who goes on to become the president or the
vice president. Of course, Josh Shapiro was a prosecutor and
Mark Kelly was an astronaut, but they've been beaten out

(01:15):
by Tim Walls.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
He's progressive, though, isn't he. So that's a left leaning ticket.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Very much so.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
Some of his policies in Minnesota are free college tuition
for low income students, free meals for school children, legal
recreational marijuana, and protections for transgender people. And that's what
the Trump campaign is really going after him for. Today
they put out a statement saying that just like Kamala
Harrison Walsh is dangerously liberal extremist and the Harris Walsh

(01:43):
Californian Dreamers, Everyone's American nightmare. So that's what they're going
after him on being very progressive.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Is he eloquent?

Speaker 3 (01:52):
Well, he's not as eloquent, perhaps as Josh Shapiro. He
was compared to someone like Barack Obama. Obviously, Barack Obama
was a great orator, and Jos Shapiro is a very
good speech maker. Tim Waltz is more of your sort
of folksy midwesterner and people just seem to really like him.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
We talked about this on Monday, Mike.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
There seemed to be this movement within the Democratic Party
from the hierarchy to try and push Kamala Harris towards
picking him. It's hoped he's going to bring some of
these Midwestern votes in. I mean, there's pictures floating around
of him hunting with big guns. You can expect some
people and parts of that, you know, states like Iowa, Ohio,
to really go for someone like that.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
So I think that's what they're bidding on.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Okay, then we got the weather. Give us an update
on Debbie. Where are we at with that?

Speaker 3 (02:34):
Yeah, so five people were killed by Debbi tropical Storm
Debbi in Florida. It's been downgraded to a tropical storm,
but it's still expected to cause a lot of havoc
today in South Carolina and in Georgia. I had a
look at the rain radar a short time ago, and
there is a huge amount of rain moving over Charleston
at the moment, So they're hoping to get out unscared,
but it remains to be seen how that's going to go.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Good stuff just quickly. Does he look like Warren Buffet
or is it just me he doesn't?

Speaker 2 (03:00):
He does? Do you know he's only sixty years old?
I think he looked a little bit older than that.
He's only one year older than Kamala Harris.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
You know what I look like, right?

Speaker 2 (03:08):
You're very young?

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Yeah, well, no, no need for the obvious plattery, but
I'm the same age as him.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
You wouldn't pick up, would Yeah he looks much older.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yeah, exactly. Nice to see. Yeah, I'll keep you on
the program a bit longer.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
Mitch.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Very well, very well handled, Mitch McCann. Yeah, he looks
sixty eight all day long. Very Warren Buffettesque, by the way,
football coach. He joined the Guard as dad died when
of lung cancer when he was just nineteen, and he
spoke of how Social Security survivor Bennett's benefits sustained his mother,

(03:41):
how the GI Bill paid for his college education. So
it's a classic, it's that classic American story. He's been
a year teaching in China around the time of Tianaman Square.
Later honeymoon with his wife in China, organized summer educational
trips to China for US students. So a love of
China that I just can't help but think more, well,
we'll come back to bite them and the bump give

(04:03):
them the geopolitics of the Diabeta.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
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