Meet the Press NOW — August 6

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Welcome to Meet the Press. Now I'm Ryan Nobles in Washington and the 2024 presidential tickets are now set as Vice President Harris announced today that she's tapped Minnesota Governor Tim Walls to be her running mate. Walls and Harris will appear together for the first time at a campaign rally in Philadelphia less than 90 minutes from now. It is the first stop on a multi state tour that aims to introduce the Harris Walls ticket to battleground voters.

Ahead of tonight's rally, the campaign released a video showing the moment this morning that Harris calls Walls to tell him he had had the job. Hi, this is Tim. It's Kamala Harris. Good morning, Governor.

Good morning, Madam Vice President. Listen, I want you to do this with me. Let's, let's do this together. Would you be my running mate and let's get this thing on the road.

I would be honored, Madam Vice President. The joy that you're bringing back to the country, the enthusiasm that's out there. It'll be a privilege to take this with you across the country. The six year old governor is a former school teacher, National Guardsman and Congressman.

He grabbed the spotlight recently as one of the first to label Trump as quote, weird. A lot of attack. The Democrats quickly and widely adopted the Trump campaign today, slamming the choice in an attack ad, painting Walls as, quote, dangerously liberal while also trying to reignite divisions inside the Democratic Party on the issue of Israel, suggesting that Harris was pressured away from selecting Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro because of his Jewish faith. Here's Trump VP nominated JD Vance speaking to reporters In Philadelphia ahead of the Harris rally.

Tim Waltz's record is a joke. He's one of the most far left radicals in the entire United States government at any level. But I think that what Tim Waltz's election says is that Kamal Harris has bent the knee to the far left of her party, which is what she always does. Kamala Harris listened to the Moss swing of the party.

Kamala Harris is running as a San Francisco liberal. She is governed as a San Francisco liberal and she's chosen a running mate who will be a San Francisco style liberal. The biggest problem with the Tim Waltz pick, it's not Tim Waltz himself. It's what it says about Kamala Harris, that when given an opportunity, she will bend the knee to the most radical elements of her party.

That's exactly what she did here. That's what she's gonna keep on doing as president. With less than three months until election day, one of the biggest challenges for the Harris campaign will be trying to leverage his Governor Walls biography to make inroads with battleground voters while introducing him to the country. And they will have their work cut out for them.

A new poll shows that 70% of registered voters have never even heard of or don't have an opinion on Walls. And neither did some of the voters our ABC team talked to today in neighboring Wisconsin. I honestly don't even know who that is. I guess.

No reaction. I don't pay attention to politics like I should. I'm not too. I'm not too educated on him or anything he's really done.

I don't know because I never heard so much about him. I haven't dug deeply into her VP picks, so I will be doing some research when I get home this evening. So who is it? NBC's Gabe Gutierrez has more on who Tim Walls is.

A working class politician from a rural background, Minnesota's Tim Walls is known for not pulling punches. This is not about the second Amendment. This is about the safety of our children in our communities. A self described white dude for Kamala Harris, the popular governor will now run alongside the nation's first woman of color on top of major parties ticket.

Walls grew up in small town Nebraska and joined the National Guard as a teenager. He'd served in the National Guard for more than two decades, eventually becoming a schoolteacher. After moving to Minnesota, he volunteered for John Kerry's presidential campaign and in an upset, he was elected to Congress in 2006. Walls served in Washington for the next 12 years, establishing himself as a moderate Democrat.

Then he ran for governor in 2018, winning the landslide. The process of how we as a state and how we as a nation respond to these things is really important. 2020 would bring defining moments, the COVID pandemic and the killing of George Floyd, which triggered riots and criticism from Republicans over why it took Walls three days to call in the National Guard. Decisions were made in a situation that is what it is and I simply believe that we try to do the best we can.

Walls critics also point to a state audit report that found major failures by Minnesota's Education Department during the pandemic allowing rampant misuse of a federal program meant to feed children. If you commit fraud, Minnesota, you are going to be taught you are going to Walls has long had strong union support. The president of the United Auto Workers says he was among his top choices for vp. I had an opponent who thought this was the real zinger when we were going out.

He said governor Walls is in the pocket of organized labor. And I said that is a damn lie. I am the pocket. Walls is also seen as an attack dog, not shy about going after former President Trump or his running mate, Senator J.D.

vance. They're running for he man women haters club or something. Now the plain spoken 60 year old governor from the Midwest is set to join a historic national ticket. Gabe Gutierrez, NBC News.

All right, Gabe, thanks for that. Let's talk about it now. Joining me, Pierre Alexander. He is on the ground in Philly headed tonight's rally.

Garrett Hake is here. His reaction from Trump world and Steve Kornacki is where else would he be? He's at the big board. Also with me, Simone Sanders Townsend, the co host of the Weekend on MSNBC and a former senior advisor to Vice President Harris.

Well, let's go to the room where it's going appear you're in Philly. That's where we'll see Walls and Harris together for the first time. Just walk us through the internal decision making process here. When it came to picking Walls, what about the governor appealed to Harris if she made her choice?

Well, I think why the reserve key takeaways in the field, perhaps most importantly was the strong chemistry that before that the two were able to build in the short time they spent together this past weekend when Walls, among other top contenders visit the Naval Observatory, the vice president's Presidents in Washington, D.C. i've been told by multiple sources that that was a key factor here. But it's not just that they talk about his bio. You talked about his service in the Army National Guard for 24 years, his 12 years in Congress winning a Trump district, a red district also those two turn serving as Minnesota's governor.

They view that executive experience as something that make him a good governing partner for Harris moving forward. Beyond that, it is that executive experience, most importantly, that they think puts him in a position to be competent, have the. And then ultimately beyond that, I think it is the sense that he has been an effective messenger to this point. You saw in case these moments ago that he was the one who sort of coined that phrase describing Trump and Vance, not Republicans probably, but the two of them as being weird.

Something that caught on for a couple of weeks, went viral certainly across the Democratic universe and certainly something to caught the eyes of Kamala Harris and her team. So after tonight, they're gonna hit the road of visiting a bunch of battleground states together. But I assume at some point they're separate. And how does the campaign plan on utilizing walls?

Where do they see his strengths? Well, he described himself as a white dude for Kamala Harris and they really hope that he has a particular appeal with his Midwest charm, as they describe it in some of those key rustbell battleground states that three states in particular there that they cannot afford to lose. Recognize that Democrats haven't lost Minnesota since 1972, but it's the states of Wisconsin next door, Michigan and Pen notably where they need to see success. It's gonna be some of this first offs tomorrow in Wisconsin and mission alongside Harris is part of what was intended to be seven states in five days.

Now it's gonna be five states in those five days. Two of those events were postponed due to tropical storm Debbie. But it's certainly a place where they believe the heat contributed good messages. Rural sort of.

Bruce, they think as a con owner, a hunter will resonate with some of those Americans in parts of the country they have been displaying support for pal Harris. And of course you're in Pennsylvania. The governor there, Josh Shapiro, was considered to be the leading of the peak contender. Probably the other option outside of wall.

So we get the rally tonight. We've seen other VP options also praising Harris's choice here. How important is the show of union for the Democrats? While it was remarkable out quick, the unity sort of was presented by the Democratic party recognized within two weeks.

And so Biden dropped out of this race to sign up for the betting process. It normally takes months, months. It had to be sort of squeezed in just a matter of weeks. The party is really united behind a newly energized democr without Joe Biden at the top of the ticket.

Pallet Harris, instead of looking around the room here where they're anticipating as many as 10,000 people be here, you see some of those lights flickering on the wrist and folks are the types of bracelets you see handed out of the Taylor Swift concert to turn off and change colors in unison here. So there is a very different energy really night and day compared to what we saw just a matter of weeks ago. And it's something that Harris Walls together are hoping to capitalize on. Officially off and running Pierre Alexander.

Therefore, this kickoff from the Harris Walls team appear. Thank you for that. Let's bring in Garrett Hake. Now, talk about what's happening on the other side of the coin, and that's with the Trump campaign.

They've already tried to pivot to try and make this race about Harris. How much do they use or not use Walls in making this comparison? I think Walls is useful to them in the sense that it doesn't complicate their message. Right.

They can say that Walls and if he's Walls to amplify all the things they're already saying about Kamala Harus. If Kamala Harris is open border, so is Tim Walls. If Kamala Harris is anti police, so too is Tim Walls. If now his record in the House certainly doesn't reflect that.

But I think it will make arguments that the things he's been able to do with the Democratic trifecta in Minnesota, while popular, there are not things that the rest of the country will want. That's their hope. But beyond that, their response has been kind of rote today, to be completely honest with you. They've tried to paint him as a far left liberal and Harris as a far left liberal for choosing him, but they've not gone very much beyond that.

And Trump himself has said in context of his own vice president, he doesn't think they mean very much to the ticket. And his campaign certainly behaving like they don't think Walls is gonna mean a lot when the votes actually start coming in this race. JB mentions the term today that I thought was interesting. He said that Harris bowed to the Hamas wing of the party.

There's obviously this strain of questioning the pick because Josh Shapiro was passed over. He is, of course, Jewish. There was some reporting that may have been part of the conversation for the Harris campaign. I think that they have kind of batted that down.

But Republicans are trying to amplify that. How much do you think this will become part of their argument to try and show some discord within the Democrat? I think it's more likely to be a whisper. It is to be the kind of thing they put resources behind or have the candidate or the VP nominee for that matter, spend a lot of time talking about.

But the idea that they might be able to drive a wedge into the Jewish vote around Harris and what she really thinks about Israel and Gaza and what the differences might be between she and Shapiro, I do think it's something that some Republicans will try to exploit. I saw comments on X today from Republican strategists and influencers suggesting maybe Shapiro should join the Republican Party because his views on that issue might be more aligned with Republicans. I'm not sure how far that will get, but it makes me very interested in what shot Shapiro himself is going to say, not just tonight, but in the months that followed, because he's still an important surrogate, at least in theory, for the Harrison. And also it doesn't really matter reality, because Shapiro has been one of the biggest critics of Benjamin Netanyahu, of anyone in the Democratic Party, where Waltz has been somewhat friendly to Netanyahu.

So identity associated with it, that doesn't really connect there. But it does seem to be a bit of relief, maybe is the right word among some Republicans that this pig is not coming from a battleground state. Really worried that it would come from Pennsylvania, Arizona or something like that. I think.

I think a lot of Republicans thought that either Shapiro or Kelly, at least on paper, would be a stronger candidate and time will tell. But you know, when I look at the history of this and this is something you'll talk about with Steve Kornacki, I think a battleground state vice presidential candidate certainly didn't help. You know, Joe Biden didn't have one. Donald Trump didn't have one when he won.

Barack Obama didn't have one when he won. The idea that this makes some big difference I'm not sure is entirely worn out. But the idea that you can cause some chaos in the other party by suggesting, oh man, we really dodged a bullet here because of who they picked or didn't pick does make a certain amount of strategic sense. Let's flip it then and talk about the fact that Donald Trump has thought that Minnesota is in play.

How does that change the calculator? I've heard of multiple Trump rallies in Minnesota. I think it's a state to serve his white whale. It's the kind of state he always thought he ought to be able to win.

The demographics of he believes absent Minneapolis and Paul, with a lot more like Iowa State, where he really does well then Michigan or Wisconsin state where battleground state where he struggled. I would not be surprised at all to see Trump still go campaign in Minnesota because it means a lot to him. And I think because they want that to sort of in his mind a way of being kind of show the dominance they like to project politically, that he's going to go into somebody's backyard campaign. But you know, look, I think it probably remains just outside of his reach as it has the last couple of cycles.

But we'll see he's also campaigning Montana, which we think is a very important sentence. Thank you for that. Let's talk about the big board now and bring in Steve, as Garrett pointed out. So here's the question, Steve, I know you probably explained this to depth about the role that vice presidential candidates have on the top of the ticket.

But my specific question is about new voters. Are they going to turn out now for Harris because of Walls addition on the ticket and what's the coalition here look like? Well, yeah, I get it. And like I said, history of vice presidential candidates, I think they make the biggest impact on the day they're announced and people speculating about what the impact will be.

So that said though, what you're hearing from a lot of Democrats here is the hope that broadly there's appeal that Walls brings to the ticket for those three Midwest states. You talk about Midwest, big ten states, everyone to find them Michigan, Pennsylvan, Wisconsin, I think particularly Wisconsin, next door to Minnesota and Michigan a little bit too, just demographically. And I think in terms of what impact one way of looking at at least the potential impact of Walls would simply be let's look at Walls last campaign In Minnesota for governor 2022 we got re elected by 8 points. But look at the distribution of the votes in state because Garrett was just talking about this Minnesota, you got the Twin Cities area here.

I draw a circle inside here is about 60% of the population. Minnesota. The rest of this is all what they kind of call greater Minnesota. And essentially this is what we see in old states or just like all states, the metro area around the big cities, Minneapolis, St.

Paul is blue and getting bluer and bluer. Big population centers, lots of suburbs, lots of college educated professionals have become a core Democratic constituency, especially in the age of Trump. And in greater Minnesota it's a lot of small towns, it's a lot of rural areas, it's a lot of blue collar voters. And this has especially in the Trump area, you can see, look all the red on here.

It' and more in the Republican Directions these two geographic unity are moving politically vast, vastly far from each other. We can talk more about it I'm sure over the next few months. Well is Midwestern, but it's not a swing state in the same way its neighbors are. So you know you talked about this.

Is there a broader appeal there throughout that region that could help Democrats defend that blue wall? Well, that's what I was about to get to is so the question then when you look at this setup becomes Democrats very known areas like the Twin Cities in the Midwest. Democrats are doing great here no matter who they're running. So the question is the areas of Wisconsin, Michigan, Penny that are like greater Minnesota.

That's where they've been struggling. Small towns, blue collar areas. Did Walls do anything in greater Minnesota that suggests he defies those limitations on Democrats? The answer really is you don't see it at all in 2022.

I mean what you see is that Walls ran up huge numbers in the Twin Cities in the metro area just like Jo Biden did in 2020. Look very similar. And then we get to just for example, here's the this is the kind of county we're talking about. Democrats have been losing ground all around the Midwest.

Walls loses Stearns county as could stand in for dozens he loses it by 23 points. When Joe Biden was running. He loses by 23 points. This is the kind of place let's turn the clock back a dozen years to Barack Obama running in 2012.

This is the kind of place Democrats in the pre Trump era, they weren't necessarily winning but they were pretty competitive. And that was true in greater Minnesota. That was true in small town Wisconsin. That was true in small town Michigan.

That was true in small town Pennsylvania. That is where the floor has fallen out for Democrats since Donald Trump emerged. That Tim was won in 2022 obviously, but he didn't show any new strength in the parts of Minnesota where the Democrats have really fallen behind the Trump area. If you're talking about boosting the Democrats in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, you're talking about can you do something in those parts of those states where the Democrats have been losing all that ground?

Looking at what wealth in Minnesota, you don't see that value add. Okay, Steve Cracky, thank you for breaking down for us. Appreciate it. I, Sanders Townsend, someone who once worked for Vice President Kamala Harris, so understands her thought process and something like this.

I'm struck by what Peter said off the top of the program, Simone, about that meeting that Governor Walz had with the vice president where she Seemed to really come away from that meeting with a good feeling about the two of them as a partner and a governing team. How important do you think that meeting was in this final decision making process? I think the meeting was critical, honestly. Vice President Harris did not know Governor Walls well before.

I think something else kind of really mentioned about the day to day that Governor Walls is in fact the chair of the Democratic Governors association, the political arm that is there to elect Democrat governors across the country. And prior to. Before you share, you're the first vice chair. And so he had been involved with this White House engaged.

So you know, the vice president obviously knew him. They had a general working relationship, but didn't know him as well as say, someone like Rick Cooper, frankly, who she served when she was aging, when she was AG in California. So that meeting was critical because if she's thinking that, okay, maybe this is someone I'd like to work with. The chemistry that you have initially is quite telling.

You know, folks say you will know when you get into the room. And the vice president is someone who. She wants the staff and senior advisors around her to give their opinion. She wants to know what the recommendation is.

But ultimately she's going to make the decision. And I think the decision did come down because the truncated timeline. Right. The decision came down to taking a look at all the vending materials, taking the recommendations from the staff that they had.

And I just understand that there were folks that came down on multiple different sides of different counts. But how did you feel when you sat down with the person? And also what kind of government partner do you think that person would be? You know, the reality here is that Vice President Harris, if she's elected to the presidency, she'd be a young president, someone who would obviously probably want to run for reelection.

You want to pick a via a runmate that will be a vice president that show you have to look over your shoulder at for the next four years or someone that you believe is more to back you 100%, give you, you know, real honest feedback and private but back you in public regardless of what they may personally think. Frankly, the role of a vice president, she knows well, she does that now for President Biden and obviously she came away from all her meetings believing that Governor Walls was. Could be that person. You never know for sure, especially on this truncated timeline that she wouldn't have got.

So the two biggest days for vice presidential candidates are today, the day that they're announced, and then the second would be a potential debate. There isn't one on the docket yet, but we assume that that's something that could happen down the road. What's your gut as to what a JD Vance Tim Walls debate would look like? You know, frankly if the debate were held within the next week or so.

And obviously there's not one this currently negotiated. So this is not a real scenario. I think the debate would which you would hear from Senator Vance would be very similar to what you heard from him at that press conference. I believe the Republican operatives and the Trump campaign specifically are just trying to throw things at the Wall and see what fits doing as it relates to Vice President Harris that they really have not attacked her directly on on the record.

They don't have criticism of the Biden Harris record as much as you get criticism about, you know, the fact that she's a woman or race. Right. And similar Walls Jay Basis just paid with the brush of brush hair in the words that we heard from the presser. He also, you know, tried to inject some what I would argue is just very disturbing language, frankly about bowing to the Hamas wing of the Democratic Party.

I know that there's no Muslims in fact parties territorial. So that frankly in the initial hours is what we've heard now a bisenial debate. Right. As you know, it's very different than presidential bisexual debates.

They're seated. Usually it is a little more demure. These are candidates that they probably don't cross on the campaign trail much. Right.

And there's usually only one of them, the presidential debate. And if this were a normal presidential election season, we had had a couple of them, at least 384 we may not. So Governor Walls has a record of having been a governor, a member of Congress. Right.

A teacher at one point in time and some legislative accomplishments. Senator Vance does not have that. And therefore the depth, if you will, that Senator Vance could bring to what is a heavy policy conversation because that's usually how vice presidential debates go. I don't know if it exists.

So I don't have to know what a C.J. vance and Governor Wall sit down. Especially if the top of that ticket, Donald Trump is yet to agree to a debate with Vice President Harris. Yeah, right.

Probably will be difficult to have that without the former. Simone, thank you so much for your perspective. We appreciate it, as always. Join me now is Pennsylvania State Representative Malcolm Kenyatt, who's in Philadelphia where Vice President Harris and Governor Walls will hold their first joint rally.

He's also a member of the national advisory board of the Harris Walls campaign. Malcolm, so great to have you first, just give me your reaction to this pick by Vice President Harris. What do you think Governor Walls brings to the top of the ticket that did not. You know, first of all, you just hear this energy right here in my legislative district in the heart of North Philadelphia.

People are excited about this pick, excited about Vice President Harris, and excited about her bold vision for a future that works for all working families. You know, listen, how do you pick a scoop of ice cream? Okay? There's no bad way to do it.

You just go and pick your favorite. And that's what she did. She picked the person who she felt, as a vice president herself, was going to be able to back her up, to give her the good advice that she needs, and somebody with a record of accomplishment. This is somebody who has mirrored a lot of the accomplishments that we've seen in the Biden Harris administration.

Capping the cost of insulin, like universal background checks, somebody who understands foreign policy, somebody who served in uniform, but somebody who, at his core, cares about working people, cares about working families, and that's what this energy is about here today. There is some work, though, for the campaign, right? I mean, 70% of registered voters say that they've neither heard of Governor Walls or don't even have an opinion about him. Are you concerned that that lack of name recognition is gonna require the campaign?

Do some work, especially when you have less than 100 days ago. Listen, what I know for sure is that Governor Walls is ready. He is ready to do this. Vice President Harris is ready.

And for the next 90 days, they're gonna be all across this country talking about how we make life better for real people in their real lives. Listen, the reality is that no vice presidential pick in living memory, you know, has, you know, Carrie A. Seder a lot of this conversation. What we need is somebody who the top of the ticket feels comfortable with and who they feel like can not only help them win the election, but can help them govern.

The good news for us is that Governor Walls can do both. He is somebody who's gonna be right at home in rural Pennsylvania, where I spend a lot of time as a statewide candidate myself. He's gonna be right at home here in Philadelphia in a couple minutes where he takes the stage. And the question is why?

Why? Because he is a teacher who has spent big parts of his career looking into the eyes of young people, arming them with the things that they need to go on and live a great life. He's somebody who served in the armed forces, standing up for our value, standing up for the American people in uniform. He is somebody who has achieved big things as a governor.

And we are ready for him to join Vice President Harris and as Chairman Harris said with my shoulder, ready to prosecute this case against Donald Trump. Donald Trump was a failed president. He is a failed candidate. And you know, you can pick a bad vice presidential candidate and we see that in JD Van sadly every single day.

I understand you're about the government. There's got to be a part of you as a Penn who's worked with Josh Shapiro to be disappointed that she did not choose your government. Be her, especially given the fact that Pennsylvania is so close. When you say to critics that argue she missed an opportunity here by putting her very popular governor on the ticket with her, I would say this, that when you are the nominee, you get to pick and she got to pick amongst a bunch of great options.

Listen, Governor Shapiro is my dear friend and a part of what I'm happy about is that now folks all across the country, country get have gotten to know him, gotten to know his record, gotten to know what we've been doing here in Pennsylvania, passing the largest assessment K through 12 education, beginning the process of, you know, about canceling medical debt, making it easier for people to start a business and to raise a family. So, you know, I'm excited that he was a part of the process. I'm excited that the country got to know him a little bit the way we know him here in Pennsylvania. And I am confident that he is going to go all across the commonwealth making the case for the Harris Walls ticket and we are going to win Pennsylvania.

You mark my words. Governor Walls brings that Midwestern vibe that we love in western Pennsylvania and love across the other battleground state and the blue Wall. He is ready to talk to the voters that I meet every single day who are sick of the noise of the division and want a common sense, reasonable person to walk across the aisle, get things done. Governor Walls can do that.

Governor Shapiro has done. So what do you make though, of the Republican criticism that the vice president didn't choose Governor Shapiro simply because of his religion, because Shapiro's received some criticism from progressives over his position when it comes to the Israel Hamas conflict? What do you say to people accusing the vice president of keeping to these progressives and that perhaps one of the reasons that she didn't pick him is because of his faith? You know, one of the things I would say is never take advice from Republicans.

These same people who are talking about who Vice President Hershey should pick, they picked Donald Trump, the worst presidential candidate and the worst president that we've seen in living memory. So I'm not gonna be taking advice from them or taking criticisms from them seriously. The vice president, first of all, is married to a Jewish American. So this abhorrent idea that she's somehow anti Semitic is vile and disgusting.

Donald Trump is a person who's questioning her race, questioning, as he did with Barack Obama, her ability to, you know, to be president, engaging in the type of racist vitriol. Donald Trump was literally just on a live stream with Aiden Ross, who has platformed multiple white supremacists and anti Semites. So we're not go taking advice from Donald Trump or from Republicans. When Republicans say do something, you know, you take it with a grain of salt.

We are going to beat them like a drum. And I'm excited to do it. Okay. State Representative Malcolm Kenyatta, who is at the site of that rally with Kamala Harris and her running mate, Tim Walls.

We appreciate you being here, Malcolm. Thank you for that. Anytime. Up next, Republicans ramp up their attacks on the Harris Walls ticket, calling the duo, quote, dangerously liberal presidential candidate turned Trump candidate.

Campaign surrogate Vivek Ramaswamy joins me next. You're watching Meet the President. As the day wraps up, get the scoop on what's been happening with here's the Scoop, the podcast from NBC News. With your host Gas in the Studio, we'll take a deep dive into the day's top stories with NBC News's trusted journalists.

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Welcome back. The race to define Tim Walls is on. As we know that the Harris campaign is out with a video detailing Minnesota governor's biography and accomplishments. But the Trump campaign is out with one of its own.

Take a listen. Kamala Harris just doubled down on her radical vision for America by tapping another left wing extremist as her VP nominee. Tim Waltz will be a rubber stamp for Kamala's dangerously liberal agenda. Momo Harris and Tim Waltz their fail weak and dangerously liberal.

Join me now for the view from the Trump campaign is for Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Thank you so much for being here, sir. And I do want to talk about some of the criticisms you had of the Trump campaign yesterday. This was one of them.

You said that our latest strategy of repeatedly labeling Kamala a radical leftist will soon fall flat. And it's interesting because the first response for the Trump campaign today to Harris Pinkham was. Was to call him a radical leftist, as you saw in the video that we just played. Are you worried that this campaign's line of attack is a miscalculation?

So, look, one of things I've also said is I believe that Dash Shapiro was going to be the VP pick. I was wrong about that. This is a decision that I think still is confusing to me that Democrats have made but provides a great new opening for the Republicans. I've been the first to say the last couple of weeks have not been our strongest weeks.

This provides the much needed reset that actually resets this race and opens up a clear path to victory for Republicans. The bottom line is this, Waltz is a progressive when it comes to policy. He presided over the beel and riots in Minnesota which she led. He favors healthcare for illegal immigrants.

So let's have that debate on policy. If we have that policy debate, believe me, the reality is gonna be Republicans come out on the economy, on immigration, on staying out of foreign wars if this election is decided on policy. That's what this pick does. It refocuses the debate on policy.

Actually, it strengthens Republican chances. But do they need to do more than just label him a rad elective so they actually have to talk about some of these policies as opposed to just playing the name game? Yes, and we will and we have to. I've been clear about that.

We cannot just fall into the trap of criticizing the other side. And if we're calling it straight down the middle here, I tell you that this pick presents risks for Democrats and Republicans. The pick of Waltz's VP presents a risk for Democrats that they lose centrist voters over a lot of progressive policies positions. The risk I see for Republicans is that he's such a progressive and he's far on the left of any of his policies that it becomes tempting to just focus on him instead of offering our own vision of who we are and what we stand for.

That's ultimately what's going to be required for us to win this election. Seal the border, end rampant crime, grow the economy, stay On World War 3, revive national pride in this country. These are things that Donald Trump stands for. These are the things the Republican Party stands for.

And I think we have to resist the temptation and risk to forget to talk about that because of the right criticisms on the other side makes it so easy for us to now level. I mean, isn't the person doing that at least is the candidate himself? Donald Trump? It seems at most of his rallies he spends most of his time just calling people names and complaining about past grievances.

It's rare they actually offers a policy prescriptions. Do you think the candidate himself needs to that more so I respectfully disagree with your characterization there. Look at that debate, the one that actually turned this entire race around, the CNN debate. That was a policy focused debate where with all due respect, Donald Trump knocked the floor with Joe Biden.

The reality is that it was so much the case that they had to swap out Joe Biden as a consequence. So I do think that Donald Trump cares deeply about policy. The dirty little secret of finding this race is that between the two tickets here, due to two presidential candidates, Donald Trump is actually now the moderate on policy. You take the historical criticism of the Republican Party extreme positions supposedly on abortion, on gun control, on intervention as foreign wars.

Let's just go straight down that list. Donald Trump opposes a national abortion ban against the will many Republicans. He's taken a measured approach on gun control. He's against the Iraq warnings, against other interventionist foreign wars.

These are exactly the policy criticisms that Democrats have had with Republicans for years. Yet Donald Trump is to the center of many Republicans on all of this questions. So this question, if this race does yes, come down to policy, I think it should be a hands down victory, not just for Trump, but for candidates all the way down the ballot. And I think that's a part of why you want to take Waltz's selection.

I just make this one point because I think it's important. There's a little bit of A contradiction in how they're pitching him. On one hand they say he's this Midwestern unifier. On the other hand, he is the guy who is leveling this charge of being weird on 70 million Americans on the other side.

And I don't think he could have it both ways. I do think that that's divisive. I think it's the 2024 equivalent of Hillary Clinton's basket of deplorables. And I do think that's gonna come back to hurt Democrats if Republicans keep our eye on the ball.

And that's what I'm urging us to do. Well, then I want to get back to this idea of keeping the eye on the ball, as you really point out. And I would also point out that no one calls people names more than former President Trump. He does on a regular basis that with Governor Kemp at his rally over the weekend.

But it also seems as though that the former president is still pretty focused on Joe Biden. He claimed this afternoo Biden would try and take back the Democratic nomination. He called out several Democrats names in the process. Do you think that's where he wants to focus his policy right now?

Well, the reality is Kyle Harris and Joe Biden are part of the same ticket that leaves this country today. She's trying to claim a lot of Biden's victories. So I think it's fair game in a presidential election to say that that sitting president owns his policy record and so is the vice president, who's now trying to take some credit as much as he tries for some of those alleged successes. Let's talk about the border.

Let's talk about actually how even the stock market decline of the last week is undoubtedly correlated to at least increased expectations that the market has that Kamala Harris could be the president. So I don't think it's fair game to look at the Biden and Harris regime or the administration as one ticket. That's how they pitch themselves to their own voters. So I guess for debate for Donald Trump to say that she also owns Joe Biden's policy failures.

But it's a policy focused discussion that I think is good. I think the country will be better off if this is an election decided on competing visions of policy for the future. I don't think it's going to be good if either side makes this about which side is weirder, alleging weirdness of the Republican Party. I just think it's divisive.

I think it's a way of alienating who wins this election. It's going to cost 70 plus million people to see themselves not as part of the same culture or country. Governor Waltz, the one who started that, the reality is, I hope Republicans are able to take a very different path to say this is who we are and if we do, we win. I mean, what you're describing though, is not at all what Donald Trump has ever done over the course of his presidential or political career for that matter.

And you're asking him now to just completely focus on policy, not to call names, not to try and settle grievances from the past. We're 90 days out from this election. Obviously, you're calling for what appears to be somewhat of a different course when it comes to the campaign. Do you think there needs to be new leadership to try and encourage a more policy focused campaign, or is that impossible with Donald Trump at the top of the ticket?

Well, so look, I gotta be very, very careful and precise in what we're saying here. What I'm saying is, is that when the media puts Donald Trump in the corner, when the far left puts him in the corner, sometimes he's left with no other choice. When you have the other side alleging that you're weird and your people are weird, of course the most natural charge is to say, well, you know what, we have a stronger case. In return, you can think about refusal to define what actually a woman is, refusal to say that men should not compete with women in women's sports, taking away gas stoves out of ordinary American fans.

If Republicans want to play this game, yes, I do think we have a stronger case to say the other side is weirder than we are. But I think the better way to go. And you do hear this from Donald Trump. I think that he does not often report on it.

What does he say? He says success is unifying. Success will be our vengeance. And I think that's an important part of the message where that's a side of Donald Trump that the media doesn't often let voters see.

I think people have been to his rallies, absolutely do take that message away. And I do think the more he leans into that message, one of the things we've been hearing him say, the more is it's not just about making America great again. It's about making America greater than we have ever been before, that success and ambition and excellence are our heritage. These are exact lines of Donald Trump's speeches, not the ones that get reported on.

Yes, I would say stick to those messages and I think we're gonna revive this country and hopefully win this election. And dare I say, let Trump be the president who unites the country. Okay, Vivek Ramaswam Swami, thank you so much for your time, sir. We appreciate it.

We're talking more about this Now, Jon says NBC's NBC News's chief political analyst, Chuck Todd, MJ Daniels, the White House correspondent for Politico and NBC News senior political analyst. Okay, so Chuck, nobody's covered more these BP roll up than you talk us down from this. It's we get excited for a day but in the gram scheme of things, what's this really gonna mean? Oh, I think in two weeks, you know, I think we're gonna be talking.

I think Vance is gonna be more of a talking point than waltz, to be honest. I think that ultimately, look, Kamala Harris has a lot of blanks. She's still gotta fill in over the next 30. She has had any interviews, any sit downs, she does at some point gonna have to answer questions as to why she was for fracking or against fracking.

Now she's for all these little things that have been come up because it's been such a whirlwind of the last few weeks. And so I think when that starts to happen that we start to doubt back. But we are learning a little something about her in this process. Here's what I took away from.

I think she cared about party uni. I think she and I and I, we can have a debate after the election whether this she should be worried about these things or not. But I am empathetic to the idea. She just became a leader of the party in the last couple of weeks.

The last thing she needed her convention in two weeks is dissension over Gaza, school vouchers, immigration, which all would have come with Mark Kelly or Josh Shapiro. So I understand that decision of let's not do any harm, let's keep the party together. So I get the process there. I think some progressives are going to take away from this process.

Oh, she cares about what's happening on tv. She cares about who's defending. I think this has always been something the vice president's been frustrated with the Biden White House, that they don't care about this enough. And I think she sees Tim Walls as, hey, this guy's pretty good at pushing back at the right lane.

I think she wants a defender. She would have loved to play that defender herself. She would love that somebody defended her from Fox News attacks. And I think she's looking forward to that aspect.

So I did learn something about her and the presidency. I think that she wants to conduct here. I also think that, you know, she believes she's ideologically in the middle of Democratic party and she thought it was better, it was beneficial to pick somebody that she shares the same vision with. And I think it's fair to say her and Walls are on the same page.

So Eugenie Roti called it Walls mentum this morning. You give me a trademark on that. What could run out of guess sooner though. Kamala Harris's sugar high.

Walls, maybe it's unclear so far the sugar high has lasted. I think you're right on Walls and whether or not people want to care about this in a coup. We do have a convention. So I have a role of him.

It's going to be about her. Right. The reason that people you're hearing in the party is people being like, yeah, we want your happy. It's Walls.

We wanted her to pick because people are looking at her as a solution. Right. For Vice President Harris. I talked to her.

Too many people that brought her vetting, they were looking for. She was looking for someone that she really got along with. Right. And so on Saturday, after they were doing all these presentations about these three men, at the end of the day, they said to her, we think that Walls may be the guy you have the most compatibility with personality wise.

In the interview, she clearly felt that, right. That was something that was really important to her. She also really liked, like you're saying that defender. They love the idea, you know, the victorious somnambulism that came around and called Donald Trump and Danny Vance weird.

That that was something that ended up sticking. And that hasn't really been. It's been hard to find Donald Trump and that he had an ability to do that. Seems like a dad, right?

Like a Midwestern dad. They think he plays in Pennsylvania as well as Michigan. You saw him in his video today. He had like a camel hat on, which is not very democratic.

Right. She likes the way that he went hunting, those kinds of things. And she liked that he had multiple terms as governor. Right.

That's what she was kind of looking for in her pick. Now, whether or not people are going to stay upset about or worried that she didn't pick Shapiro because Pennsylvania is the whole ball game, right. If you picked Shapiro, you probably have a better chance there. But it seems to us that Shapiro, you know, will be talking to his camp all day.

He's gonna do everything he would have done, you know, if he was running me, somebody out. Therefore he's gonna be out there tonight. Maybe Alyssa Won't understand exactly right. But he, one of the things that he made clear to the Harris camp was that he wasn't sure if he was ready to leave the gun.

I think that's a legitimate concern. He's his own presidential ambition. But it's not always clear that being vice president sets you up for the best success of it. Historically it doesn't.

It would like both of you to take on this 70% of American, they don't know Tim Walls and don't have an opinion of him. Is that good thing or bad thing? Well, it all depends on who wins the race to define him a little bit. Right.

I mean, I think, you know, the same thing was likely said about J.D. vance probably wasn't at 78 minutes, 65%. I think it's been a disastrous roll up and he's been defined negatively. He's got some negative ratings.

I think Walls certainly has gotten. We'll have a small leg up right now. There's a little bit of positive vibes on the Democratic side. They're going to like Republicans were divided on Bance.

I don't think you're going to have Democrats divided on Walls here. But look, I was thinking about this. The three finalists all had sort of the one thing that would quickly stick with voters that was going to get talked about with Shapiro. Maybe it would have been toothpick.

I think one thing would have been 995 and sort of that would have been the thing we all would have really negated with Kelly had been the border and being an astronaut with Walls it could be forced. Floyd and I think you can make an argument that can help in some cases the Harris ticket. But it's also a conversation I don't know if they want to have. I think it's pretty clear and I know the Trump campaign wants to have a Black Lives Matter conversation and use Tim Walls as that on that front.

If I were to say there's one thing about Walls, if that becomes the defining moment of his, of his time as governor for a majority of voters. I don't know if that's the definition that the Harris campaign's gonna want to have, but I don't know if that's gonna be catch. Is that a problem for Republicans though, Eugenia, that they seem to have a hard time all deciding how they want to find someone and they just throw a bunch of stuff out there in hope of six? Yeah.

And that's new for Republicans. Right. Usually they get all on one message. They kind of go forward.

But as we've seen with Everson. Vice President Harris took over this ticket that Sunday. Even they struggle to not only define horrific with argument is about her. The same thing today with Tim Walls.

Right. Well, Vick says sounds great. Right? It sounds like exactly how Republicans if they're they would want to do.

It's exactly probably how what Chris Lasagia and Susie Wiles want and the people that run the Trump campaign. But this is about how Donald Trump is going. Tim Wells well, he didn't have any hard races for government. His races for household 17%.

And he went they tried all of the hey, you're a closet liberal. You're a real progress. They tried all he has some it's one of the racial district. I don't want everybody to go crazy.

So in that sense I think he is he is prepared for the onslaught. He's always kind of had to defend himself in quote unquote enemy territory right when he was in a very purple district. So that experience I think will help him parry back some of the criticism. Okay, great go guys.

Thank you. Appreciate it Both Chucky, Eugene, thanks so much for that. Up next, voters are responding to the Harris pick for vice president in Michigan. You're watching with the press.

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Welcome back. There are certain figures in American politics we need no introduction. And then there's some walls. Let's bring in NBC Secure Brewster, who is in Detroit talking to voters about the VP pick today.

Are Michigan happy with this pick, the ones that you talked to, or do you have to explain a little bit of both? Ryan, I'll tell you, I'm talking to engaged voters. These are people who came out to Michigan's primary. They're participating in this primary election and among one person told me they're undecided as far as what to do in November.

She said there's a lot of research she wants to get into. But I want to play for you a conversation I had with two Democratic voters that kind of reflect the themes that I'm hearing from Democratic voters throughout the day here in Detroit. I really did think that she was going to select a Pennsylvania? Yeah.

I was kind of surprised when she went with Minnesota. But, you know, I think they'll make a good team. Who did you want? I wanted.

I actually wanted Pennsylvania, I think, because it's a big federal brown state. So I wanted her to pick him. What do you know about Governor Waltz? How much have you.

I don't know a lot about him. I really don't know a lot about him. I have to. I'm really completely trusting her, you know.

You know that she's making the right choice. Are you following this process at all? When I saw on TV this morning that he's of course, a $15 an hour minimum wage, he's just going to be hopefully a good vice president. You know, one voter told me that they know he's from Minnesota and they know Minnesota is cold.

So there's a lot more information they want to learn about him. Right. It just gives you sense that there's an opportunity for both sides here to not only introduce government walls to the country, but to define him as he's now on his national stage. Okay.

Shaq Brucer, a life force in Detroit. No. Whether or not being from Minnesota and it being cold is good or bad for his chances, but nonetheless, explain a little bit about the situation. Thanks, Jack.

Turn out a major announcement by Trade General Merrick Garland this afternoon. The Department of Justice has indebted a Pakistani national who has ties to Iran for allegedly plotting to assassinate government officials on American soil. A senior law enforcement official tells NBC News the former President Trump was one of the potential targets of the FOIL plot, according to the indictment unsealed today. As if Mershant spent time in Iran before traveling to the US where he tried to hire a pair of hitmen to carry out the assassination plot.

The hitmen, however, were actually undercover law enforcement officers. Attorney General Garland said today that there is no evidence of any link between this plot and the attempted assassination of the former president last month in Pennsylvania. Joining Me now is NBC's justice and intelligence correspondent, Ken Delaney. So, Ken, what more do we know about this FOIL assassination attempt?

Ryan Merchant was actually arrested the day before Donald Trump was shot in Butler, Pennsylvania, as he was trying to leave the country. But as you said, officials are stressing there is no connection. That's just a bizarre coincidence. But what is true, according to court documents, is that this man, who had ties to Iran and was a Pakistani national, came to the United States in April with the intention of orchestrating this elaborate murder for Harry Pot.

And the first person he talked to about it either was or ended up being a confidential source for the FBI. So basically turn him in right away. And after that, the FBI began a sting operation and as you said, introduced him to people he thought were hitmen, but were actually undercover law enforcement agents. And so they have the whole thing recorded.

They have evidence, they have a cocktail napkin with part of the scheme. What he said was he wanted them to steal information from a particular target. He wanted them to gin up protest in certain areas, and he wanted them to assassinate a politician not named in this criminal complaint. But we were told by a senior official that among the potential targets was Donald Trump.

Because what this is is Iranian retribution for the killing of Qasem Soleimani. That Quds Force general ordered targeted killing by Donald Trump. And this is one of a string of plots already uncovered. A tribute to the Iranians, including assassination plot against former National Security Adviser John Bolton and a plot against an Iranian dissident in New York City.

This is the latest. And trained General Merrick Garland said today that he believes that we haven't heard the last of this, that the Iranians will continue this we call brazen and persistent plotting. But in this case, this would be assassin or orchestrator was quickly gobbled up by the FBI, and he's now in custody. And very quickly, are these murder plots?

This is something that we hear about often. Well, this is, as I said, this is the latest. There's been at several of these. And yes, the US Government has said that this is an ongoing scheme by the Iranian government.

It's not clear exactly what they're doing about it, but this is one of the number, only the latest. And Merrick Garland said potentially more to come. Right, okay. And this is the day we find out that Tim Wallace has now got Secret Service protection.

Obviously Secret Service under the spotlight and everything that happened before President Trump and his assassination, 10 million. Thank you for that report. We appreciate it. And we are back tomorrow with more Meet the Press now the news continues with Hallie Jackson right now.

Thanks for watching. He was a young Marine. She didn't care about convention. They made a life together.

Then one night, the Marine died. And then the death investigation took a wild, unexpected, and utterly bizarre turn. I'm Josh Mankiewicz and this is Trace of Suspicion, an only podcast from day one. Listen to all episodes of Trace of Suspicion now, wherever you get your podcasts.