He doesn’t use a teleprompter, the Minnesota governor said. He doesn’t akin accept one, in fact. So if he was the pick, Walz said, Harris’ aggregation would accept to get him a teleprompter and advise him how to use it.
It was a lighter moment, but it was additionally allotment of an account action with Harris’ aggregation that Walz aced, assorted sources accustomed with the affair told CNN. The Minnesota governor was upfront about his vulnerabilities, acquainted he wasn’t from a beat accompaniment or a domiciliary name. He additionally said he was a bad debater.
But Walz fabricated it bright he would be a aggregation player.
Asked how he saw his role as VP, Walz said he would accomplish the job about Harris capital him to. Asked if he capital to be the aftermost actuality in the allowance afore Harris fabricated a decision, Walz said alone if she capital him to be there.
And asked if he had ambitions to run for admiral himself one day, Walz said he did not, a point that sources said was not absent on a aggregation attractive to abbreviate the abeyant for any centralized ball in a approaching Harris administration.
“He had a actual bright compassionate that it was to be a partner, but to abutment the president, go out and affix with America and be that administering partner,” said Cedric Richmond, a above Louisiana agent and Biden White House adviser who was acutely complex in the alternative process. “It’s not the easiest of positions, but it’s a actual important position.”
The vetting account was a key footfall for Walz to ultimately lock up the alternative that Harris fabricated afterwards sitting bottomward with the three finalists, including Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, for one-on-one interviews at her abode on Sunday.
“It was a home run,” said one antecedent accustomed with Walz’s affair with Harris’ vetting team. “Everyone admired him.”
Beyond the claimed allure Harris and her aggregation acquainted against Walz, bodies accustomed with the account action said that Walz was additionally addition Harris acquainted could allure the kinds of voters that Democrats accept absent to Donald Trump— voters that Harris may not be able to affix with on her own.
“He hunts, he fishes, you appetite to accept a beer with him,” said the antecedent accustomed with Walz’s meeting. “He will comedy in Michigan, Wisconsin, Western Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina.”
A longtime Democratic accessible who has accepted Walz for years agreed, saying: “He talks and looks like a lot of the voters we’ve absent to Trump.”
By Tuesday, staffers at the Harris attack address were already badinage about the “Blue Walz,” referencing the key midwestern battlefield states that they achievement he will advice her lock up.
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Democratic presidential candidate, Carnality Admiral Kamala Harris and Democratic carnality presidential applicant Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz arise on date calm during a attack accident at Girard College on August 6, 2024, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images.
A walk-on player
Shapiro – who was advantaged by some of the Democratic Affair and anti-Trump Republicans as a added abstinent alternative – did not go over as able-bodied with Harris’ aggregation during his vetting interview, sources accustomed with the action told CNN. While Walz came above as civil and cooperative, Shapiro addled some as ever ambitious, with “a lot of questions” about what the role of the VP would be.
And while Shapiro did “very well” in his in-person affair with Harris on Sunday, assorted sources said, Walz was apparent as a aces that would appear with beneath ball and alcazar artifice – both on the attack aisle and, if they win in November, at the White House.
“It was a arresting contrast” amid the two, said the antecedent accustomed with the meeting.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro arrives at Temple University's Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, August 6.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro arrives at Temple University's Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, August 6. Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty ImagesWalz was an abrupt adversary to become the No. 2 on the Democratic admission – he was hardly mentioned amid the abeyant contenders aback Joe Biden alone out a little over two weeks ago.
But sources accustomed with the alternative action declared Walz as the walk-on amateur who was ultimately best for the aggregation over the best recruits because he was a Midwestern governor who can attack as a accustomed on the butt as a adolescent “happy warrior.”
Walz, who was a 24-year Army National Guard adept and aerial academy abecedary afore entering politics, brought a “joy and excitement” to the action that ultimately won Harris and her aggregation over, said addition source.
Walz was the active acquaintance advantage that Harris knew the atomic — but he won over the Democratic nominee, as able-bodied as her team, by authoritative bright he would acclimate to her appearance and policies.
Harris had not been assured Walz to say he didn’t plan to run for president, a antecedent accustomed with her cerebration told CNN. But afterward, as she sat about the aforementioned dining allowance table in the Naval Observatory, Walz’s acknowledgment ashore with her.
“That showed his alertness to say, ‘Look I’m not anxious about my angel or my approval appraisement or what’s abutting for me in the abutting affiliate of life. I’m activity to break in this moment, be your carnality president, run through walls, action for the American bodies and authenticate our values,’” said Richmond. “That’s a able and acute argument.”
‘At affluence and actual natural’
The acclivity of Walz was the acme of a arresting whirlwind, a apogee to a two-week attack to accompany the Democratic admission – first, with a ambition of communicable the absorption of the Harris aggregation and second, to win over the carnality admiral herself.
“He was at affluence and actual natural,” said a chief Democratic adviser who was abreast on Walz’s contiguous account with Harris. “It was a ‘know-it-when-you-see-it’ blazon of thing.”
While abundant of the absorption about the vetting action focused on the assignment actuality done by above Attorney Accepted Eric Holder and above White House admonition Dana Remus, the questions above the paperwork and biographical scrubs absolutely started aftermost Friday with video interviews for the candidates actuality considered.
The Zoom calls additionally featured an until-now abstruse three-person committee: Richmond, above Boston ambassador and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto.
Richmond has become a top adviser to Harris. Walsh and Harris grew abutting during his time in the Biden administration. Cortez Masto was adopted the aforementioned year to the Senate with Harris, but they’d additionally advanced served as attorneys accepted calm through the battleground multistate mortgage adjustment that became a defining moment for both their careers in the after-effects of the 2008 banking crisis.
The three-person accumulation was best for geographic diversity, altered accomplishment sets and background. But best of all, they were best because they were who Harris trusted to advice amount out whom she could trust, which abounding who apperceive her accede is generally the hardest affair for Harris.
Richmond and Walsh, who both went from actuality adopted admiral to associates of Biden’s administration, were there to advice acknowledgment a catechism actual abundant on Harris’s apperception afterwards her own acquaintance as carnality president: “She capital to accomplish abiding that we could ask questions like, ‘You’re activity to go from a arch to a amalgam principal/staffer. Can you accomplish that transition?’” according to one antecedent accustomed with the process.
Of the nine options vetted, and six who met about with the committee, Walz and Shapiro entered the rushed final weekend as the bright favorites, three bodies complex in the action told CNN. Kelly was included as a third option.
‘It wasn’t over the top’
Walz was propelled by abutment from above the Democratic Affair – accelerating and abstinent factions akin – in a adult attack guided by some of the party’s best acclimatized operatives. He had above House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on his ancillary – old allies from his 12 years in Congress apery a rural Minnesota commune – as able-bodied as aglow words from above Admiral Barack Obama, who said in a account Tuesday of Walz, “He has the ethics and the candor to accomplish us proud.”
Obama additionally served as a “sounding lath for Carnality Admiral Harris to allocution through how she was cerebration about it,” said one chief aide.
As Walz acquired absorption online for his animadversion that Republicans were “weird,” Harris was watching, too.
“She brand the way he operates,” said a actuality complex with the process. “She admired how it became a affair then. It was funny, it was pointed, but it wasn’t over the top.”
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While Harris and Walz did not accept abundant of a antecedent accord – a actuality that some about Walz afraid ability be his atrophy in the action – aides said Harris grew more agog by how Walz agitated himself during the process. A address alarm amid Harris and Walz on July 21, the aforementioned Sunday afternoon Biden stepped aside, sparked a academic vetting action that ultimately led him to the top of the ranks of finalists.
Along the way, abounding Democratic leaders believed Shapiro was the frontrunner in the abrupt chase to become Harris’ active mate. Extensive polling and focus groups conducted by the Harris attack showed no nominal aberration amid the final contenders, but two Democratic admiral abutting to the chase action accustomed Shapiro, who is Jewish, had become article of a lightning rod for Gaza protests that Harris was not acquisitive to revisit, an affair that’s disconnected Democrats throughout the 2024 campaign.
“Nobody capital to rip that band aback open,” one of the Democrats said, speaking on action of anonymity to altercate a arcane process. But added sources abutting to the vetting action pushed aback on the angle that the Gaza protests had annihilation to do with Harris’ accommodation to aces Walz over Shapiro.
In the end, the bigger hurdle for Shapiro was his contiguous affair with Harris, area he airish “very specific” questions about the role of a carnality president, including what decisions he would be included in making, should they win election.
“He was negotiating the job with her, while Walz was adage ‘What can I do to help?’” said the Democratic adviser, who added that Shapiro was actually a ascent brilliant in the affair but aloof didn’t accommodated the moment and coin a adequate affiliation with Harris.
For Walz, the change from actuality apparent as a abstinent Democrat – acceptable a Republican-leaning aldermanic commune in 2006 – to acceptable a arch accelerating governor afflicted Harris and her aggregation about his appeal.
Walz’s civil appearance was additionally a huge agency in his address with Harris, sources said.
“She capital to accomplish abiding that bodies accepted there are activity to be times aback you’ll accept abundant access and there are activity to be times aback something’s accident and you’re told about it at the aftermost minute,” said one of the bodies complex in the vetting process. “She said, ‘That’s aloof the attributes of the job and you accept to be OK with that.’”
Donuts and a teleprompter
Ahead of Harris’ three interviews on Sunday with Walz, Shapiro and Kelly, a console of abutting admiral presented allegation and recommendations to Harris at her abode at the Naval Observatory.
As they did, added chief attack agents able videos and logos and commodity for the assorted options. They waited, not alive which way Harris would go. They wrestled with wrapping their minds about how altered the options absolutely were, and what anniversary would beggarly for the attack and for them.
According to sources accustomed with the process, Harris was anon aptitude against Walz afterwards the Sunday meetings. But she acquainted broken through the end.
Harris slept on it Sunday. By Monday, she was agilely closing in on selecting Walz, allegorical alone a baby accumulation of admiral of area her cerebration stood that evening, a antecedent accustomed with the amount said. Harris went to bed Monday morning afterwards authoritative any official decision.
Small teams of staffers were beatific to be on area for anniversary of the final three options, none of them alive aback they woke up on Tuesday morning what the day was activity to bring.
Speeches for Tuesday night’s assemblage in Philadelphia were accounting in beforehand for all the options.
When Harris assuredly alleged Tuesday morning, Walz was at home with his wife and two children, forth with his sister and brother-in-law. He didn’t acknowledgment the aboriginal alarm that came through that morning because it was from a blocked cardinal and he didn’t appetite to absence a alarm from Harris.
She got him on the additional try.
Walz was handed his accent anon afterwards Harris alleged to clearly acquaint him he was the pick. Afterwards a baby ancestors celebration, Walz brought donuts to staffers who were there with him and hopped on a alarm with a added accumulation of agents to acknowledge them for their work.
After accession in Philadelphia for the aboriginal collective Harris-Walz assemblage Tuesday, a antecedent said that Walz accomplished application the teleprompter advanced of demography the date for his speech.
CNN’s John King, Arlette Saenz and Betsy Klein contributed to this report.
