it is good to be with you.

i'm chris jansing in for katy tur. tim walz has touched down in philadelphia where he was picked up by u.s. secret service. walz will have full detail when he departs for his rally this evening and where he will appear with kamala harris for the first time as her running mate. what does he bring to the ticket? he's pushed a slate of progressive policies through his state over the years. that includes sweeping protections for abortion rights and capping insulin prices in minnesota years before the biden administration did that nationally. as "the new york times" puts it, he was seen as more of a workhorse than a show boat during his 12-year stint as a congressman. he's popular among his constituents and just so happens to be the first person who publicly called donald trump and republicans quote, weird. a term harris' campaign has seedsed on much to the frustration of the former president and jd vance.

so, what are the potential pitfalls? walz doesn't necessarily bring an electoral upside to the november race, at least if you look at the data. we'll show you what national and statewide history tells us. unlike senator mark kelly for example, he doesn't have a clear public record on border security and unlike pennsylvania governor josh shapiro, he's not from a must win swing state. so, why did kamala harris pick him? joining us now, nbc news washington correspondent who is in philadelphia where harris and walz will hold their first joint rally. maura barrett is in minneapolis. senior editor with the cook political report, david wasserman and politics editor for minnesota public radio, brian bass. he has covered walz for more than 30 years. yamiche, what do we expect tonight's rollout to look like and what are we hearing from tim

walz? >> reporter: well, what we're hearing is that he is ready to get in this fight and will take it to republicans. he's already been out calling him weird and that language has been echoed by the harris campaign. just a few hours they'll make their debut. i expect them to go after republicans and talking about the fact they have a vision that is not aligning with the vision of most americans. they're going to say they want america to go back in the past. i imagine they're going to be talking about the language they've been using say we will not go back, but let's talk about why tim walz ended up being the running mate here. just talking to a source on the phone and that person was walking me through the decision making saying it wasn't about the fact other people weren't good. it was the fact that walz was bringing to the table most of what they want. they said it's kind of like picking a husband. might not have everything you want, but a majority of what you want. he talked about the fact he's a teacher. that he's a hunter, gun owner.

also a veteran of the national guard. he has executive experience and has passed what they say are progressive policies like child tax credit as well as universal school lunch for children. also, he codified roe v. wade and ensured abortion access to women and people in his state. i was also hearing there's a warm rapport. this person said vice president harris went with her gut. with who is the person i believe in my soul and heart and head will help me win this election. they believe he'll be able to talk to midwesterners and he'll be able to help build a coalition tailored to her and him. i was told as they were talking about this and getting ready, the idea they wanted someone who wasn't going to sabotage her down the line. she's going to be if elected the first black woman, first south asian woman, first woman ever if she wins this election and she wanted someone who's going to be comfortable taking the lead from

a woman and wasn't going to undermine her. so they're very excited about tim walz and from what i can see with the merchandise and with the videos and all this stuff, he is very excited to be on the ticket with her. >> it's a fun analogy with the husband. not many people get to choose their work husband so to speak. >> reporter: no offense so my husband, of course. he's everything i wanted. >> i know he ticks every single box. i just want to say that publicly. thank you for that, yamiche. maura, i want to go to you because you're in walz's neighborhood and i wonder how the locals there have been reacting to the news. >> reporter: a lot of excitement, understandably, chris, especially as a lot of people across the country don't know or aren't familiar with walz. but here in minnesota, they are very familiar with him and they're very excited. one person telling me this morning as a group of people gathered outside to try to get a glimpse of the potential next vice president, one person told

me here in minnesota, we grow vice presidents. so they're very proud of that historical fact. proud that they're adding walz to this list. i want you to hear more from my conversations this morning. >> i was telling my friends he was the sure pick. i just felt he was a strong candidate for this position and he's a great guy. you know, they do a lot of fund raising things here so it's a little bit of a disturbance sometimes so oftentimes, they will invite the neighborhood over for a little gathering. >> when i turned on the news, it was startling. i knew he was a finalist but hearing it firsthand was a welcome surprise. i'm very happy and very proud to be a minnesotan right now. >> reporter: do you think it will land well in the battleground states? >> it really will. >> he was masterful in getting us through the pandemic. his leadership was stellar. you know, and that, so to see that kind of leadership, like, oh, wow, he's going to bring that to a national stage.

>> reporter: so at least here in the minneapolis area, folks really excited to see him get on the road with kamala harris. we just saw him posting a selfie with his family saying walz is assembled. they're on their way to the rally for tonight. now, in terms of a pulse when i'm talking to democratic strategists here in minnesota that have worked with walz for a very long time, one telling me they think he can be very approachable. can walk into any room in the country because he speaks plainly. this source laying out he can walk into any dfw and be welcomed, can go to any gun range and outshoot anybody as well as any center and be welcomed by youth and youth leaders. that's something that's going to have to continued to be proven. there's optimism that he can relate to most people, but he has to come up from behind when it comes to that name recognition in making sure people in other midwestern

states that follow differently on the issues here in minnesota have to grow and accept him with harris on the ticket. overall, a real excitement that was clear on the ground here in minnesota this morning. >> that's one of the key questions. can he really help with the midwest nice. i want to play a little bit of the rollout, the first campaign ad for the combined ticket. the harris walz ticket. this came out just about an hour ago. here's a little clip of it. >> i worked with republicans to pass an infrastructure bill. cut taxes for working families. signed paid leave into law. i codified abortion rights after roe got overturned. because i go to work for the common good. but enough about me. let's talk about you. because that's what this election is about. it's about your future. it's about your family. and vice president harris knows that. she, too, grew up in a middle class family. she, too, goes to work every day making sure families cannot just get by, but get ahead. we believe in the promise of

america, in those values i learned in nebraska and we're ready to fight for them because as kamala harris says, when we fight -- >> we win! >> i want to get to dave in a minute, but brian, let me ask you about the people part of this and one of the things we know that harris' team was looking for was somebody who could appeal to the white male voter who doesn't love donald trump but maybe is a little uncomfortable with kamala harris. who is the guy you've been covering and can he do that? >> there's a real contrast in biography. he's not this east coast guy who went to a big, elite college. he went to shadron state in nebraska. he basically burst on to the scene in 2006. nobody saw him coming in the congressional race. he did it all by himself, really, without a lot of support from the major committees and he held on in a district that has really changed around him. he won in a district where donald trump won just barely,

but he's been a survivor. he's a good retail politician. he likes to get out there. it will be interesting to see how much the harris campaign puts him out there in these smaller settings to go to county or state fairs and just really glad hand. they're leaning into his biography. they want to make the case that this former classroom teacher turned politician still has kind of that feet in the classroom. >> yeah, it will be interesting. county fairs, state fairs. friday night football games in some of those small towns. the kind that he grew up in. so, dave, i mentioned walz doesn't bring an obvious advantage with the electoral map if you compare his 2022 governor's race with president biden's performance in minnesota. the counties they won. they're almost identical so he didn't outperform biden statewide. but do you see ways in which he does help? >> well, i would point out we actually did meet with tim walz when he was a congressional

candidate in 2006 and afterwards, we moved that race to toss up. so we've covered him for quite a while. he's a safe pick in the sense he's likable. he's earnest. teacher, veteran. has not only governing experience in st. paul, but good relationships on capitol hill, which was critical in this selection process. the fact that nancy pelosi really likes her house democrats and has the ear of kamala harris and others. but he's also a risky pick in this sense that kamala harris probably needs more than where she's at right now in the polls to ultimately win. and even with the bump that she's gotten, she probably needs to be ahead by two points to win the electoral college and pennsylvania is such a critical state that picking someone who is less known there is a risk in and of itself. had josh shapiro been the pick, i think philly would have been electric tonight, but now i think the mood among democrats is more excited but curious about who tim walz is.

>> yeah, i have to say i was looking at the philadelphia inquirer and i think one of the headlines was something like disappointment is setting in. they were kind of hoping for shapiro. but dave, i also want to talk about minnesota's first congressional district before running for governor in 2018 again, he represented a seat that is solidly republican and as you said, you've been reporting on this district for years. and in 2017, you said its attitude tends to shift quickly. so he presided over a rural republican leaning district before. but didn't necessarily translate to other red districts across the state as governor. is that potentially a window into what we might see in terms of his appeal for harris? >> spent the past few days talking with a lot of minnesota farmers some of whom live in his district and used to vote for him reliably. the issue that really catapulted him in 2006 over a republican was the iraq war and the fact that he was a veteran and kind

of a mom and pop candidate who broke through at a time when voters were really dissatisfied with george bush and the course of the iraq war. but the perception since he got elected governor and i think we saw his margins begin to winnow in the mid 2010s when he came within thousands of votes of losing his seat when trump won in 2016. still impressive that he won, but the perception since he's been elected governor is that he's governed the left. and i don't think tim walz today could carry his congressional district if he were hypothetically on the ballot for congress. i doubt the harris walz ticket will carry that ticket in november, but the goal is to get closer if you're a democrat. >> you lead me to another question for brian because on one hand, walz is being advertised as this super

progressive figure. best choice among the vp finalists some argued who can bring voters into the fold. he has that lived experience, but square that circle for us. can he be both? >> evolved politically over the years. he was this nra-backed democrat. he was a blue dog democrat who hasn't really kind of held to that throughout his career. he was elected in 2022 along with a democratic house and senate for the first time. under his watch and they really put the medal to the medal. he likes to say how he doesn't accumulate political capital and sit on it. he wanted to use it. they adopted a very left leaning list of things and he's not shy about it. even when he ran in 2018, he ran for posing a gas tax. he didn't get it in his first term but he hasn't been shy about picking up issues that may not be the type that a lot of politicians want to touch.

>> do we know, yamiche, how much interaction kamala harris has had with governor walz over the years? we keep hearing and your reporting has been fantastic about the chemistry she felt with him, but how well do they really know each other and can you give us any more insight into what these last few weeks have been in terms of interaction between the vice president and her new vice presidential running mate? >> it's a great question. from what i understand, they knew each other somewhat. i don't know that they were particularly close, but what i can tell you is she's familiar with his background. i was talking to the attorney general of minnesota this morning and he told me some things that i didn't really realize, which is one that tim walz was instrumental in getting the prosecution of the officer who killed murdered now we can say george floyd. it was him who took that case out of the hands of both county

prosecutor and put it in the hands of keith eliassen. he's also someone who appointed the first black woman on the minnesota state supreme court. so he's been someone who's been time and time again with issues of diversity, of pushing forward a vision that democrats believe should be part of this country which is an inclusive america. that's part of what they've known each other about and how they've had a little history but it has been in the last few weeks getting to know his background. getting to trust her vetting team. we have new information about how they did this. they started with about nine people. whitt led et down to six and only three people. mark kelly, josh shapiro, and tim walz got final in-person interviews. it was in that moment where she had to make this fast decision and really trusted her gut. >> and slept on it last night and made it this morning. we just got in a video from the campaign. it's the moment when harris

called walz to say you're the guy. let's watch. >> hi, this is tim. >> it's kamala harris. good morning, governor. >> good morning, madame vice president. >> listen, i want you to do this with me. let's do this together. would you be my running mate and let's get this thing on the road? >> i would be honored, madame vice president. the joy that you're bringing back to the country, the enthusiasm that's out there, it will be a privilege to take this with you across the country. >> well, let me tell you, i have the utmost respect for you. i have really enjoyed our work together. you understand our country. you have dedicated yourself to our country in so many different and beautiful ways and we're going to do this. we're going to win. and we're going to unify our country and remind everyone that we are fighting for the future for everyone. so let's get out there and get this done, okay? >> let's do it. do the work in front. let's win this thing. >> that's right.

all right, buddy, i'll see you soon, take care. bye. >> and so there it is. and you know him. you've covered him, brian. the guy that you know, what kind of campaigner is he going to be? you asked the question about where they might send him. but what's he like on the trail? >> he'll hustle for sure. he'll get around and won't be outworked. he doesn't like to sit still. you note in that video that he was in his pants and t-shirt. you'll see him a lot like that because he would much rather be na that attire. i would to underscore something yamiche said with him helping prop up other propositions. he has a lieutenant governor, a native american pick. and it wasn't just a pick for political reasons. those two have been inseparable and he really sees her as a governing partner. i wonder if that type of relationship will be one that

he'll hope to have with kamala harris. >> yeah, we should also say that should he win election as vice president, it will be a historic ascension to governor for the first native american woman, right, as governor, in minnesota. thank you for that. appreciate all our guests but joining us now, former congresswoman and msnbc political analyst, donna edwards and co-host of the weekend and former chief spokesperson for vice president harris. i keep going back to the fact that this was such a compressed time period. there was a lot to get through. harris had a lot of good help. but in the end, this decision was hers and hers alone. i think we were expecting it last night. she said she needed to sleep on it. does anything that you've seen in this process, including the selection, surprise you?

sorry, simone. >> you know, it doesn't surprise me, chris. it doesn't surprise me at all. the vice president is someone who when under pressure, she rises to the occasion. she's no stranger to a deadline. she used to be a prosecutor for so many years. in my experience of working with her, she wants the staff and advisers to do their work. she wants people, she respects folks who have an opinion and a thought and she wants folks to give their recommendation. but at the end of the day, she knows that she is the person who has to make the decision. it matters that there are a lot of, people had a lot of recommendations here. there were folks that, there were people that said governor walz would be amazing. there were folks who said maybe one of these other candidates would be good. what the vice president made clear today is that she is in the driver's seat here. this is the decision she made and she knows what she was

looking for. this isn't just about someone who's going to help you get to 270. the goal while campaigning, the fun part, i spent my time in democratic politics in campaigns for years. governing is the hard part and the part where you do need that partner and someone that you can trust that can deliver for you. governor walz is someone that can go down to the hill and get some votes. governor walz is pick up the phone and call some other governors, the vice president can as well. but the things that fall to the vice president's desk is everything that the president can't do. him or herself. and vice president harris knows that. having had done that and is doing that now for president biden. so i think she saw in governor walz someone that she can get along with. they don't know each other well, but it's my understanding when he sat down for his meeting with her, they clicked instantly. and the last thing i'll note is i'm a native omahan and walz is a native nebraskan and if you've

ever had the pleasure of meeting him, he's very just likable. when you sit down and talk to him, it's like, oh, my goodness. he's a joy to be around. i think that that piece was also something is my understanding that helped propel him to the top of the list. just the initial rapport between the two. >> it's interesting because maybe humility isn't the right word to use for any politician who's been successful because there's a certain amount of egoinvolved in that, right, but i thought it was very telling that the campaign was very forthright that one of the things she was looking for, you can put it as trust, but also as someone who as every vice president must be, was willing to be in the shadow of the president and not just any president. but a woman of color. any woman who has achieved, maybe many who have certainly not gotten to that level, know what it is to have some men who

work for them. even some women who work for them. who find it difficult and she and her campaign put it out there and said look. this is what the job is. and she's lived it, right? >> yeah. she's lived it. i do find it interesting. again, i don't know for sure, but i find it interesting that this is the messaging that made its way into the public ethos. i do not doubt that was obviously a conversation amongst the folks internally. i find it interesting that that is what we are hearing. yes, at the end of the day, you don't want to pick somebody who you're going to spend the next four years looking over your shoulder wondering if they're going to undermine you because they, too, want to run for president in 2028. that's also a consideration they had to look at. vice president harris, she ran for president before. part of the reason president biden picked her is because she was battle tested. and that campaign that she ran

in the president's mind made her battle tested in a way that some of the other particular candidates were not. now she is running her own race for president and in about 90 days, folks will go to the ballot box finally and she could be the next president of the united states of america. she would be a first time president if she gets elected therefore looking at a potential another four years. so there was that dichotomy, governor shapiro was someone named as a potential when as i like to say when folks were trying to nudge the president to make a decision about if he was going to stay in after he had made a decision. people can do with that what they will. governor shapiro was mentioned as a potential replacement. again, people trying to completely overlook vice president harris. no knock on governor shapiro and i think the last point that should be made here is when it comes to the vetting process, it's usually private. it's private because you don't want anyone to have negative

blowback because they were not picked for a job they did not asked for. the candidate asked these potential running mates would you like to be vetted. so shapiro is a great governor. the other that were named are great elected officials and public servants. this is just about what the vice president felt she needed for her and her campaign and whatever decision she made was going to be the right one. >> so, donna, you know him. you've worked with him as a member and the ticket is obviously expected to focus on trying to unify the country. they want to provide that contrast. and he gave a, people call him plain spoken a lot of times. being plain spoken is sometimes the most difficult thing to be in politics. i want to play a little bit for you of what he talked to ezra klein about last week. take a listen. >> i keep coming back to this.

if they're not voting for us, there's not something wrong with them. there's something that's not quite clicking of where it's at so don't assume they're just not clever enough to understand what you're selling them. i think the democrats way out of this with optimism and a sense of grace towards folks. i want to be very careful. those folks at those rallies, you insult them at great peril. your neighbor who's flying the flag, you insult them because you said it. they're my relatives. they truly are and i know them. >> tell us about the sensibility of the guy you worked with and how he'll stack up against jd vance. >> well, i have to tell you, i mean, i'm trying to separate being an analyst from being a former colleague and a friend. i think that tim walz does a really good job of speaking across the spectrum. and i think that's really important. when i, we served together and he was a classmate, but when we served together, he had an

ability to travel across the democratic caucus and over across the aisle with republicans and i think that that speaks really well of him because you can't just put him in any one bucket and i think he understands the importance of speaking for example across rural america and with urban americans. i think he can see that in the way he has grown to govern the state of minnesota. and so i look at this choice as frankly a smart choice. i think some people have described it as a safe choice. i think it's actually a very bold choice to choose somebody who presents that kind of diversity and perspective and also somebody who will be a strong and effective governing partner when the campaigning is all over. so you know, look, there was no wrong choice among the democrats who were under consideration. but this is a smart and

strategic approach and it's also very pragmatic and i think tim walz really will do a great job reaching across the spectrum of americans to bring us together. >> donna, simone, thank you both very much. coming up, the trump campaign is already hitting back at vp harris' running mate. what they are saying about tim walz. but first, what pennsylvanians think about harris picked walz over their governor. picked walz over their governor. powerful yet non-addictive. targeted and long-lasting. i recommend salonpas. it's good medicine. ♪ hisamitsu ♪ they get it. they know how it works. and most importantly, it works for them. it's good medicine. i don't have any anxiety about money anymore. i don't have to worry about a mortgage payment every month. it allowed me to live in my home and not have to make payments. if you're 62 or older and own your home, you could access a portion of your equity to improve your lifestyle.

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about two hours from now, harris and walz will make their first stop introducing themselves as a team to voters in must win battleground states. the tour begins in philadelphia. the backyard of her second choice, governor josh shapiro. joining us now, pennsylvania state representative, malcolm.

good to see you again. he's not your guy. i know from reading the philadelphia paper, there's some disappoint in pennsylvania but i wonder what your reaction is to harris' choice of tim walz. >> well, this is why i'm happy you're talking to a pennsylvania. you walk around this stadium, there's no disappointment. there are people excited about harris being our next president and who stand by this most important choice that she had to make. the vice president had the unenviable task of picking amongst a group of really incredible americans and democrats. there's tho way to choose a bad scoop of ice cream. she had only good options and i think some of the same reasons that folks here in pennsylvania you know talked about josh shapiro as an incredible option was because of the same reasons tim walz was the right option for harris. he listens to folks. he shows up. he's somebody who works across the aisle to get important

things done for work and families and everybody in this room and across this commonwealth, democrats are united among the vice president and governor walz to become the next vice president. >> how much did you know about him before this process began? and what role do you think he can play in philly and in pennsylvania in general? there's all this talk about you know, midwestern nice, but i know as somebody from ohio, you don't always think that the other midwestern states are exactly like you. >> yeah. you know, listen, i'm somebody who's running statewide. i spend a lot of time in rural parts of the commonwealth and i'm telling you, i cannot wait to see tim walz at every pennsylvania state fair that the campaign will let me take him to. he is somebody who just exudes a joy and i think that that is what americans want. we're sick of the divisiveness. of the anger. we're sick of the lies from

donald trump. we want somebody promoting a positive vision for the future. you see somebody that got free lunch passed. capped the cost of insulin at 35 bucks. somebody who has a past universal background checks. cut taxes for middle class families. that is the type of messaging, the type of leader and partner that i think the vice president was so smart in choosing and i'm telling you we are going to win pennsylvania and this won't be the first stop of tim walz. not just in philadelphia, but in my legislative district. donald trump wishes he could have a crowd like this and could have a message frankly that resonates with the american people and that's what we're seeing come out of the harris walz campaign. a message about the american people while donald trump is still talking about himself. >> so you're deep into the strategy sessions about how you win statewide.

help me extrapolate from that how it goes to the harris walz campaign. the numbers have been good i think in the 15 days since harris was essentially named to the team. 33,000 people have signed up to volunteer. pennsylvania has almost 300 staffers working in 36 offices across the state. that's a lot of folks, right? but how do you take that and take the enthusiasm you say exists in the room where you are right now and turn it into a win? what will you be looking at and where will you be looking within pennsylvania? >> you know, since vice president harris became our presumptive nominee and as of this morning, our nominee, we have seen people, not just posting on social media, but signing up for shifts showing up to the local community offices like we have right in north philly talking to their neighbors about the future they want to see. you know, this is personal to folks here in pennsylvania.

we are, we understand that we've made so much progress under the biden harris administration and as the vice president will say today, we're not going back. and so you're seeing it really operationalize. you're seeing people not only you know call their neighbors but bringing people to the office. i was blown away when my husband said he went to do his weekly shifts at the neighborhood office and he said i'm bringing some friends with me who weren't interested in going a couple of weeks ago but who are now showing up with him. i'll tell you in terms of the numbers. dr. anna greenberg put out a survey yesterday showing vice president harris up by four points here. you win pennsylvania with a real message that cuts across. she has a message for every part of our commonwealth and we have the infrastructure to go out and deliver that message. that's what campaigns are about. good candidates with a serious message and the operation to go

deliver that message to doors. and we have the best possible candidates with a message about lowering costs for working families, making people safe in their communities, making housing more accessible. canceling medical debt. and we have the campaign staff and the volunteers to go out and deliver that message into every single part of the commonwealth. donald trump is going to continue to lie, distort his record and talk about himself. that is a strategy to lose in pennsylvania and tonight, you are going to hear our future president, future vice president, talk not just about how you win a campaign, but about how you deliver for working people in ways they can see, touch, and feel. >> thank you so much. it's good to see you. if the republican party is having trouble defining harris, how will they define walz? what the republican vp pick, jd vance, just told reporters. and of course, we'll speak to the people who matter the most. voters.

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she has arrived. there you see her coming off the plane. kamala harris and the second gentleman. she's headed to temple university where she'll meet up with tim walz and they're going to kick off a swing state tour. five states she and biden flipped in 2020. she's also going to stop in north carolina which biden lost by a slim margin. nevada where democrats won narrowly. but the crowds are gathering at temple university in philadelphia right now. republicans have been having a hard time kind of nailing a plan of attack against vice president harris so what will they do with her running mate? governor tim walz? because as far as targets go, walz is sometimes tricky to pin

down. he's anything but a coastal elite or an ivy leaguer. almost folksy. he taught high school. in fact, he coached a state-winning football team. that gets you far in the midwest. he owns gun, hunts. he served more than two deck decades in the national guard. before being tapped, he was the first democrat called donald trump and jd vance an insult so simple and so viral it did seem to get under their skin. >> these are weird people on the other side. they want to take books away. these are weird ideas. >> i'm a lot of things but weird i'm not. jd is not at all. they are. >> did you see that? >> it was like a clip of -- >> i know the kamala campaign wants to call me weird.

i'm a pretty normal guy. i've got a wife and kids and i like to hang out. >> that has been one of the more interesting things to watch is the reaction to a simple word, weird. does the trump campaign have something similar, new, fresh connecting than the same kinds of things we've heard from them in the past like dangerously liberal. >> not so far. radical. leftist. i think this is the part where it doesn't really matter who the candidate is. tim walz isn't really a known commodity to the vast majority of americans. and so this is an opportunity politically speaking that they're going to try to frame and label him a certain type of political figure here. it's now up to the democrats to use a rally in pennsylvania. rally in michigan, in wisconsin. the democratic national convention to introduce him to the american public. he's not new to minnesotans. he's been the governor for six years. he served in congress for 12

years here and i think when you're looking at this race, vance versus walz, politics is supposed to be the passage of policies and the passage of legislation to better people through lived experience. i think this is where you see both men coming here from the midwest and what you have in tim walz is somebody who has a track record. he signed an executive order for gender affirming care. he codified roe protections for abortion protections in the state of minnesota. he provided free lunch to school children in the state of minnesota here. he was in congress during efforts to pass bipartisan immigration legislation here. and so when those two take the debate stage, this is where the -- >> if they take the debate stage. >> this is going to be the clear contrast here where tim walz is going to point to a record and history of actually efforts to pass legislation and policy that has impacts off of his own biographer versus if you look at

vance, the country largely became familiar with him through his own book, the movie, but also the republican national convention. you heard him emphasize his midwest root. walz is going to do the same but he's going to offer an extension of that, what does that lived experience in the midwest ultimately lead him to public office and public service in this implications impact it had on people. >> always good to see you, my friend. you're going to be headed to montana, right, for the one trump appearance. thank you. good to see you. let me bring in nbc news chief political analyst, chuck todd. claire mccaskill this morning called walz the guy jd vance is pretending to be. always a clever line from her, but let me tell you who walz is according to the campaign. they just put out a statement saying that the team harris walz has raised more than $10 million from grass roots supporters since this announcement. making it one of the campaign's best fund raising days this

cycle. this campaign has been on a roll, but is walz everything that the campaign says he's cracked up to be? >> i think it depends. your point of view is so subjective. i think a lot of it has to do with your point of view of how you're going to win this campaign. is this a turnout election or persuasion campaign? i think kamala harris party leader made the choice that was going to be the least disruptive inside her own party. there's no doubt we see there was a public campaign against shapiro that even got john fetterman to go public of his concerns about shapiro's running mate. there's a smaller campaign that was against mark kelly in arizona. you didn't see anything like that with tim walz. so i think that's why i put it in the do no harm category because as a party, look, and i'm, think about the position kamala harris is in. she just became the leader of the party about two weeks ago. so the last thing she needs is a disruptive convention and it

wouldn't, if you told me that that mattered to her at the end, i see no fault in that. that is you know, you've got a campaign to run in less than 100 days. you can't have all these brush fires at your own convention. whether it's over school vouchers are shapiro. immigration issues with mark kelly or gaza issues also which could have been brought up with shapiro. so, i understand the rationale behind it and i think when i think about the things that i'm aware of that vice president harris hasn't loved about her time as vice president, i don't think she loves the relationship that president biden built with her. i think she wants a different relationship. and i think that she views the ability to push back in public forums as something that's necessary in a running mate. and i think she's been very impressed with tim walz's skill on tv and how to, you brought up the weird thing. i think that mattered here at the end in her decision making.

>> yeah, i was saying this earlier that people talk about him being plain spoken. being plain spoken and effective in a political campaign is a very high level skill. but let me ask you about how you think he can make best be used. already a couple of people who have been on over the last couple of hours has said we hope to see him at the state fairs. the county fairs. i was saying this guy was a football coach, part of a coaching team that took them to a state championship. will they send him out to friday night football games. what role do you think, we always talk about how we overstate the value of a vice presidential pick, but what role can he play for kamala harris? >> i think number one is i think he's the guy they put on that s talking to that audience. that's number one. i think you bring up a good point about high school football. in particular, i certainly -- i know we talk about because he's a great lakes governor that, oh, it makes sense the other great

lakes states are where you plop him down and let him campaign. but he's also a national guard veteran. and i think about north carolina and georgia and arizona, three states that have a higher than average amount of military retirees. i would be sending him into those communities. yeah, i would be going to friday night lights in georgia and friday night football in north carolina, particularly i know you're from ohio, an adopted state of the south that cares about high school football -- >> a lot. >> well, the south, florida, georgia, north carolina, as a floridian, i can tell you, we equal that. i think he could be an asset. he's a democrat that can go into non-democratic communities and explain where that ticket stands. i don't think he's too centrist, but i think they view him as being able to translate progressive politics into

everyday american lives. >> yeah, i also think it's interesting, i wish we had time to talk about it, he had at one point had a 100% rating with the nra, in the aftermath of a mass shooting, he went to what people call common sense legislation that i think a lot of polls show us americans agree on. it will be interesting to see this roll out. chuck todd, always good to see you. thank you for coming on. up next we're on the ground in a critical swing state. what voters in michigan, another big football state, have to say about harris' new running mate. i have moderate to severe crohn's disease. now, there's skyrizi. ♪ things are looking up ♪ ♪ i've got symptom relief ♪ ♪ control of my crohn's means everything to me ♪ (♪♪) ♪ control is everything to me ♪

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walmart and drinkcirkul.com. vice president kamala harris picked minnesota's governor as her running mate. but it's voters in swing states like michigan who will decide the outcome of the 2024 election. joining us now, nbc news correspondent shaquille brewster, in detroit for us. what are the voters telling you? >> reporter: for the most part, democratic voters who have come to participate in today's democratic primary here in michigan said that they were supportive of the vice president's pick. now, that's not to say that they didn't have favorites. there are several names that went out there and that they talked about. but you got the sense that voters here were trusting the vice president to make this decision. i want you to listen to a sample of those conversations. >> we just learned that vice president harris selected tim walz as her -- >> oh, she did? >> she did.

how do you feel about that? >> okay, i guess. she had all good candidates. >> i would have liked kelly. >> mark kelly in arizona? >> sure. >> why kelly? >> because, again, i know who he is. he's an astronaut, everybody loves an astronaut. >> were there any names that you wanted to see? >> whitmer, of course. >> you wanted governor whitmer. why whitmer? >> i love her as a governor and i think she would be an asset to the country. >> gretchen whitmer, of course, being the governor of the state. you hear some hometown favoritism there. one decided voter told me that she wants to learn a little bit more about governor walz. she doesn't know much about him. she's heard his name throughout this process. but there's some more research she wants to get done. but a lot of voters also said they have heard about him and they know that he's a strong supporter of unions, which of course, is a big thing and could have a big impact here in detroit. >> and you're talking to folks who really are involved in the process, because it's election day there.

these august elections often get very small turnout. so very interesting to hear what those voters had to say. shaquille brewster, always good to see you. thank you so much. and that's going to do it for me. i'm chris jansing in for katy tur. "deadline: white house" starts after this quick break. like doors opening wherever i go... [sound of airplane overhead] even the ground is moving for me! y'all seeing this? wild! and i don't even have to activate anything. oooooohhh... automatic sashimi! earn cash back that automatically adjusts to how you spend with the citi custom cash® card. [mind blown explosion noise] one thing we know is true: no matter race, gender, ethnicity... the need to screen when due... for colon cancer's a priority. indeed! everyone 45+ at average risk should screen for colon cancer. these folks are getting it

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hi, everyone. it's 4:00 in new york. a beloved former civics teacher and football coach from the