by Three days after Secret Service agents protecting former president Donald Trump shot a gunman who allegedly lay in wait for him while he was golfing at one of his country clubs, the Harris-Walz presidential campaign continues continue with business as usual.
In Minneapolis, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz refused to address the horrific events — the second attempt on the Republican presidential nominee’s life since a bullet came within inches of killing him during a July rally in Butler, Pennsylvania — as he board the campaign aircraft for a while. swing through the battleground states of Georgia and North Carolina. Hours later, when the plane landed in Macon, Georgia, Walz did not answer questions from a shout-out. The Independent asking him if he had a reaction to the attempted shooting. But he finally addressed the situation the next morning when he arrived at the Harris-Walz field office in East Macon.
As campaign volunteers — arranged at long tables throughout the office for phone banking — watched intently, Walz said it was “worth noting” what happened to Trump in Florida.
He said it was a “terrible situation” and said he was “grateful” for the Secret Service and law enforcement, referring to the security detail surrounding the room where he spoke as he did. He also said he was “grateful” Trump was safe.
“I think we all know that we are not going to resolve our differences in this country with violence. We condemn it in all forms. We settle our differences at the ballot box. That’s how this is done,” Walz added.
Traveling with current friend Kamala Harris can be a surreal affair. Instead of the downsides of dealing with the Transportation Security Administration, airport security is a dog sniffing your gear and a Secret Service agent sifting through your luggage while sitting on a hot airport tarmac. You stand under the wing of the plane as its motor comes on, shouting queries at the top of your lungs as you hum an idle turbofan engine hoping Walz will agree to return a response that is so hard to hear.
Once on board, if you’re lucky enough to be offered anything to eat by the flight attendants on the charter aircraft, you make it a point to eat it – whatever it is – like when you’re in the vans that depart reporters from event to country. going off as part of a lights and siren motorcade, you never know when you’ll have the chance to eat something to keep your energy up.
The governor of the North Star State would refuse to answer a question from The Independent on his response to Trump blaming the two assassination attempts on the rhetoric used by Vice President Kamala Harris and other major Democrats.
Although Walz comes off as a quiet presence who wouldn’t normally hesitate to mix it up with reporters, the Harris-Walz campaign has gone to great lengths to keep the two “principals” from taking too many press questions, even while traveling side by side during journalists. And this week, Walz was encased at the front of the aircraft with rows and rows of staff – and an armed Secret Service – between him and the press cabin, which was located in the back of the plane.
That means it’s not unusual to want to ask questions multiple times before you get an answer — or to wait until you get to an event where the vice president or her current partner is scheduled to comment.
Speaking to an audience of volunteers and enthusiastic supporters in Macon after we landed, Walz told them they “clearly understood” that this idea of democracy was “a joy to be a part of,” ” in particular. since “billions of people around the world” are unable to decide their own elected representatives.
The election that Americans will participate in next November, he continued, will focus on whether the country is “a place where the middle class is put forward, or a place where billionaires are put forward,” and will decide is America “a place where. Our politics is an effort….”
“Politics is about the people. Politics is about everyone important and everyone is welcome. That’s what we know,” he said. “It’s not about the lowest common denominator.” Referring to Vice President Harris, Walz said that “a lesson that Donald Trump could learn” about democracy is that the real leaders are “the ones who lift people up” rather than “the ones who beat other people down.”
The governor’s comments came as he opened his half-day visit to Georgia, which is set to conclude with engagements in Atlanta before moving on to North Carolina for a campaign rally.
The Peach State narrowly delivered its electoral votes to President Joe Biden four years ago. Until Biden left the presidential race in July, it looked like he would rejoin the Republican column this past November. But Harris’ rise to the top of the Democratic ticket and her choice of Walz as her running mate have treated the race in unprecedented fashion.
With election day less than 50 days away, the combination of Harris – the first Black woman to top a presidential ticket – and Walz, a former National Guard soldier and teacher-turned-politician, is out of the new race in the state which is going towards the Democrats. for years. Even with Republicans still locking up all but two statewide offices in Georgia, the GOP knows it can’t get too comfortable.
In fact, a recent poll showed Harris cutting into Trump’s lead in Georgia or giving herself a small lead. Average poll from Five Thirty Eight that she shows only four tenths of a percent behind him, 47.6 percent to 47.2 percent.
Polling average calculated by The Hill and Decision Desk Headquarters shows her only three-tenths of a point behind Trump, 48 percent to 47.7 percent.
One Harris-Walz staffer working on the campaign’s efforts in the state said Georgia is “absolutely on board” this time. And Walz told the volunteers in Macon as much as he wrapped up his comments.
He said that it will definitely be a close election, and the result will be determined not by pressure on social media but by hard work on the ground.
“This will not be won in a Twitter fight. It will be neighbors calling neighbors on the phone,” he said. “I think one of the things is that we know it’s going to be a close race. It’s going to come down to a few states. Georgia is probably in the middle of that a lot. That’s the privilege. It’s a privilege that you have because you are the people in this room who could make a big difference in getting Kamala Harris as Madam President.”
