Minnesota Governor Tim Walz joked about his “interesting” first week as Kamala Harris’s vice presidential candidate and criticized Donald Trump’s background during a fundraiser in Denver on Wednesday that raised $3 million for the campaign.
“This week has been interesting,” Walz told about 150 attendees in the backyard of the 3,000-square-foot Phipps Mansion, owned by major Democratic donor Tim Gill. “That’s a Minnesota word, ‘interesting’ – so you Minnesotans know it has multiple meanings.”
He said he was selected by Harris last week and shortly thereafter put on a plane to a rally in Philadelphia, where he was told: “Here, you have 45 minutes to read this speech from the teleprompter.”
“Perhaps I forgot to tell you,” Walz said amid laughter and cheers, “that I have never used a teleprompter in my life.”
The fundraiser was part of Walz’s first solo trip since joining Harris’s ticket, a three-day, five-state tour. During his 15-minute stop in Denver in the early afternoon, Walz praised Harris’ “politics of kindness” and joked with Gov. Jared Polis, his former congressional colleague and baseball teammate.
He also criticized Republican candidate Trump, drawing a contrast between Harris’ background – both as a prosecutor and a former McDonald’s employee – and that of the former president.
Walz said he recently asked union leaders in California if they could imagine Trump making a McFlurry. Paraphrasing a statement Harris made at a rally, he said the vice president had taken action against “con artists” and “predators,” adding, “We know who that might be.”
He said there was “no safety net” when speaking to the large crowds that are common in presidential campaigns.
Polis, who had introduced him, intervened: “Are you saying that not all of them are AI?”
This was a reference to a false claim Trump had made in recent days: that the Harris team had used artificial intelligence to inflate the size of the crowd in a photo at a campaign rally in Michigan.
“I assure you, it was not AI in Detroit, and I also assure you that not a single ballot you cast there will have an AI voice on it,” Walz replied to cheers.
Trump was recently in Colorado and stopped in Aspen on Saturday during a multi-state Mountain West tour where he said he raised $28 million. Since Harris chose Walz, Republicans have focused their attacks on aspects of his more than two decades of service in the National Guard, but that topic was barely discussed at the Denver fundraiser.
Gill announced that $3 million had been raised for the Harris Victory Fund on Wednesday. Also in attendance were former U.S. Reps. John Salazar and Ed Perlmutter, current U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb and former Speaker of the state House Alec Garnett, now Polis’ chief of staff.
Walz spoke generally about Democratic priorities and ideals – such as supporting “sensible gun control” and combating climate change and poverty – but made few concrete policy proposals.
Polis said he advised Walz not to spend campaign money on a win in Colorado, which has been reliably blue in recent years and voted for Biden and Trump by 13.5 percentage points in 2020. Polis said the presence of Harris and Walz on the ballot would be enough to bolster Democrats’ efforts at the polls, which would help them secure a two-thirds majority in the state’s House of Representatives and achieve a similar margin in the Senate.
Nevertheless, Walz urged participants to continue working in the remaining 83 days until Election Day.
“Sleep when you are dead,” he said.
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