After Kamala Harris announced Tim Walz as her vice presidential candidate, the Media Research Center went on repeated tirades against people saying nice things about him:
- ‘Perfect Backstory’ ABC Cheers Kamala Picking ‘Folksy’, ‘Moderate’, ‘Plainspoken’ Walz
- NBC: ‘Moderate’ Walz Looks ‘Like a Lot of Dads,’ Hails Ticket As ‘A Beautiful Mosaic’
- The View Cast Reacts to Walz VP Pick: ‘Will Bring Smarts and Fun Back’
- CBS Hot and Bothered by Kamala Choosing ‘Amiable’, ‘Centrist’, ‘Scrappy’ Tim Walz
- ‘Twinkle’-Eye Tim: Morning Joe Fawns Over ‘Happy Warrior’ Walz
- ABC, CBS, NBC Give A Warm Regime Media Welcome To Tim Walz
- ABC Giddily Celebrates ‘Folksy’ Tim Walz’s ‘Meteoric’ ‘Rise’ to Kamala Running Mate
- NBC Buoyed by ‘Raucous Opening’ for ‘Plainspoken’ Walz Oozing ‘Relatability’
- ‘Got a Lot Done’: Daily Show Lauds Walz Selection
But the MRC was also feverishly constructing ways to attack Walz — presumably working in the background with the Trump campaign. First up was to hype claims that the pick of Walz instead of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro was a sop to Islamic Democrats and others who don’t like Jews:
- Van Jones Admits Walz Pick Appeals to ‘Anti-Jewish Bigots’ Among Democrats
- NewsNation Questions If Kamala Picked Walz to Placate Dem Anti-Semites
The first major salvo came from Tim Graham in his Aug. 7 column trying to link both Walz and Harris to 2020 rioting that began in Minneapolis with the death of George Floyd:
Kamala Harris announced that her running mate will be Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who drew national huzzahs in the last few weeks for underlining the Democrat message that J.D. Vance is a major-league weirdo.
Vance congratulated Walz for the gig, and lowered the boom: “Tim Walz allowed rioters to burn down Minneapolis in the summer of 2020, and the few that got caught, Kamala Harris helped bail them out of jail.”
One of many stories omitted by the pro-Kamala media was her June 2020 tweet soliciting donations to something called the Minnesota Freedom Fund: “If you’re able to, chip in now to the #MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota.”
It’s a bit euphemistic to describe rioters as “protesting.” Democrats usually call rioters “insurrectionists” if they love Trump. If they’re racially obsessed leftists, then they deploy affirming terms, like a “rebellion” or a “reckoning.”
In a check of the Nexis database for Harris and the MFF, here’s a few media outlets that have skipped this story for years: ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, The New York Times, and USA Today. NPR offered a few stories hailing the MFF, but none mentioning Harris. The Washington Post “Fact Checker” squad rushed to Kamala’s defense on it.
Graham didn’t explain why accused rioters should have uniquely prohibited from bail like most other criminals are — and he refused to quote from or even link to the Washington Post fact-check in question, which pointed out that Harris never actually donated to the fund despite promoting it, and that judges, not the fund, determines who is eligible for bail. Later in his column, Graham twisted himself in knots trying to redefine words to keep his preferred narrative alive when another fact-check blew it apart:
A new Twitter controversy erupted on July 25, when Minneapolis CBS affiliate WCCO complained, “Trump falsely accuses Harris of donating to Minnesota Freedom Fund, bailing out ‘dangerous criminals’.” WCCO was extremely technical. Trump said at a rally, “one of the dangerous criminals Kamala helped bail out of jail was Shawn Michael Tillman,” who murdered a man after his release.
Like the usual Democrat fact-checkers, WCCO took “helped bail out of jail” to mean “donated,” when it’s quite clear Harris asked for people to “chip in now” to the bail fund. She “helped” the fund.
Graham didn’t explain why it shouldn’t be assumed that the obvious definition of “helped” — donating money — should be excluded.
The same day, Mark Finkelstein raged that Walz sounded too conservative:
Somebody call the FTC: we’ve got a glaring case of false advertising!
The Democrats are now trying to pass themselves off as some sort of neo-libertarians. Kamala Harris kicked off the notion, making “freedom” her campaign slogan,.
And at the rally yesterday announcing her pick of Tim Walz, her new running mate put a cherry on it. Walz claimed:
“In Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and their personal choices that they make. Even if we wouldn’t make the same choice for ourselves, there’s a golden rule: mind your own damn business!”
On today’s Morning Joe, Jonathan Lemire enthused over Walz’s libertarian line: “That line also going to be a thing. Mind your own damn business.”
As evidence otherwise, Finkelstein quoted a right-wing writer whining that Walz “established a taxpayer-funded phone line in Minnesota so liberal scolds could snitch on their neighbors who refused to wear masks outside.” But when the unsafe choices of some people can affect the health of others, such actions are warranted. He also quoted the right-wing Catholic League complaining that Walz “signed a law that banned “conversion therapy” for transgender youth. These exploited young people want to ‘detransition’ back to their father-determined sex, but Walz wants to take this right away from them.” In fact, conversion therapy is a coercive failure — such coercion would seem to run counter to the “mind your own damn business” motto they purport to honor — and such bans do not prevent anyone from doing what they want.