Failed Senate, gubernatorial, and presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke said on Monday that he was “really surprised” that Vice President Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Democrat Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.
O’Rourke made the remarks on MSNBC’s “Inside With Jen Psaki” program.
“I was actually really surprised that he was in contention to be nominated for vice president of the United States and surprised that he got picked, only because it is so rare that someone who is so genuinely kind and nice and isn’t a blowhard and a grandstander and a self-promoter ever reaches these levels of political attainment in this country,” O’Rourke said in the interview.
O’Rourke added that he thinks that Walz is a “rare person” who is “truly a good guy” who got ahead by “getting the job done.” He claimed that there’s nothing “Marxist or radical” about Walz’s agenda.
.@BetoORourke on serving with Tim Walz on the Veterans Affairs Committee: "Tim Walz chose to be on that committee... because he wanted to deliver for veterans. Not for himself, not for his career, but for people who had served America. That’s who he is at his core.” pic.twitter.com/z2cVgORPWZ
— Inside with Jen Psaki (@InsideWithPsaki) August 13, 2024
When Harris initially made her VP announcement, O’Rourke claimed that Walz “codified abortion rights, implemented background checks, legalized marijuana, passed paid family leave, restored voting rights and invested more than $1 billion in affordable housing.”
Met Tim Walz on my first day in Congress, sat next to him on Veterans Affairs committee for the following six years. No one fought harder for veterans. And he did it by bringing Democrats and Republicans together to get the job done.
— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) August 6, 2024
As Governor of Minnesota he codified abortion… pic.twitter.com/yJIjM7Zdb9
As Townhall has covered, Walz is a radical leftist who allowed cities in his state to be destroyed in 2020 during the Black Lives Matter riots. In addition, he’s passed extreme measures to push transgender ideology onto kids in their schools.
In response to this criticism, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed that Walz is “right down the middle,” which Townhall also covered.
“Tim Walz is wonderful…to characterize him as left is so unreal. It’s just not what…He’s right down the middle. He’s a heartland of America Democrat,” Pelosi claimed.
"Tim Walz is wonderful, and she had many good choices — I know [Walz] very well... and to characterize him as left is just so unreal. He's right down the middle. He's a heartland of America Democrat."
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) August 6, 2024
— @SpeakerPelosi on Tim Walz as Harris's VP pick pic.twitter.com/ktMtHZLbTr