Do you remember Chris Cillizza? He used to write for CNN but got cut a few years ago. He is still active on Twitter/X and other platforms.
He recently wrote a thread about the Kamala Harris campaign and her choice of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.
Now that the election is over, it seems Cillizza is willing to examine some of the tougher questions about the 2024 Democratic ticket and where things went wrong.
Take a look below:
1/ The election ended 3 weeks ago. Enough time has passed.
We — or I — can now safely pronounce that the Tim Walz VP pick was a dud.
Let me explain: pic.twitter.com/w2BOkokFAN
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) November 27, 2024
2/ Before I get into it, let me say two things.
One: Tim Walz did not lose Harris the race (or even close to it)
Two: Josh Shapiro would not have made Harris win — or even win Pennsylvania.
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) November 27, 2024
3/ That said, I just don’t think the Walz pick made a ton of sense for Harris.
I genuinely think Walz was the pick because he called Trump/Vance “weird” on MSNBC in late July and instantly went viral.
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) November 27, 2024
4/ Remember that Harris had an incredibly compressed timeline to choose a VP. From the day Joe Biden dropped out to the day Harris picked Walz was 16(!) days.
That’s it.
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) November 27, 2024
5/ And Walz peaked at the exact right time. Just as Harris was looking around for a VP, Walz was the hottest thing in politics.
He had cracked the code on how to attack Trump! He was plain spoken! He was a football coach!
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) November 27, 2024
6/ To be clear: I think Harris genuinely liked Walz and felt a rapport with him.
And that she and her strategists convinced themselves that Walz’s “big dad energy” might help her appeal to critical voters in the upper Midwest.
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) November 27, 2024
7/ But, without “weird,” Walz is never on her radar. Period.
And, he never really found a 2nd act after “weird.”
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) November 27, 2024
8/ Yes, there was excitement about the ticket after the pick.
But in retrospect that looks to me a LOT like excitement that Biden wasn’t the nominee anymore.
Like, if Harris had picked Shapiro or Gretchen Whitmer would the energy have been less?
I don’t think so.
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) November 27, 2024
9/ Walz was mediocre (at best) in the VP debate.
His tendency to exaggerate/misremember details about his past turned into a national story.
And toward the end of the campaign, he was just a nonentity.
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) November 27, 2024
10/ Add it up and you get this: Walz was a mediocre pick based, largely, on a viral moment.
And with hindsight being 20-20 there were clearly better VP picks available to Harris.
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) November 27, 2024
Tim Walz was a bizarre VP candidate. It was as obvious to voters as Joe Biden’s dementia, but the media couldn’t admit it.
Isn’t it fascinating how reflective members of the media can be now that the election is over?
