NBC's Chuck Todd said Tuesday he believes a backlash from the left influenced Vice President Kamala Harris' choice of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.
Harris chose Waltz over Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, who were rumored to be finalists for the vice presidential nomination, and Todd wrote in the Andrea Mitchell Report that “progressive backlash” against the more moderate candidates may have influenced Harris' decision. (RELATED: Kamala Harris doesn't give interviews in first week of presidential campaign)
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'Yellow Flags': Chuck Todd says he 'can't help but think' 'progressive backlash' is the reason Tim Walz was chosen over Harris pic.twitter.com/5hiVssgbTN
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“There's a yellow flag going up in my head: 'Hmm, if I yell, I'll hear and I'll respond.' Some people will take away from this experience and think, 'Hmm, maybe it was the progressive backlash that pushed her away from Shapiro or away from Kelly?' And to be fair, maybe they didn't vet either of them,” Todd said. “At the end of the day, that's a possibility, but essentially, I can't help but take away from that lesson.”
The progressive left supported Waltz and defended him when the choice came down to between him and Shapiro, while anti-Israel Democratic activists criticized Shapiro for his pro-Israel views.
Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Tuesday speculated that “there's a lot of cheering going on at Mar-a-Lago” as former President Donald Trump prepares to attack Vice Presidential nominee Harris Waltz for her liberal record.
“I think it's fair to call him a progressive in sheep's clothing. If you look at his record over the last few years, you see things like sex-reassignment surgery for minors, a carbon-based grid by 2040, giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants,” McEnany said. “In fact, his abortion policy allows abortion up until birth.”
“These are policies that are far to the left for America. Kamala Harris has to do the exact opposite of what Tim Walz did,” she continued. “Tim Waltz became more progressive. Kamala Harris is trying to become more moderate. But Republicans are going to say, 'You threw out all your progressive policies and you still chose progressivism.'”
CNN's Van Jones expressed concern on Tuesday that conservatives were celebrating Harris' choice of Waltz as her running mate, rather than Shapiro or Kelly.
“What worries me is that I see a sense of relief from conservatives. They were scared of Josh Shapiro, they were scared of Mark Kelly, and they thought this would help define Kamala as more centrist,” Jones said. “The right is very happy about that, and that's not good.”
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