Harris/Walz Campaign Kicks Off, Walz's MN Record, UK Riots

Vice President Kamala Harris introduced her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walls, at a rally in Philadelphia.

With his experience, I'm telling you, Tim Walls will be ready on day one.

What did he have to say?

Ami Martinez with Michelle Martin and this is up first from NPR News.

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Last night, at a rally in Philadelphia, Vice President Harris introduced the nation to her new running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

Part of the resume, he's a former high school football coach.

And in 91 days, the nation will know coach Walz by another name Vice President of the United States.

It was the first time the new Democratic ticket appeared together in person.

NPR White House correspondent Asma Khalid was there in the arena, So what was the new ticket like Asma?

Well, Harris and Walz walked out into this massive arena together. The campaign says that there were over 12,000 people there. It's the largest rally that they've had to date. A lot of people in the crowd were wearing red, white and blue light-up wristbands, so a lot of energy.

After Roe was overturned, he was the first governor in the country to sign a new law that enshrined reproductive freedom as a fundamental right.

Harris also laid out his personal story, describing him as this kind of folksy dad from the Midwest. A former member of the National Guard and a former high school teacher who became the faculty advisor for a gay-straight alliance. Someone, she said, who comes from a different corner of the country than her, but ultimately shares her same values.

All right, that was Harris on Walz. What about Walz? What did he have to say?

So when he took the mic, he praised Harris for bringing joy back into this campaign and whatnot, and he also spoke a bit about his own background. But where he was most effective was in energizing the crowd when he went on the attack.

And, make no mistake, violent crime was up under Donald Trump.

That's not even counting the crimes he committed.

He threw some verbal punches at both Trump and his running mate, J.

All right, so here we are. The Republican and Democratic ticket are set. Asma What's the state of the race?

Well, the race is extremely close, Harris keeps referring to herself as the underdog. Today, she and Walz are headed to two other critical states, Wisconsin and Michigan. Then they'll be in Arizona and Nevada later this week. Meanwhile, Trump is not campaigning in any of the presidential battleground states.

A lot can change. That is an understatement. AsMa That's NPR. White House Correspondent Asma Khalid, Thanks a lot.

Good to talk to you.

As Asma said, for many Americans last night was their first introduction to Governor Tim Walz.

Over those next 91 days, and every day in the White House, I'll have Vice President Harris's back. So how does the country's first impression of Tim Walz, a centrist midwestern dad, compare with the image he cuts in Minnesota?

For more on that, we're joined now by Dana Ferguson of Minnesota Public Radio in St. Paul. Dana, Good morning.

Good morning.

So could you just start off by giving us a bit more background on Tim Walz?

Sure, so. Walz is obviously well-known here in Minnesota, but he actually grew up in rural Nebraska. He enlisted in the Army National Guard at 17 years old and enrolled in college under the G.I. Bill. Walz then became a teacher and met his wife.

I think at that point in time, it was a combination of being a little bit frustrated and kind of a sad epiphany moment. How it felt for people to be looked right through by people.

Not long after that, he made the move to run for Congress.

How did that go?

He was able to make the case to Minnesotans that he was the right one. He unseated a longtime Republican congressman here in southern Minnesota. That 2006 campaign centered on the war in Iraq and on economic issues. And then Walz spent more than a decade in that role before announcing his bid for Minnesota governor in 2017. He won in 2018, and then again in 2022, when Democrats also took control of the state House and state Senate here.

So tell us a bit about his track record as governor. And we assume, of course, that the Republican ticket is going to have their own interpretation of that. But for now, start us off what does his track record as governor look like?

Yeah, right now, like I said, Democrats control the state government, but they didn't. During his first few years in office here, that meant he had to compromise with GOP leadership to pass a budget and navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. More recently, he's been able to work with Democratic majorities in the State Capitol, and that has meant passing a long wish list of progressive laws. From free school meals to legal guarantees for abortion access, legalized marijuana, gun restrictions and paid family and medical leave. That list of accomplishments helped Walz lock up the role of chair of the Democratic Governors Association and then yesterday, of course, the VP spot on the Democratic ticket.

OK, so, as part of the Democratic ticket, Dana, what are some of the issues you think that Republicans will be using to criticize Walz?

Right, so, going back to the pandemic. Walz used his executive authority to shutter schools, restaurants and houses of worship and require Minnesotans to stay home to limit the spread of COVID-19. Republicans pushed back on the mandates and said the governor shouldn't have the sole authority to make decisions about handling the pandemic. Not long after that, George Floyd was killed. It was, as you know, captured on video and sparked protests and riots in the Twin cities and around the country.

That is Minnesota Public Radio's Dana Ferguson Dana, thanks so much for this reporting.

You're welcome.

Thousands of additional police are flooding British streets today after a week of race riots across the country.

Far-right mobs have attacked people, mosques, even immigration law offices. It's the biggest challenge today for UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who took office just a month ago. Already, he's in a standoff with Elon Musk about this issue.

NPR's Lauren Frayer is in Tamworth, England, where a hotel housing asylum seekers was attacked. Hello, Lauren.

Hi, Michelle.

So tell us what's the atmosphere there?

It feels like hysteria, disinformation, people just repeating things over and over that they see online. The hotel that was attacked here. It's been used as a temporary refugee housing for the past two years. And locals have all these crime stories that they blame on it. Here's a man named Stephen Roberts I talked to.

Apparently the other week, by the bowling alley, there was a machete attack, their own, fighting each other. Oh, it's been going on for ages, but that doesn't get reported in the news, that's the problem.

No, there was a knife attack recently, it was reported in the news. There's no indication, though, it involved asylum seekers from this hotel. And the same jumping to conclusions is what started these riots. Children were stabbed last week.

Lauren Is there any sense that these riots are organized? Do they appear to be organized in any way?

I put that to Julia Ebner, who heads an extremism lab at Oxford University, and she says, Yes. The violence is organized in part by the English Defense League, or EDL. It's an anti-Islam group that was thought to be defunct, but clearly is not.

It's not just migration and Islam that they're protesting against. It's also what they see as the complicit media outlets who they believe are covering up stories, covering up migrant crimes.

And here in Tamwith, they're tapping into existing prejudices and amplifying them online. Elon Musk himself is playing a role in this.

How? So what's he been saying?

So Musk? When he bought Twitter, he restored the accounts of some far-right figures who had been banned. Including one of the leaders of the English Defense League, a man who calls himself Tommy Robinson, he's a fascist who's been in and out of prison. He and Musk have been interacting on X, sharing conspiracy theories. Musk wrote to his nearly 200 million followers that a U..K. civil war is inevitable.

And what is the U?

So, aside from deploying thousands more police, speeding up court appearances for suspects, the government has a special team flagging social media posts that incite violence. And I've actually seen this anecdotally, people here want to show me something they saw on Facebook or TikTok, and then it's been removed. People are being arrested for hate speech. online, hate crime laws are being used.

That is NPR's Lauren Frayer in Tamworth, England. Lauren, thank you.

Thanks, Michelle.

And one more story for you. Two U.S gold medals on the track yesterday for Cole Hawker and Gabby Thomas. NPR's Brian Mann is at the Summer Games in Paris.

It was a crazy day on the track, on the outskirts of Paris. We saw a big upset with a guy named Cole Hawker, who came from behind to win the men's 1500-meter final. It's nearly a mile. He surged from behind to beat the British and Norwegian runners, who were expected to win.

And that's up first for Wednesday, August 7th. I'm Michelle Martin.

And I'm Amy Martinez. How about listening to consider this from NPR? There are some 43 million refugees in the world, 37 of them competing in Paris as the refugee. Olympic team are fighting for something more than just athletic excellence. Listen to consider this.

Today's episode of Up First was edited by Dana Farrington, Acacia Squires, Jenea Williams and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ziad Butch, Nina Dumas and Julie Deppenbrock. We get engineering support from Carly Strange, and our technical director is Zach Coleman. We hope you'll join us again tomorrow.

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