Governor Greg Abbott sought to establish himself as Donald Trump's top attack dog on Tuesday when he claimed that the Democrats had fielded the most radical ticket ever in America with Kamala Harris' selection of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate this fall.
"Kamala Harris and Tim Walz would be the most radical and dangerous administration in modern history," Abbott declared in a post on X.
As Harris and Walz sparked thunderous roars at a rally in Philadelphia early this evening, the Texas governor used social media as a stage to portray the North Star State in an apocalyptic fashion with the Democrats' new vice-presidential contender content to fiddle while his homeland burned.
"He let cities in his state burn down," Abbott asserted in alternating shots at Walz and Harris. "She helped bail out the arsonists. She supports free health care to illegal immigrants. He signed laws giving state services to them. Both provide magnets for more illegal immigration."
Abbott was referring to riots in Minneapolis in the wake of George Floyd's murder there by police in 2020. Walz, who took the reins as governor in 2019, faced criticism for waiting for several days to activate the National Guard. But the protests in Minnesota triggered a national uprising with demonstrations for social justice across the country with rioting in the largest American cities including Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio.
But the Republican governor in Texas failed to mention in the quick critique that Walz served two dozen years in the U.S. Army as a highly-decorated non-commissioned officer whose highest rank was command sergeant major. Abbott chose to avoid service in the armed forces as a young man in favor of a career as a lawyer. Trump skirted military service as well as a student at an Ivy League institution.
Minnesota voters disagreed with the Texan's arm-chair assessment on Walz - having voted to give him a second term in 2022 in a re-election race that he won by almost 8 percentage points over a Republican who echoed Trump's baseless claims on a stolen election in 2020.
While Abbott joined a parrot chorus of Republicans who described the Harris-Walz as historically radical, Harris and Walz set the battle lines before an adoring audience in Pennsylvania when they depicted the race as a fight for the future, the middle class and working people.
The competition for VP has boiled down to a two-horse race between Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Walsh during the weekend. Walz edged ahead in the betting odds on Monday night and got the call today.
Walz appeared to be the safest choice even though Shapiro hails from a must-win state where the contest has been closer. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson claimed that Harris spurned Shapiro simply because he's Jewish. Johnson, a Republican, said he was sad about that.
Walz, a former teacher and football coach, proved to be an electric speaker at the event in Philly. But the main reason that Harris picked Walz may be the fact that he has strong support from organized labor that had been growing disenchanted with President Joe Biden.
While Minnesota appears to be safe for Democrats this fall, Harris' camp decided that Walz would give them a bigger boost with more voters in other battleground states than Shapiro or other VP contenders on a short list.
more to come ...
