Claire McCaskill: Tim Walz is exactly what JD Vance is pretending to be

Thoughts on Kamala Harris rally Matthews you've been through a few of these what were your thoughts about the rally last night well one was the strength of comma Harris I mean she came off as a leader uh she could she owned that whole room her confidence level was through the roof I said after Barack Obama spoke in Boston back in 2004 we saw the first black president I think anything is possible in this campaign now and she proved it last night uh picking Waltz was her Point her decision and she made it this election may be short enough to beat history that we can have a woman of color as our next president because of the length of this campaign they've got to get out there and keep the excitement going but last night I'll tell you you talked about Jack Benny this morning in the first hour it was the timing of Waltz and her incredible confidence to speak to that room as if she owned it she was the MC of that room powerful writing too great writing like his line which is this man Trump doesn't know a thing about service that's enough right there you got enough on Trump right there he's not here to serve this country serve you or I he is not there for us he's there for him and that's who he is and what he is it's all transaction but the message of Hope about naming his kid hope after after having difficulty having his wife having that baby it was so American so perfect and I think she last night I will go back to it again I don't know where it came from and where it's been four weeks ago even but we saw leadership last night Bob Casey the former Governor of Pennsylvania who won his re-election by a million votes said Pennsylvania is a John Wayne State not a Jane Fonda State she was John Wayne last night she was a leader a leader and she was clear that she was the boss and she did it in a way that wasn't instructive or difficult she just came across as naturally the leader of that room I would uh I would love uh to get some insight over time uh from anybody who has seen a transformation as dramatic uh as kamla Harris is over the past four weeks there will be some people on the right who oh they're just saying that because they want to beat Donald Trump so badly no I'm just I'm just saying that because even Republicans conservatives people who are fair-minded are looking and going we never saw this coming one of the reasons Donald Trump's melting down right now is because he never saw this coming none of them ever saw this coming and it it it's something that's really getting to him uh Jonathan Martin you uh you you talked yesterday Jonathan Martin on ideology about something where you you know I I guess it's because I'm I'm an old politician I do look at ideology I do look at balancing the ticket IDE ideologically you know KLA Harris would say Josh Ziro who seen as more moderate um you you you said yesterday and I certainly I I I took no uh umbrage at it at all in fact it was something that I I'm kind of getting to this morning that sometimes it again we people like me Focus too much on ideology you said people that are focusing on Wall's ideology yeah are missing the bigger Point explain I think you saw precisely why she picked walls last night it had nothing to do with his his record as a governor of Minnesota it had everything to do with her Comfort level with him and his biography as a product of of Middle America and somebody who served in the military coached football and taught school and I think that that's hard for some on the far left to grasp and frankly hard for someone the far right to grasp this was a comfort food pick and you saw last night how it played out Shapiro is a much more Dynamic speaker and I think she was concerned about him overshadowing her walls is a better compliment to her who's not necessarily going to overshadow her but it's going to be an effective Advocate on her behalf and I think you saw vividly last night why she made the pick that she did I wrote this morning Joe in my column that I thought the most captivating part of the evening is the clip that you guys just played which is where she was briefly off the teleprompter and she ad lived three times only in America only in America and the crowd started Channing USA as though they were impair for the Olympics that is the stuff of GOP nightmares right there when you have that moment and a democratic crowd chanting USA in Philly to a biracial ticket because it evokes memories of 2008 that moment to me last night was the closest thing that we've seen yet in this cycle to the' 08 campaign and that to me uh was the best part of the night for this ticket and then lastly Joe I would just say I think this kamla Harris is return to the comma Harris Californians knew when she was the AG andn Senator somebody who I think kind of lost her Mojo lost her confidence frankly the first couple of years in office in DC but somebody who I thought had a lot more Swagger in California this is that KLA Harris yeah Jonathan Martin on Kamala Harris to J Mar's Point certainly there were fears in the uh Harris interner Circle that that chapiro could overshadow her we also have reported earlier that that walls told her in her in his interview that like this the last job I want I'm just going to do whatever you need Governor Shapiro is certainly not making the promise that the vice presidential pick would be the last job he ever sought um but Claire I think that that we're right to just to really underscore the mood last night that feeling and this is there has been such pent up Democratic excitement that came bursting into the opening when Joe Biden stepped aside and KLA Harris assumed the top of the ticket and her choice of walls is a little bit you know there are some in the party who have second guested who say Shapiro look if he delivers you Pennsylvania that's reason enough but what we saw last night is what the Harris team envisioned these two working together comfortably playing off each other and walls a happy warrior folksy backstory made people laugh but also delivered some pretty punishing blows to Trump Advance yeah um you know this is fun I mean it's just that simple and it is uh she's benefiting greatly from being vastly underestimated um and she is benefiting from a very short campaign uh things have aligned and and don't underestimate her again um she's got this she knows what she's doing I had a chance to visit with my friend the Vice President yesterday she is um exactly what you see she's confident determined she knows this country is better than what Donald Trump represents it to be and that is the essence of this campaign and you know let's compare Vance and and in walls I mean you know walls is mac and cheese and a trip to the hardware store um walls is exactly what JD Vans is pretending to be he is of the Heartland he is not Coastal Elite it's the first time the Democrats haven't had a lawyer um as a vice president in in a in a very long time uh he you know he came back from college and on the GI Bill and he stay in his roots he didn't go out and be created in some billionaire in Silicon Valley's lab which is what JD and totally funded by the by the Silicon Valley billionaire so this debate especially on the subject of IVF is going to be a mic drop moment because as we all know JD Vance voted against protecting IVF which is how Tim Wallace and his wife Gwyn had their child hope Bumper Sticker Billboard darnie going forward you're Mr Brandon okay so it's bumper sticker billboard time how about kamla and the coach first of all I love that you call him the coach let me talk you know honestly I was a little disappoint no I was very disappointed that that cheating picture Pi but I'll tell you something that happened to me yesterday as I was watching Waltz and I got this I kept getting the same text message I like that guy like is not a very sexy word but that's what happened to me as I said I went from disappointment to going I get it I like this remember you know Mike you can one that's going to remember this one I like Ike one of the most famous terms of all time so simple but this guy you can't help not but you can't help but like them the other thing that emerged yesterday that you talk about a bumper sticker we're not going back those are powerful words so you know I love we're not going back and I love I liked him I was one of the 71% that was not really acquainted with him and you know what I like that guy you know Donnie I I absolutely agree and you know one of the the things that happened last night that was an interesting contrast to fevered cynicism of the Trump campaign versus the Infectious hope of the Harris campaign but another thing that happened to me last night was that maybe we're finally getting to a place where we're post labels you know when you talk to Everyday ordinary folk some days they sound Progressive some days they sound libertarian another moment they might sound conservative if you look at me right I don't want people I want you to mind your business with regards to my life but I'm also very conservative when it comes to certain literature I'm m Arnold I'm TS Elliott those kind of folks right but also have some pragmatic politics so what does it mean for us to finally get out of these labels liberal extreme radical conservative and actually get to the actual lives of human beings in the kitchen table that they sit around and so I felt that walls in the Harris campaign actually set the stage for us not to talk about these labels that have guided our politics for so long but actually to talk about our lives and that seems to me exciting very it it was again you you look at the event last night and you know it's reminded of Peggy Nunan uh when she talked about Ronald Reagan and how upbeat and how positive optimis he was that it was optimism optimism optimism and she learned very quickly Peggy said in writing for Ronald Reagan that you never said we cannot allow this to happen it was never we cannot you draw a line through it and he would say we must must get this done that sort of just turn a phrase even in the smallest of things and people want to be hopeful this has been a bleak time politically uh for for quite some time people want to be hopeful and I will say Chris Matthews again I will uh just looking back as as a former Republican but looking back at presidential contests through my lifetime there's so many times I would see Democrats and just shake my head I say what wa they just you know they're so defensive they're so nervous they're always Democrats until Barack Obama always seemed to be sort of on their back heel other than obviously Bill Clinton at times but but I will say last night it was it was a joyous event just absolutely joyous event and when these Harris walls fans started chanting USA USA USA in the middle I said okay we have we literally have seen sort of a changing of of the guard it is now the the Democrats who are optimistic positive uh patriotic not saying that America's horrible like Donald Trump does every day um and you've got the Republicans who are grim uh talk about malays talk about how bad things are in the United States when in fact uh by just about every objective standard they're better