Crooked Media - Walzing right in

Wednesdsay, August 21, 2024 BY CROOKED MEDIA

- Former President Barack Obama, referring to Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) at the Democratic National Convention.

Republicans’ relentless attacks on Tim Walz aren't sticking — at least not yet. Tonight, he gets to fire back with the biggest speech of his life at the Democratic National Convention.

There’s a reason Republicans keep accusing Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), the Democratic veep pick, of being secretly good at making Mexican food, following his self-deprecating joke about making bland “White guy tacos.” It’s because nothing else they’ve tried to bring down his poll numbers has worked. They’re looking for something, anything, to undermine his Midwestern, folksy charm. The point of their curious taco attack line, apparently, is to paint him as a liar by pointing out that [big reveal!] he actually claimed first prize in a 2016 congressional cooking contest with an entry entitled, “Tim’s Turkey Taco Tot Hotdish,” that did include green chiles. These attacks are, of course, beyond preposterous. In politics, when the other side goes after you for secretly making one helluva hotdish… it means they’re grasping at straws.

They’re grasping at straws because Americans keep telling pollsters that Walz comes across as a lot more authentic and likable than the GOP veep pick, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH). About a third (36 percent) have a positive view of Walz, while only about a quarter (27 percent) have a positive view of Vance. More Americans say Walz has “an authentic connection to everyday Americans” than Vance (43 percent vs 35 percent).

But many still don’t know Walz or Vance yet, and the GOP is racing to define Walz before he can properly introduce himself. But unfortunately for them, he gets his biggest chance yet to do that tonight at the Democratic national Convention. He’s expected to talk about his “small town values,” as a former high school football coach, and about his 24 years in the National Guard. Walz successfully ran for Congress in 2005, and then for Governor of Minnesota in 2018.

Republicans aren’t only harping about the tacos, of course.

They’ve got another line of attack that, on the surface, would appear more promising: they’re accusing Walz of committing “stolen valor” by misrepresenting his military record. Vance is leading the charge. “What bothers me about Tim Walz is the stolen valor garbage,” Vance said recently. Fifty Congressional Republicans followed up on Wednesday with a letter accusing Walz of misrepresenting his service.

But when the New York Times evaluated this claim, by consulting experts on military service records, none of them found that Walz committed the kind of “stolen valor” the GOP keeps bellowing about. The experts concluded that Vance did make some claims that appeared to misrepresent his record or, at least, which were imprecise. But his misstatements include, for example, stating that he “carried a weapon of war in war,” when in fact he was stationed in Italy during the invasion of Afghanistan. His campaign said he misspoke, and he typically says he served “in support” of that mission. It’s not quite the damning stuff the GOP would like voters to think — especially when you consider the kind of egregious behavior and statements they’ve already excused from disgraced former President Trump.

Trump famously avoided serving in the Vietnam War draft by claiming to have bone spurs (...right!). He later brutally disparaged the service of an real-life war hero and torture victim, the late Senator John McCain. Just last week, Trump enraged military leaders by whimsically denigrating Congressional Medal of Honor winners as typically “in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they’re dead.” He called Americans who died in war “losers,” according to his own former Chief of Staff. And it’s not just Trump: one of the 50 signatories to that GOP letter attacking Walz, Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX), misrepresented himself in that very letter as a “retired Rear Admiral.”

In fact, Jackson was demoted to captain in 2022 for being drunk on duty.

The Supreme Court might be on break, but the conservative agenda is still going full-steam ahead. Project 2025 is a 900-page far-right wish list that lays out a hyper-specific and bone-chillingly fascist roadmap for a second Trump administration. Over at Strict Scrutiny, our favorite trio of badass constitutional law professors is breaking down the full 900 yards in a 4-part series within your Monday episodes. Melissa, Leah, and Kate scoured all the fine print for you, because lawyers are sick freaks who love that shit. Stay informed about the far-right agenda, and its real-life implications for tens of millions of Americans as we head into this election cycle by listening to Strict Scrutiny wherever you podcast, or on YouTube!

Third-party presidential candidate and all-round very weird guy, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is expected to end his bid for the White House this Friday, and is reportedly in talks to endorse Donald Trump. He recently asked Kamala Harris for a cabinet post in administration in return for his support, but was rebuffed. Trump has been more open to a quid-pro-quo because bribery and corruption are, like, his whole thing.

President Biden approved a new strategic nuclear plan that includes preparations for potential nuclear attacks not only from Russia and North Korea, but also China—in recognition of the country’s nuclear arsenal expansion, according to the New York Times.

Kamala Harris called to bump the corporate tax rate to 28 percent, partly reversing Trump’s tax cut in 2017, when he slashed the corporate rate to a flat 21 percent and made the rest of us pay for it while corporate profits skyrocketed. For decades prior, the U.S. had a graduated corporate tax that topped out at 35 percent until 2017.

The economy created 818,000 fewer jobs than previously reported, suggesting a weaker economy than previously thought. The Federal Reserve is now widely expected to cut interest rates in the coming weeks, in a shift to focusing on boosting the economy over fighting inflation.

Heat deaths may triple in Europe by the end of this century as climate change roars on, according to a new study. The hardest-hit countries will be in Southern Europe, including Italy, Greece and Spain.

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The Democratic National Convention drew 20 million viewers across 13 networks on its premiere night, eclipsing that of the Republican National Convention which only drew 18.13 million viewers, according to Nielsen data. Sorry, Donald! We know you hate this more than literally anything!

Barack and Michelle Obama electrified the DNC on Tuesday night in back-to-back speeches. The former president acknowledged his wife’s super-star status among Dems, quipping: “I am the only person stupid enough to speak after Michelle Obama.” The former First Lady praised Kamala Harris, and slammed Trump, saying: “Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those ‘Black jobs?’” — in a reference to one of Trump’s most recent openly-racist moments.

The DNC featured the most high-octane roll call vote in convention history on Tuesday evening, with a DJ spinning different tracks for each state. Rapper Lil Jon stole the show by performing “Turn Down For What” for Georgia’s turn and of course a few verses of “Get Low” so he could say “From VP Harris/to the Walz,” like we all wanted him to!

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