Politico aims to identify the key winner in the political news cycle each day. Yesterday, Tim Walz emerged as the standout figure in the political news landscape. He took aim at the richest man in the world, who is funneling undisclosed millions into the Trump campaign. In our country, wealthy individuals are not supposed to be able to buy elections, but Elon Musk, a South Africa-born billionaire, seems to have missed that memo.
Adam Wren penned:
Tim Walz is going after big targets.
On Tuesday, the governor of Minnesota tapped into the sharp wit that once led him to label Republicans as “weird,” taking jabs at Donald Trump, JD Vance, and most notably, Trump campaign ally Elon Musk.
“I’m going to talk about his running mate — his running mate Elon Musk,” Walz declared in Madison, Wisconsin, on the first day of early voting in the Blue Wall battleground. “Seriously, where is Senator Vance after he was asked the simplest question in the world during the debate: Did Donald Trump win the 2020 election, and after two weeks he finally said, ‘No, he didn’t.’”
Then, Walz unleashed his criticism on the world’s wealthiest individual and the owner of X.
“Look, Elon’s on that stage, jumping around skipping like a dipshit.”
The video quickly spread on Musk’s own platform.
On a day when his running mate, Kamala Harris, had no events and only a meeting with MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson, Walz’s comments gained traction and overshadowed other news from the campaign trail.
This victory secured Walz the spotlight for the day.
Interestingly, Walz has been relatively quiet on the campaign trail and in interviews, although he is now engaging more frequently in the latter.
His performance on Tuesday occurred at a time when Democrats are becoming increasingly anxious to remind voters about the risks of a potential second term for Trump — especially in crucial battleground states like Wisconsin. (John Kelly, Trump’s former chief of staff and retired general, also contributed to this narrative by embarking on a media tour to explain how Trump had sought “generals like Hitler” and discussed using the military against American citizens, a concern that Harris has been highlighting on the campaign trail).
This incident also comes as Harris, amid a gender gap, continues to struggle to connect with male voters. She could benefit from some of the same boldness that originally brought Walz onto her radar this summer.
Harris may have slightly dampened Walz’s contribution to the ticket when she advised him “to be a little more careful in how you phrase things,” as he mentioned in a recent interview.
However, Walz is now back in the game.