Democratic nominee for Vice President and Minnesota Gov. Tim Waltz made a “New Way Forward” campaign stop in Grand Rapids just two days after the first presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
During his 30-minute address, Waltz praised policies proposed by Democratic presidential nominee Harris.
“So we’ll continue to talk about freedom, that people make their health care decisions, not politicians,” said Waltz. “We mean freedom is to get a good education for a better job and a better future, not crippling student loan debt for the rest of your damn life … Freedom means our kids being able to go to school without being shot dead in the heart.”
While neither presidential candidate answered questions about gun control on the debate stage, Waltz responded to a remark made last week by Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance where he called school shootings a “fact of life.”
“How morally broken do you have to be to not be able to spend any time internalizing children and teachers being gunned down in the first weeks of school. In their cafeterias, in their labs, texting their parents goodbye as they’re standing there, hiding under desks, running for their lives,” said Waltz.
He also made the statement that both he and Harris support the second amendment, as Harris revealed herself to be a gun-owner during the debate, saying “We support the second amendment, but our first responsibility is keeping our children safe … That crap does not happen in other places in the world. We are better than that.”
Waltz also reminded the audience of his own Midwest roots while recapping the events of Tuesday night’s debate.
“The one thing I’ll tell you about Midwesterners that stretches across that beautiful blue wall of Northern America here, the one thing about us is don’t ever mistake our kindness for weakness,” he said.
With just 54 days until the 2024 election, Waltz encouraged those in attendance to get out and vote, as at one point the audience erupted, cheering “beat him at the ballot box.”
“It’s great to have aspirations, you have to. But how you get things done is you have a plan and you execute it,” said Waltz. “The plan to win this thing is, we’ve got the best candidate that we could ever have in Congress… It takes a team to get it done. We need to lift up for her right now and get this thing done.”
