Tim Walz hits Harris campaign for media strategy in podcast interview

Former vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz said the Kamala Harris campaign’s media strategy fell short during an interview last week, criticizing the campaign’s focus on traditional media venues during the campaign. 

As podcast host and former Montana Sen. Jon Tester argued that the campaign didn’t use Walz effectively, Walz said his argument spoke to a broader point about the Democratic Party not entering “every media environment,” including podcasts and local media. He said, “My God, they’re not watching ‘Meet the Press,’ they’re listening to you guys, as they’re going somewhere, listening.”

The former Democratic vice presidential candidate spoke to Tester and journalist Maritsa Georgiou, hosts of the “Grounded” podcast, on Thursday about the 2024 campaign and the Democratic Party’s next steps. 

Though Harris did speak to some podcast hosts, she also visited traditional media outlets such as CNN and CBS’ “60 Minutes,” and waited weeks after her campaign launch to do media at all.

“I think you got to flood the zone,” Walz said. “And I would argue we didn’t see, you know, the vice president when she got in front of people, and I watch her talking to young people, she was magnetic with them. She was optimistic. She was hopeful. But in today’s world, you got to have a lot of that, or it gets lost in the noise. And if you think you’re just going to do a, you know, a ’60 Minutes’ interview, and that’s going to get across, boy, that’s not it.”

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Walz added that he didn’t agree with those arguing that the Democratic Party needed to find a “Joe Rogan of the left,” but said the party needed to be “in places where a reach of like somebody like Joe Rogan is getting out there.”

Harris’ “60 Minutes” interview became the basis of a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump against CBS and its parent company, Paramount Global. Trump’s team and CBS remain at an impasse as they attempt to resolve the president’s $20 billion lawsuit against the company through mediation. 

Fox News Digital confirmed that Trump rejected a $15 million offer to settle his lawsuit, according to a source familiar with the matter. The president’s legal team is also demanding at least $25 million and an apology from CBS News. Trump’s attorneys even floated another lawsuit against the company.

Walz said in March that the campaign shouldn’t have played things so safe.

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“I think we probably should have just rolled the dice and done the town halls, where (voters) may say, ‘You’re full of s—, I don’t believe in you.’ I think there could have been more of that,” Walz said during an interview with Politico.

Walz argued that Democrats “are more cautious” in engaging with the media than Republicans, while adding that he felt as if the campaign was never ahead, comparing it to a “prevent defense” strategy during a football game. 

“In football parlance, we were in a prevent defense to not lose when we never had anything to lose because I don’t think we were ever ahead,” he said, which bolsters reporting following the election that internal Democratic polling showed Harris lagging behind Trump in the lead-up to Nov. 5,” the Minnesota governor said. 

Fox News’ Joseph Wulfsohn and Emma Colton contributed to this report.