LA VISTA — Native Nebraskan Tim Walz , the Minnesota governor tapped this month as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, celebrated his first home-state rally Saturday by filling a suburban Sarpy County concert venue and its overflow amphitheater. The rally emphasized his Nebraska roots, including his time as a teacher and coach in Alliance, Nebraska. His wife, Gwen, and one of his former geography students, Aubrianna Faustman, introduced him.
Walz was born in West Point, grew up in Valentine and graduated from high school in Butte. He got a warm reception from the largely Democratic audience. Hundreds of people lined up for hours around much of the La Vista City Centre entertainment district near 84th and Harrison Streets before the mid-afternoon event.
More than 2,400 were inside the venue, with thousands more waiting and watching outside. Walz taught in Nebraska, as did his wife, a native Minnesotan, before they moved to Mankato, Minnesota in 1996. He joked that he is caught between Husker football fandom and representing the Gophers.
The Walzes spent much of their talk discussing how the Harris-Walz team is prioritizing public education and economic opportunities for all children. He pushed back against GOP criticism of public education, drawing cheers. “Wow.
Well, hello, Nebraska,” he said, smiling and pointing to the crowd. “I have to admit it feels pretty good to be back home. Things got pretty exciting .
.. over the last 10 days.
” Walz, 60, sharpened his elbows for former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio U.S. Sen.
J.D. Vance .
Vance will visit Nebraska next week for a fundraiser and might also host a public event. Walz told the crowd not to be fooled by a Yale philosopher who’s backed by venture capital. U.
S. Sen. J.
D. Vance, R-Ohio, now the GOP nominee for vice president, speaks to reporters in the spin room following the CNN Presidential Debate. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images) “You think J.
D. Vance knows one damn thing about Nebraska?” Walz asked the laughing crowd. “You think he’s ever had a Runza.
That guy would call it a Hot Pocket. You know it.” A Runza, for the uninitiated, is a German-style meat and cabbage sandwich sold by a Nebraska-based hamburger chain of the same name.
Walz’s caravan stopped at a Runza restaurant, at 77th and L Streets on his way out of town, someone in the caravan shared with the Examiner. Walz also ducked outside the rally venue to greet and wave to the people who couldn’t get in. He spent much of his speech focused on the values he said he learned in north-central and western Nebraska, saying that he still doesn’t know the politics of a group of his friends from high school, but they are there for one another when needed.
Faustman, the former student who helped introduce him, said when Harris selected Walz as her running mate, she told her husband that she couldn’t wait for the rest of the country to get to know him, because he is “just a good decent human being.” She and others who spoke, including Walz, contrasted the Harris-Walz stance on reproductive freedom with the views held by Trump and Vance. Faustman and Walz spoke about their families’ challenges with needing fertility treatments and how they didn’t want to see political restrictions on IVF.
Walz worked out the latest version of his stump speech, in which he called Republicans “weird” for sticking their noses into people’s private exam rooms and libraries and bedrooms. He criticized them for trying to overturn elections. “Yes, it’s weird,” Walz said.
“But it’s much worse than that. It’s dangerous.” Walz appeared to address some of the GOP criticism he has faced about when he ended his his 24-year career in the Nebraska and Minnesota National Guard.
His unit deployed to Iraq shortly after he retired in 2005 to run for Congress. Many who served with him have defended his retirement. He said he signed up for the Guard after high school graduation and loved his time in service.
He called serving a “privilege” and said “the Guard gave me a lot,” including a purpose, as well as the ability to use the GI Bill to attend Chadron State College. Vance and others have criticized Walz, the highest-ranking enlisted man to serve in Congress. Vance served in the Marine Corps and was deployed as a combat correspondent, or military journalist.
He has accused Walz of misrepresenting his own time in the service, which Walz denies. Walz’s visit Saturday to La Vista, which sits on the border of the 1st and 2nd Congressional Districts in the Omaha area — on the second weekend after joining the Harris campaign — hints at the importance of the 2nd District to the broader presidential race. A single swing-district vote matters in Republican-heavy Nebraska.
Nebraska and Maine are unique nationally in awarding a single Electoral College vote to the winner of the presidential popular vote in each congressional district. Democrats are trying to win a second-straight stray Electoral College vote in the 2nd District. Former President Barack Obama , a Democrat, won the vote in 2008, followed by Republican Mitt Romney in 2012, Trump in 2016 and Democratic President Joe Biden n 2020.
Gov. Jim Pillen and Republicans in the officially nonpartisan Nebraska Legislature, with urging from Trump and his campaign, have been trying to get state lawmakers to shift the Republican-leaning state to winner-take-all yet this year. Thus far they lack the votes to change the process this close to an election.
A top Maine state lawmaker has said Maine would act if Nebraska games the system to favor a single candidate. One electoral vote could matter in a close race. The question this fall in NE-02 is whether Democrats can harness the energy of a resurgent campaign in the wake of Biden dropping out, or whether Trump will regain momentum in the districts.
Nebraska Democrats have celebrated Walz being Harris’ running mate by amplifying his ties to rural Nebraska, his ability to make progressive policies more approachable and the importance of adding a Midwestern voice to the ticket. Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, said the goal of the rally was to motivate and sign up volunteers to knock on voters’ doors, make calls and text them and make sure to “defeat Donald Trump once and for all.” The Nebraska Republican Party had no immediate comment.
A spokeswoman said they were in the middle of a state central committee meeting and would reply soon. “Tim Walz and Kamala Harris do not represent the commonsense, Midwestern values of those in the Cornhusker State,” said Liz Huston, a regional spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign. She said Nebraskans will re-elect Trump.
“Just like Harris, Walz is dangerously liberal and a champion for the Harris-Biden agenda that has burdened Nebraska families with high prices, higher taxes, and made communities less safe,” Huston said in a statement to the Examiner. Democratic U.S.
Senate candidate Preston Love Jr., who has spent years organizing voters in North Omaha, said that the presidential race would be close in the 2nd District but that Harris would win and that she is “up to this fight.” Democratic State Sen.
Tony Vargas of Omaha, who is running a repeat race against Republican U.S. Rep.
Don Bacon in the 2nd District, drew some of the event’s loudest chants when he stepped on stage. He said he would fight for Nebraskans’ economic and reproductive freedom. Democratic State Sen.
Tony Vargas of Omaha speaks at a Harris-Walz rally in La Vista, Nebraska, on Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024. Vargas is running for a second time against Republican U.
S. Rep. Don Bacon.
(Naomi Delkamiller/Nebraska News Service) Vargas, who represents South Omaha in the Legislature, said his immigrant parents had provided him and his siblings with “the American dream” by securing union jobs that paid wages significant enough to let their children be the first in their family to attend college. Like Walz, Vargas emphasized his time teaching, which he said helped show him the importance of public service. He previously served on the Omaha Public Schools board and is term-limited from running again for the Legislature.
“I believe Nebraskans deserve someone in Washington who puts people over politics,” Vargas said. “I will work every day for working families. I will fight to protect reproductive freedom and to .
.. keep our communities .
.. safe from gun violence.
” Bacon, in a campaign statement, criticized Vargas for endorsing Harris and Walz, which he called “the most left-wing ticket in U.S. history.
” Bacon, who has endorsed Trump three times, said Nebraskans don’t want Harris or her policies. Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz speaks at a rally in Omaha, Nebraska, on Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024.
A line of text on the stage read “Welcome Back Coach” and “Hometown Hero” posters dotted the audience. (Naomi Delkamiller/Nebraska News Service) “Tim Walz and Tony Vargas are both tax and spend, defund the police, and open borders liberals,” Bacon said. “I’ll keep working as the most effective and bipartisan Republican in Congress.
” Vargas said he was excited to spend the next 85 days working, organizing and talking to flip the 2nd District House seat, to help Democrats regain control of the House and to help Harris and Walz win the White House. “I’m so excited, because I get to join these two next year in Washington, D.C.
,” Vargas said. Other attendees included former U.S.
Sen. and Nebraska Gov. Ben Nelson, a Walz friend; Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird, the state’s highest-profile elected Democrat; and national gun control activist David Hogg, in town for another event.
Omaha singer Jayde Dorsey, 12, drew some of the day’s highest praise from Walz and members of the crowd for her renditions of “A Change is Gonna Come” and “Rise Up.” Walz said he could see her singing at their inauguration. As at many other rallies held during the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza , pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside and worked to draw attention to their cause.
One person tried to disrupt Walz’s speech. Political activist MajieAhna Winfrey from North Omaha drew thunderous applause with her statement about the stakes of the November election. “The path to the White House runs through Nebraska,” she said.
“Let’s go win this thing.” Nebraska Examiner is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nebraska Examiner maintains editorial independence.
Contact Editor Cate Folsom for questions: [email protected] . Follow Nebraska Examiner on Facebook and X .
Donald Trump has been accused of "rambling" and mixing things up more often, leading some to wonder if the former president is merely setting himself up for an insanity defense in court. A former prosecutor says that it won't work. Trump recently held a press conference during which he talked about a box of Cheerios that was being used as a prop for the ex-president to speak about inflation issues.
At one point, Trump said he was going to take the cereal back to his "cottage" and have a "lot of fun." Trump was also accused Saturday of forgetting in which state his campaign rally was held . ALSO READ: Donald Trump deep in debt while foreign money keeps coming: disclosure Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner over the weekend noted Trump's comments about the Cheerios, leading him to ask, "Umm.
.. ok.
.. doesn't that seem a little.
.. weird?" A commenter responded to the legal analyst, saying, "Duh.
Yes. He's prepping for an insanity defense Glenn. That's it.
There's nothing more to it." Kirschner replied, "I've handled insanity cases. It's a very hard defense to prove.
" He then added, "Trump is an imbecile, but he does not and will not have a winning insanity defense." Hours later, Kirschner dropped a video explaining why "Donald Trump WILL NOT have a successful insanity defense at any of his criminal trials." In his video, Kirschner draws from his personal experience relating to cases involving insanity defenses.
He then suggests that a successful claimant actually does not know right from wrong, and therefore they "don't try to get away with their crimes." "They don't understand that what they did was wrong, was criminal," he said on Saturday. "That's the kind of person where there is a viable and perhaps successful insanity defense.
" Regarding Trump, Kirschner says, "The tell-tale sign that somebody knows right from wrong, is not suffering from a severe mental disease or defect that makes it impossible to distinguish right from wrong, is if they try to get away with their crimes." "Donald Trump has been trying to get away with his crimes every second, every minute, of every day since he committed his many crimes," Kirschner added. Watch below or click here.
Donald Trump was recently asked about his thoughts on the future of his former ambassador, Nikki Haley , and lied in his response, according to a body language expert. Trump on Thursday gave a press conference outside the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, where he was asked, "Would you consider having Nikki Haley on the campaign trail for you?" Trump replied, "I'd love to have her support, yeah. She'd give me – she gave me support, but I'd love to have her go around and campaign.
" ALSO READ: Donald Trump deep in debt while foreign money keeps coming: disclosure But the former president's response was filled with red flags that he didn't mean what he was saying, according to Dr. Jack Brown, a renowned expert who has been featured on CNN and ABC News , among others, and has analyzed the 45th president along with previous GOP presidential primary candidates. "Note as Trump says, 'but I'd love to have her,' he sweeps his right (dominant) hand/arm out laterally, away from him.
This is a classic dismissal gesture (i.e., she's trivial, she's inconsequential, she's bothersome, she's an irritant)," Brown wrote Saturday before adding that there is "an additional body language signal here.
" "Look carefully at Trump's hand as he sweeps it outward. His right index finger is retracted," according to Brown. He continued: "With respect to body language, the index finger on the dominant hand (here, Trump's right hand) is the most powerful digit – signaling the hyper-dominance and confidence (and it's profoundly often misused/abused).
.. In contrast, when the index finger, particularly on one's dominant hand is retracted, the meaning is the opposite – low confidence, low comfort, and deception.
" "Trump is lying," Brown explains. The expert goes on to flag another moment. "Immediately after Donald Trump says, 'but I'd love to have her go around and campaign,' Trump displays what is known as a Tight Tongue Jut.
A Tight Tongue Jut signals the thought-emotions of disdain, disgust, and repulsion," Brown said. "Note also, Trump closes his eyes as he displays this tongue jut – this eyelid closure, although not a required component of this Tight Tongue Jut serves to accentuate its intensity – much as an infant pushes away creamed-asparagus." Finally, Brown notes that, "As Trump finishes his answer (speaking the word 'campaign' and for about 2 seconds after, Trump shuffles – shifting his weight from side-to-side.
" "This signals Trump's anxiety about interacting with Haley. He's wishing he hadn't said that," the analyst said. In conclusion, according to Brown, "Donald Trump is lying when he says 'he'd love to have' Nikki Haley campaign for him.
Trump doesn't want to interact with Haley at all." "Donald Trump has contempt for, disdain for, and repulsion toward Nikki Haley. He doesn't want her around," Brown said.
"She gives Trump anxiety. He's dismissive of her political value. Trump views Haley as inconsequential and as a pest.
" View the analysis below or click the link. Donald Trump on Saturday escalated his personal attacks against Vice President Kamala Harris , going as far as to say he's "better looking" than his opponent, leading to ridicule by critics. Trump, who was reported to have "empty seats" at his Pennsylvania rally where he also was accused of forgetting in which state he was campaigning , was responding to what he said was a Republican commentator suggesting that Harris is beautiful.
"I say that I am much better looking than her. I'm a better looking person than Kamala," Trump said over the weekend. ALSO READ: Donald Trump deep in debt while foreign money keeps coming: disclosure The comments didn't go over well online.
Democratic strategist Adam Parkhomenko said in response to Trump, " This guy has lost his f------ marbles." Former MSNBC personality Keith Olbermann said, "Let's all chip in to the Buy Donold A Mirror GoFundMe." Bloomberg TV contributor Daniel Micovic also chimed in: "Please let him keep speaking.
..and a rally a day until the election would be ideal," he said.
Former prosecutor Richard Signorelli replied, " Once again, D-O-G help us if this madman becomes potus again." "We are seeing his crazy thoughts unfiltered now and it's not a pretty sight," he added. "Let's make it stop by uniting to defeat this monster.
" Robert A. George, a conservative former editorial writer for Bloomberg Opinion, noted that Trump "does wear more makeup." Harris' presidential campaign even weighed in, saying, "Trump melts down over Kamala Harris being on the cover of TIME Magazine.
" Conservative Army Iraq War Veteran Peter Henlein said, "Trump ’s rally today: I’m better looking than Kamala - no one knows how to pronounce Dana Bash’s name. - Tariffs good. - It should be illegal to criticize the Supreme Court .
- TiVo is awesome. - I won Minnesota twice. This is dumb.
Stop pretending it isn’t." On the other hand, popular Trump influencer johnny maga said it's "objectively true" that Trump is better looking than Harris. Watch below or click here.
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