Kamala Harris has a major problem attracting the male vote, and it turns out that adding a “football coach” who flails around and has spent his career on things like putting tampons in the men’s bathroom isn’t doing the trick.
Last week, Harris supporters launched one of the worst ads in the history of politics, hiring actors to portray themselves as “manly men” who support the vice president.
It didn’t go well:
Did the Harris/Walz campaign reach out to a single man who doesn’t have a testosterone deficiency when making this ad?
pic.twitter.com/LVKdoUMcew— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) October 11, 2024
Facing a major problem, the Harris campaign deployed to Tim Walz to “turn out male voters,” wrote Politico.
“Faced with a serious polling deficit among young men, Harris’ campaign is sending the Minnesota governor on a man-focused media blitz on Friday, including football-focused TV interviews and pheasant hunting with digital influencers, according to details shared first with POLITICO.
It’ll start with a one-on-one interview with ABC Good Morning America’s Michael Strahan, a former NFL football player, at the University of Minnesota’s football stadium, airing on Friday morning. In the sitdown, the pair will discuss how Walz’s coaching career prepared him for politics and will feature some of his former students. Walz will also appear in a round of local TV interviews in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — which the campaign hopes will center on high school football and hunting. In Michigan, later on Friday, Walz will headline a voter engagement event with Black men.
Then, the governor will return to Minnesota, where he’ll deliver the pep talk to Mankato West’s football team, his former football squad, ahead of their game against rivals Mankato East. And on Saturday morning, Walz will take a group of social media influencers, including veterans advocate David Boomer and a Black rodeo star Ramontay McConnell, pheasant hunting in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota.”
It all turned out to be a disaster, as well.
During his interview with Strahan, Walz stumbled over his previous attack on American democracy, noted The New York Post.
“Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz appeared to double down Thursday on his support for getting rid of the Electoral College — despite getting smacked down by the Harris campaign the first time he called for the radical constitutional change.
‘Well, it’s not the campaign’s position, and the point that I’m trying to make is that there’s folks that feel like every vote must count in every state,’ the Democratic vice presidential nominee told ABC News ‘Good Morning America’ co-host Michael Strahan in an interview.
‘And I think some of the folks feel that that’s not the case.’”
🧵Tim Walz’z interview with ABC’s Michael Strahan (of all people!) was BRUTAL.
Strahan: “Vice President Harris was asked this week on The View if she would have done anything differently than President Biden — with President Biden than he has done in the past four year. She… pic.twitter.com/Qu9U0gGvTK
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 11, 2024
Next he visited the high where he used to teach and was met with silence and protest rather than being seen as a native son.
The Post explained that the Minnesota governor “waltzed onto the bleachers at Mankato West High School on Friday night to watch a team he once coached as an assistant play a big rivalry game.
Many were visibly indifferent to the vice presidential candidate’s presence. Multiple attendees were seen staring silently. However, some attendees were talking to and even hugging the governor.
Blue Earth County GOP Yvonne Simon told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that Walz’s appearance at the game was due to desperation.
‘They’re getting desperate to get the word out,’ Simon said.”
Finally, over the weekend, Walz might have had his most embarrassing “manly” outing–his pheasant hunting photo op where he looked like he’d never held a gun before, despite serving in the National Guard for over two decades and claiming to have served in a war zone.
The Daily Caller wrote that “Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota appeared to have difficulty loading a semi-automatic shotgun in a video posted online during his pheasant-hunting trip while campaigning.
Walz took part in the annual Governor’s Pheasant Hunting Opener near Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, Saturday, to kick off the season for the upland game bird, the Associated Press reported. Video posted to social media shows Walz struggling to load the shotgun while talking to reporters.
“It never fits quite right,” Walz said as he tried to load shells into the shotgun’s magazine.
“It’s a Beretta A400,” Walz responded. “I bought it when I was shooting a lot of trap.”
Walz explained that he selected the gun due to a patented “KickOff” feature that reduced recoil.
“It doesn’t hurt your shoulder as much,” Walz said.
Like much of the Harris campaign, it was impossible to not see how fake the entire ordeal was:
I like how he’s supposedly looking for pheasant right where the people taking the video are. All their gear looks new. Other than that, not staged at all. https://t.co/byPy9jZ3mM
— Doug Powers (@ThePowersThatBe) October 13, 2024
Newsweek opinion editor explained what all of this pretending to be a macho man by Walz actually was:
This “outreach” to men is actually outreach to women. There’s a contradiction between what Democratic women expect aesthetically & sexually out of men and what they demand politically. The result is this uncanny valley of politically emasculated men LARPing as manly macho men: https://t.co/ASIa0de4ox
— Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon) October 13, 2024
In 2022, rumors circulated that Harris was “dysfunctional” because she held “deep insecurity” to the point where Biden considered dropping her. Now we’re watching that same insecurity play out on the campaign trail. According to some reports, Harris chose Tim Walz over the popular governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, an important swing state, because she was intimidated by the Pennsylvanian and felt comfortable with Walz. It’s no wonder why.
[Read More: Democrats Blast Obama For Comments About Black Men]