By Tara Suter - 09/05/24

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz , Vice President Harris’s running mate, suggested recently that former President Trump’s rhetoric is pessimistic, comparing it to the dystopian media franchise “Mad Max.”

Walz, appearing to be in a campaign office, said there is “a deliberate effort by some people to make them believe that our political system is broken … that things are pessimistic.”

“My God, every time I hear Donald Trump give a speech, it’s like the next screenplay for ‘Mad Max’ or something,” the governor said in the clip posted Wednesday to the social platform X. “They are rooting against America.”

“They do not believe in the exceptionalists in this country, they do not believe in the people who built this country. They simply want to complain about them,” he added.

Walz has been well-received by his fellow Democrats as the vice presidential nominee, despite the quick turnaround in the candidates at the top of the Democratic ticket, following President Biden’s decision to withdraw from the race. The Minnesota governor has been a leader in the Harris campaign’s effort to paint Trump and his running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as “weird,” which has caught on with other members of the party.

“I think all of you in this room, it’s not hyperbole to say, this election could very well hinge on this county here, and this field office here and the folks that we get out,” Walz added in the clip.

Trump has pushed back against the “weird” moniker, arguing last month that he believes he and Vance are “extremely normal people.”

“This whack job. You know, he said we’re weird. That JD and I are weird. I think we’re extremely normal people. Like you,” Trump said at a campaign stop in York, Pa. “He’s weird. Did you ever see him go on the stage and go like crazy?”

The GOP nominee has consistently thrown the insult back at Harris and Walz, calling the North Star State governor “freakish” and claiming his Democratic rival is a “weird person.” Trump has also argued he is “entitled” to use personal attacks against the vice president, despite pressure from members of his party to tone down his insults and focus more on policy.

In an average of national polls from The Hill/Decision Desk HQ, Harris leads Trump by 4 points — 49.4 percent to 45.4 percent.

The Hill has reached out to the Trump campaign.