America's dad Tim Walz dropped by The Daily Show, where he told host Jon Stewart that there's room for everyone under the Harris/Walz ticket—even former Republican vice presidents like Dick Cheney.
Stewart kicked off his conversation with a pressing political question: why are his beloved New York Giants doing so terribly this season? The Minnesota governor had an answer: “They should have kept Saquon” said Walz—referring to former Giants running back Saquon Barkely who now plays for the Philadelphia Eagles. "Pay him the money." Walz's idea spurred a few audible negative reactions in the live studio audience, but Stewart ultimately agreed with the former state championship-winning high school football coach.
The two quickly moved onto real political conversation. A vocal critic of Cheney during his tenure as vice president to George W. Bush in the early aughts, Stewart was skeptical of Walz and Harris's recent decision to campaign alongside the former VP and his daughter, former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney. “The Cheney thing: do we really have to do that?” asked Stewart. “It goes broader than that,” replied Walz. "Look: Bernie Sanders, Dick Cheney, Taylor Swift. Here, Stewart pushed back: “What country did Taylor Swift get us to invade?”
Still, Walz made a case for why the Cheney's endorsement of Harris and Walz is a good thing for the Democratic ticket. “I know it’s hard to imagine, [but] there’s a lot of folks who are still deciding what they’re gonna do. The folks I talk to, they’re probably — they are Republicans, and they say it,” said Walz. “A Republican introduces me in Omaha, he said, ‘I can’t stand with this guy anymore. That’s not the party of Reagan. This isn’t freedom.’ Whatever it may be, it’s a lot of those folks that are trying to find permission to get off the MAGA stuff and move over. So, they’re still listening. They’re finding a way.”
Walz emphasized how many Republicans feel they no longer have a home in the GOP and are actively looking to an alternative to Donald Trump. “For a lot of them, they’ve never crossed over that line," he said. “And you can say it about Liz Cheney and Dick Cheney and some of those that did show some courage to cross over. They don’t agree; these are folks that we’re told, ‘I’m historically Republican, I’m gonna vote Republican.’ But they don’t have a home anymore. And I think for a lot of cases, they hear the noise that’s out there. But that’s why I’m out there talking to them.”
While Stewart heard out and ultimately agreed with Walz, he still took some shots at Cheney. After Walz spoke at length about the importance of gun control, Stewart found a sly way to reference when the elder Cheney shot his hunting partner, Harry Whittington, in the face while quail hunting. “One of the real first qualifications of being a vice president is obviously rifle safety,” Stewart quipped. “I can't think of a vice president in recent memory that used a shotgun irresponsibly.”
“It doesn't mean they agree with us,” said Walz of the Cheneys’ endorsement. “We're not going to take their foreign policy decisions and discussions, you know, and implement those.”
Stewart had a one word reply for the VP candidate: “Promise?”
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