Caitlin Thielen, wife of NFL star Adam Thielen, recently criticized Vice President Kamala Harris’ selection of Minnesota Tim Walz as her running mate. Following the major development in Harris’ presidential bid earlier this week, conservatives have sharply criticized Walz over his far-left policies that would exacerbate Vice President Harris’ progressive stances.
Caitlin Thielen wrote on X, “Oh man.. bad bad news. He has run Minneapolis into the ground,” slamming Walz record in state governance. Adam Thielen had played for the Minnesota Vikings for roughly nine years before he recently joined the Carolina Panthers in 2023, giving Caitlin experiences to cite in her criticism of Walz. The Democratic governor led the state in 2020 when Minneapolis erupted in chaos after the death of George Floyd.
On Tuesday, Harris took to social media, where she explained her selection of Walz. “It’s personal,” she noted. “He grew up in a small town in Nebraska, spending summers working on his family’s farm. His father died of cancer when he was 19, and his family relied on Social Security survivor benefit checks to make ends meet. At 17, he enlisted in the National Guard, serving for 24 years. He used his GI Bill benefits to go to college and become a teacher.”
Harris continued, “He served as both the football coach and the advisor of the Gay-Straight Alliance.” The vice president claimed she pointed out details of his background “both because it’s impressive in its own right, and because you see in no uncertain terms how it informs his record.” The presumptive Democratic nominee further praised Walz’s supposed political accomplishments.
“He worked with Republicans to pass infrastructure investments. He cut taxes for working families. He passed a law to provide paid family and medical leave to Minnesotan families. He made Minnesota the first state in the country to pass a law providing constitutional abortion protections after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and as an avid hunter, he passed a bill requiring universal background checks for gun purchases,” she said.
However, the Trump campaign criticized Harris choice of running mate, calling out Walz’s record of governorship in Minnesota, where he has sought to make it more like Gavin Newsom’s California. A campaign spokesperson alleged that Walz’s seeming interest in representing flyover America is disingenuous.
“It’s no surprise that San Francisco Liberal Kamala Harris wants West Coast wannabe Tim Walz as her running-mate – Walz has spent his governorship trying to reshape Minnesota in the image of the Golden State,” said Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt. “While Walz pretends to support Americans in the Heartland, when the cameras are off, he believes that rural America is ‘mostly cows and rocks’.”
Levitt further slammed Walz’s far-left agenda, including radical proposals on carbon emissions and the rule of law. “From proposing his own carbon-free agenda, to suggesting stricter emission standards for gas-powered cars, and embracing policies to allow convicted felons to vote, Walz is obsessed with spreading California’s dangerously liberal agenda far and wide,” she added. Levitt continued, “If Walz won’t tell voters the truth, we will: just like Kamala Harris, Tim Walz is a dangerously liberal extremist, and the Harris-Walz California dream is every American’s nightmare.”
Watch a scathing anti-Kamala Harris ad from the Trump campaign below:
Featured image credit: Office of Governor Tim Walz & Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan, PDM-owner, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Governor_Tim_Walz_at_Bemidji_Steel.jpg
"*" indicates required fields