“The Daily Show’s” Grace Kuhlenschmidt asked the important questions at Kamala Harris’ first official event with her vice presidential pick Tim Walz – is the man white enough?
Walz took the internet by storm this week when he was announced as Harris’ running mate for the presidential election. Many on X and beyond cited his Dad Energy and Midwestern charms as big parts of the appeal. Kuhlenschmidt cut right to the point on what they really meant people were looking for in the vice president’s VP pick, though:
“Is he white enough?” she asked at the event.
“He’s close to lily white, I think so,” one attendee said. “When it comes to white, he’s right.”
Kuhlenschmidt rattled off a number of quick questions pondering if Walz was white enough for the ticket – something many of the attendees were hesitant to admit was a part of his appeal at all. The questions included:
- “We know Tim Walz is white, but is he white enough to win all 19 electoral votes from Pennsylvania?”
- “Have you guys seen him play hacky sack?”
- “Have you seen him at a Dave Matthews Band concert?”
- “Have you seen him say, ‘I love yogurt’?”
Eventually, supporters attending the event did begin to recognize that Walz being on the ticket might partially be because he’s “white enough” to placate certain parts of the country and bigoted voters.
“By having a Black Asian woman as Democratic candidate, so I think it was necessary that we had a white man, unfortunately,” another attendee said in the video.
“In a way was he kind of like a DEI hire?” Kuhlenschmidt asked back, to which the response was “absolutely.”
Watch the full clip from “The Daily Show” above.
