After Vice President Kamala Harris ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket last month, the new nominee was forced to speed-run the usually months-long process of vetting potential running mates. It turned out to be a race between affable white men, and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz came out on top.
“One of the things that stood out to me about Tim is how his convictions on fighting for middle-class families run deep. It’s personal,” Harris wrote in a statement announcing her decision on Tuesday. “We are going to build a great partnership. We are going to build a great team. We are going to win this election.”
Walz is incredibly popular within his own state, one he has successfully governed on a message of economic advancement and progressive policies aimed at helping working families. His salt-of-the-earth charm makes him incredibly hard to hate, as well as an incredibly effective communicator. Walz has been called a “joyful warrior,” and images of him smiling while cuddling a piglet and giggling on carnival rides with his daughter have gone viral amid rumors that he was in the running for a spot on the ticket. But while Walz is the quintessential image of a nice midwestern dad, he’s also an expert in taking Republicans to task, and can be ruthless in his criticism when necessary.
Here’s a small sampling of times when Harris’ new running mate has stuck it to Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, and the Republican Party:
When he started calling Trump and Vance “weird”
Walz has been widely credited with the Democratic shift in messaging to start calling Trump and Vance what they are: weird as hell. He did so in a series of TV hits beginning last month. “These guys are just weird,” he said on MSNBC after tearing apart J.D. Vance’s claims of understanding small-town America apart. “They’re running for he-man women-haters club or something.”
He later explained the line of attack to CNN’s Jake Tapper: “My point on this was that people kept talking about how Trump is going to put women’s lives at risk — that’s 100-percent true. Trump is potentially going to end constitutional liberties that we have and end voting — I do believe all those things are a real possibility. But it gives him way too much power. Listen to the guy. He’s talking about Hannibal Lecter and shocking sharks and whatever pops into his mind. I just think we give him way too much credit.”
When he defeated a six-term Republican incumbent to win his seat in the House
Before he was an elected lawmaker, Tim Walz was an enlisted servicemember, and a high school teacher and football coach. According to Walz, he decided to run for the House in 2004, after several of his students were denied entry to a speech given by former President George W. Bush in his hometown of Mankato, Minnesota, because they had previously volunteered for Democrats.
“While I had a passion for politics, I had never been overly involved in political campaigns, and many people thought that a high school teacher and football coach didn’t stand a chance,” Walz wrote on X in 2020.
In 2006, Walz ran, and he won, defeating six-term Republican incumbent Gil Gutknecht. He would serve six terms himself before running for governor in 2018.
When he dismantled Republican accusations that his policies are “socialism”
“They scream socialism, but we just build roads and schools and prosperity into this,” he told MSNBC before railing against how Trump and Republicans want to go “backwards” and “give tax cuts to the wealthy.”
“I’m all for pulling yourself up by your boot straps, but we didn’t have any boots,” he added. “Social security was the boots and we pulled ourselves up and we paid that back.”
When he exposed the GOP ticket as phonies
“These are weird people on the other side,” Walz told MSNBC. “They want to take books away, they want to be in your exam room. Listen to them speak, listen to how they talk about things. … [Republican leadership] has told [Republicans] that they shouldn’t take about race, but they can’t help it. It’s built into their DNA because they have no plan.”
Walz continued to attack Republican policies before going directly after Trump and Vance. “A robber baron real estate guy and a venture capitalist trying to tell us they understand who we are?” he said. “They don’t know who we are.”
When he and the state legislature passed a bonanza of progressive reforms in Minnesota
Walz won the governorship of Minnesota in 2018 in a blowout election against Republican Jeff Johnson. Initially, it would be an uphill struggle, with Republicans controlling the State Senate during the first years of his term.
In 2023, Minnesota’s Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party secured control of both chambers for the first time in a decade. The result was a progressive legislative tour de force that saw Walz sign into law universal free school meals, protections on reproductive freedoms, child tax credits, paid leave, massive infrastructure packages, universal gun background checks, and much much more.
Walz called the 93rd Minnesota Legislature the “most productive session in Minnesota history,” and “the most supportive of middle class and working people that we’ve ever seen.”
As Harris embarked on her search for a running mate, there’s no doubt that Walz’s accomplishments in his state heavily tipped the scales in his favor.
When he spoke very candidly about his feelings on Trump
“How often in 100 days do you get to change the trajectory of the world,” Walz said of the renewed effort to take down Trump. “How often do you get to do something that’s going to impact generations to come. How often do you make that bastard wake up and know that a Black woman kicked his ass and sent him on the road.”
When he was a Midwestern dad — in the best way possible
Walz is more relatable than everyone in the GOP combined.
When he defended Harris taking over the ticket and made clear the GOP is stuck with Trump
“Democrats are ready to move when the situation warrants it,” he said on Fox News. “It doesn’t matter conviction, it doesn’t matter the failed policies, the Republican Party is stuck with Donald Trump. He’s yours, you’ve got him, welcome to it. The Democratic Party can make our decisions and pick our nominee. If you don’t like it, don’t vote for it in November.”
When he explained that the American dream is for everyone
“When someone else has rights, it’s not like a damn pie,” Walz said. “Rights aren’t that way. There’s enough for everybody. Same thing with jobs. Same thing with housing. Same thing with health care.”
“Yes, they’re a threat,” he continued, speaking about Trump and Republicans, “but we’re not going to stay in their frame, we’re not going to stay where they’re at, we’re not going to play their game. We called them out for the weird nonsense they believe and we presented a different argument to the American public, one where everybody matters, one where we can achieve, one where we solve problems.”
Siri worked out of Dr. Mehmet Oz’s (right) home in an unofficial role on Kennedy’s transition.Brendan SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey has aimed to allow parents a religious exemption to school vaccinations.West Virginia Governor’s Office
Health Secretary Kennedy served as co-counsel with Siri in 2018.Jim WATSON/AFP/Getty Images
NYPD officers detain Susan Sarandon and pro-Palestinian demonstrators near the United Nations, ahead of Benjamin Netanyahu’s address, on Sept. 24, 2026.CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP/Getty Images
Vladimir Putin addressing the audience during the Valdai Discussion Club meeting on Oct. 1
As Trump Dithers, Ukraine War Is Approaching a ‘Fatal Point of No Return’
The war in Ukraine is becoming increasingly dangerous, with the risk of escalation spilling further into Europe. As Russia and European governments trade explicit warnings that the conflict is spreading, the United States is pursuing diplomacy aimed less at stopping the carnage than restoring ties with Moscow.
With the Russian military making little progress on the ground in eastern Ukraine despite nearly five years of war and more than a million casualties, the Kremlin is intensifying aerial attacks. Ukraine, which has been the target of Russian missiles and drones since the war began in February 2022, is now experiencing a sharp uptick in attacks on infrastructure and populated areas that threaten to plunge parts of the country into cold and darkness over the winter.
The aerial blitzkrieg is intended to destroy Ukraine’s morale, infrastructure, and economy, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently told the Financial Times, citing intelligence intercepted by his country’s security services.
Zelenskyy told the paper that Russian President Vladimir Putin, in discussions with top Kremlin officials, had removed constraints on the bombardment campaign: “He said there are no rules now.”
U.S. disengagement from the conflict during Trump’s second term, coupled with the American president’s animosity toward Zelenskyy and Ukraine more generally, has only emboldened Putin. After promising he would stop the war “within 24 hours” after reelection, Trump’s tepid support for Ukraine and its European allies has increasingly convinced the Kremlin it has a chance to permanently rupture the NATO alliance.
At the Valdai Discussion Club on Thursday — an annual high-profile international summit in St. Petersburg — Putin said that continued European support for Ukraine was pushing the conflict toward a “fatal point of no return.”
The Kremlin has long described the war as an extension of a confrontation with the collective West. With more than 1.5 million active service members in the Russian military, about 44 percent of Moscow’s budget for 2027 is dedicated to defense and security spending. Around 700,000 Russian soldiers are serving on the front lines in Ukraine, where casualties remain staggeringly high.
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Meanwhile, Moscow is conducting a campaign of so-called “hybrid warfare” — with officials in multiple countries alleging that a series of drone attacks, arsons, and sabotage originated with Russian intelligence services. The Kremlin also continues to carry out targeted killings on European soil — and has even attempted to assassinate political dissidents in the United States, according to the FBI.
Russia’s belligerent activity has set alarm bells ringing across Europe.
Speaking at a NATO event on Thursday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that the continent must brace for “severe hybrid attacks,” as Russia targets production facilities and logistics hubs by which Ukraine’s allies supply the beleaguered country with arms. Europe must be prepared to “respond quickly and very clearly” to Russian provocations, Merz said.
For its part, Moscow asserts that NATO is provoking conflict, citing recent unannounced military exercises near Kaliningrad — a Russian exclave on the Baltic coast. In a communiqué to NATO this week, Russian officials warned that action against Kaliningrad would initiate a serious response, “including nuclear weapons” in order to defend its territory, and “Russian strikes against decision-making centers in the alliance’s member states.”
“This is a war that Europe is waging against us,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters at the Valdai forum. When asked about hybrid attacks outside Ukraine that European leaders have attributed to Russia, he said his country was only targeting support for what it dubs the “Nazi regime” in Kyiv.
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As the sabers rattle louder, American engagement with Moscow and Kyiv comes in fits and starts, with no apparent overarching strategy.
Critics of the White House’s approach point to a recent trip by Trump’s friend and special envoy to the Middle East, real estate attorney Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner, to Moscow and Kyiv. Their tour yielded headlines, but little progress toward negotiations between the warring parties — let alone toward ending the conflict.
“I hope they had a great discussion about opening a hotel or something,” one European official told Rolling Stone. “Because it was useless otherwise.”
Diplomacy via haphazard tête-à-têtes with the president’s personal envoys is almost certainly viewed as a sign of weakness by Putin, who is well aware that Trump hopes to claim normalized ties between the United States and Russia as a crowning foreign policy achievement.
The White House is considering a range of unprecedented diplomatic deals that would help keep Russia’s economy functioning while doing little to benefit Ukraine.
These proposals reportedly include an easing of economic sanctions if Putin agrees to release some political prisoners, and a potential multibillion-dollar oil deal ostensibly aimed at stabilizing energy markets and reducing gas prices.
With gas prices rising amid the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and midterm elections around the corner, Trump has made energy central to his Russia policy. Washington has called for an “energy ceasefire” — while Trump has blamed Kyiv for rising diesel prices in the United States.
While high oil prices are the result of a concatenation of crises, Ukraine has been targeting Russian oil refineries, producing fuel shortages and long queues for gasoline — in one of the world’s largest oil producers — over the summer.
Ukraine is also developing its own domestically produced tactical ballistic missiles. Ukrainian officials said Friday that one type of missile, the FP-7, had been successfully used in combat for the first time. But whether Kyiv can produce enough of them to create a meaningful deterrent is unclear.
As winter nears, the outlook for Ukraine is bleak. A recent attack on Kyiv consisted of nearly a dozen ballistic missiles and hundreds of drones in a single night. That many munitions slip through highlights the dire situation faced by Ukrainian defenders, who are running out of advanced missile interceptors. They also struggle to shoot down drones that are becoming increasingly numerous, sophisticated, and effective as the war drags on.
In recent months, Russia has adopted widespread use of an advanced drone, the Geran-5 — a jet-powered drone that bears an uncanny resemblance to the V-1 “buzz bombs” used by the Nazis to bombard London toward the end of World War II.
As with the German V-1 campaign against London 80 years ago, the targets are often indiscriminate. Even before the ramping-up of attacks this fall, 2026 was on track to be the deadliest year for Ukrainian civilians since the early months of the full-scale war in 2022.
The proliferation of Russian attack drones and ballistic missiles means that cities like Kyiv now spend much of each day under air alert. Even aside from the human toll and physical damage that the weapons inflict, officials estimate that the disruptions to daily life are costing the country as much as $45 million per hour in lost economic activity.
Since Friday, a series of drone attacks has targeted two of Kyiv’s major bridges spanning the Dnieper River. The damage has disrupted traffic between the capital’s “Right Bank” — with its historic core and city center — and its “Left Bank,” with its sprawling Soviet-era industrial and residential developments.
Ukraine is already experiencing a severe financial squeeze. Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi says the country is facing a $27 billion “funding gap” before the end of the year.
Ukrainian lawmakers warn the government could even run out of funds to pay soldiers. One serving member of the Ukrainian military, who spoke to Rolling Stone on background, said by the end of the summer, members of his unit had already begun experiencing “delays” in receiving their pay.
The Ministry of Defense disputes that soldier’s salaries could go unpaid, but acknowledges that “technical issues” had caused some delays.
Meanwhile, Zelenskyy is under pressure from corruption scandals and resignations involving members of his inner circle. Polls show him potentially losing hypothetical match-ups against rivals, including former Ukrainian Armed Forces commander Valerii Zaluzhny. The country’s “long-admired cohesion” has begun to crack — an outcome that aligns with Russia’s strategic objectives.
But after nearly five years of war, both combatants are showing signs of political and economic strain.
Russia’s regular military conscription process — 120,000 new recruits are expected over the next three months — barely offsets the grievous casualties its military is experiencing at the Ukrainian front, with high estimates exceeding 1,000 casualties per day.
Some analysts believe the Kremlin is considering a massive mobilization in the wake of parliamentary elections. But Putin so far has merely called for an increase in the total number of active-duty military members by a little more than 15,000. Russia’s president remains wary of generating a meaningful anti-war movement inside Russia, while also facing pressure from hard-line nationalists expecting him to deliver victory.
Across Europe, governments are no longer treating a direct confrontation with Russia as a remote possibility. They are preparing for worst-case scenarios, particularly in the Baltic states and other countries that experienced Russian rule under the Soviets. Meanwhile, NATO insists that all members — including the United States — have an “ironclad commitment” to collective defense.
In 1914, at the outset of the First World War, few leaders understood how faulty strategic assumptions, entangling alliances, and lethal technologies were pushing the continent toward cataclysm.
But some did. On the eve of war, U.K. Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey famously wrote that “The lamps are going out all over Europe.”
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Across Ukraine, darkness will again become a feature of daily wartime life amid rolling blackouts as a hard winter looms. And the shadows are lengthening, far beyond its borders.
But in America, the White House dithers as the president has his attention elsewhere. Perhaps Trump’s new ballroom, at least, should be well lit.