Chris Matthews declared that Vice President Kamala Harris turned into John Wayne at a Pennsylvania rally on Tuesday night, her first since the announcement of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) as her running mate.
Matthews joined a Morning Joe panel on Wednesday and was bursting with praise for the “dramatic” shift Harris and Democrats have made since President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid just weeks ago.
“She owned that whole room. Her confidence level was through the roof,” Matthews said, adding the short campaign timeframe presents an opportunity for Harris to “beat” history and become the first Black woman president.
Matthews had previously argued on Morning Joe that Walz was the least known among the finalists for vice president, but he praised Walz for his speech on Tuesday where the Democratic governor said Donald Trump “doesn’t know a thing about service” and he shared the story of naming his child Hope after he and his wife struggled to conceive and used IVF, a procedure that has become a target of some Republicans.
Matthews argued Harris proved with her Walz rally that she can have appeal to red voters in battleground states like Pennsylvania by saying the vice president channeled more of right wing John Wayne than left wing activist Jane Fonda.
“I don’t know where it came from and where it’s been four weeks ago even, but we saw leadership last night. Bob Casey, the former governor of Pennsylvania who won his election by a million votes, said, Pennsylvania is a John Wayne state, not a Jane Fonda state,” he said. “She was John Wayne last night! She was a leader. And she was clear that she was the boss.”
Watch above via MSNBC.
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