Trump’s Campaign Attacks Tim Walz for Allowing “Convicted Felons to Vote”

Donald Trump’s campaign did not waste any time on Tuesday going after Kamala Harris’s newly announced running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz. Though perhaps an extra beat or two might have given the team time to come up with a line of attack stronger than the one about letting convicted felons vote—which is a bit odd given the guy at the top of the GOP ticket!

Yes, in a statement released shortly after the Walz news was official, a spokesperson for Trump’s campaign condemned the governor for “embracing policies to allow convicted felons to vote.” As a quick reminder, Donald Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts last May, making him—you guessed it—a convicted felon.

Interestingly, unless he is literally in prison at the time of the November election, Trump will be allowed to vote, because voting laws in Florida, where he resides, permit residents convicted of crimes in other states to vote if the state where they were convicted allows them to do so. Since New York, where Trump was convicted, lets anyone vote as long as they’re not serving a prison sentence, Trump may cast his ballot his fall.

In addition to the self-own about voting, Trump’s campaign also went after Walz for “proposing his own carbon-free agenda” and “suggesting stricter emission standards for gas-powered cars,” all of which Team Trump claims is part of a plot by the governor to “reshape Minnesota in the image of” California, which, in Republican circles, is a dirty word. The campaign also referenced a 2017 quote by Walz in which he said his state’s rural areas are comprised of “mostly rocks and cows.” (It seems unlikely that Trump, who grew up in New York and was a millionaire by the age of eight thanks to his dad’s real estate empire, will be able to make the case that he understands rural America better than the Nebraska-born Walz, but he’s quite obviously going to try!)

For his part, Walz appears to have received the nod from Harris due to policies that will likely appeal to progressive and working-class voters, though he may have sealed the deal by going on TV and calling out MAGA Republicans for being total weirdos. Last month, he told CNN, of Trump: “Listen to the guy. He’s talking about Hannibal Lecter and shocking sharks and just whatever crazy thing pops into his mind.… That is weird behavior.”