Trump's vice presidential pick, Senator J.D.

Vance, has also come out swinging, speaking at a campaign event just a short time ago in Philadelphia.

Tim Walz's record is a joke.

He's been one of the most far left radicals in the entire United States government at any level.

But I think that what Tim Walz's selection says is that Kamala Harris has bent the knee to the far left of her party, which is what she always does.

Now CNN's Kristen Holmes is in Philadelphia where Vance just wrapped up his campaign rally.

So Kristen, what can you tell us about the Trump campaign strategy now that we actually know who the vice presidential pick is on the Democratic side?

Yeah, Omer, I actually want to go back to something that Jeff just was talking about.

The first being that they released a video on Tim Walz to introduce him to the American voters.

Remember, Tim Walz is not someone who has a household name.

As they rush to put out who Tim Walz is, Republicans are also rushing to define Walz.

And the other thing you heard Jeff talk about was that progressive record that Walz has had as governor.

That is what Republicans are seizing on.

They are 100 percent focused on that, saying that he moves the Democratic ticket to the left, that he is far more progressive than President Joe Biden was.

And remember what the attack line has been on Vice President Kamala Harris, that she herself is a far left radical liberal.

This is something they are trying to hammer home.

And now with the selection of Walz and his progressive record, they are doubling down on that.

Now you mentioned that video.

They put out a video almost immediately after Walz was selected.

I am told it will be part of a future ad buy.

Take a listen to the narrative there.

Kamala Harris just doubled down on her radical vision for America by tapping another left wing extremist as her VP nominee.

Tim Walz will be a rubber stamp for Kamala's dangerously liberal agenda.

Now, one thing to note there, obviously, they are really holding on tight to this narrative about being far left.

But the other interesting thing I have heard from a number of Trump advisers is that there is some relief that she didn't go with Governor Shapiro, the governor here in Pennsylvania.

They were concerned that that might give Kamala Harris an edge here in this critical battleground.

Obviously, now they are focusing all of their attention on Governor Walz, despite the fact that Shapiro will be campaigning alongside Kamala Harris and Governor Walz.

But it is just an interesting note that there was some sigh of relief over the fact that it was Walz instead of Shapiro, Omar.

Well, we will see if that sigh of relief is warranted or not.

But it begins today.

Kristen Holmes, thank you so much.

We are going to unpack all of this with CNN political commentator Maria Cardona, Democratic strategist, along with Aaron Perrini, a Republican strategist who served as press communications director for the Trump campaign.

So, Maria, I want to start with you because, obviously, look, now we know who the pick is on the Democratic side.

Where does Tim Walz start with appealing to swing voters here?

I think he starts by talking about not just what he has done in Minnesota.

Let's remember that when he came to the House of Representatives, he took control of a Republican seat and kept control for over a dozen years.

When he was in the state legislature or when he was governor of a state legislature that had Republicans in power, he was able to get things done for Minnesota by crossing over to the other side of the aisle and giving Minnesotans accomplishments.

And so that's what he's going to talk about.

He's also going to talk about what the Kamala, what the Harris-Walz administration will do to expand the middle class, focus on protecting our rights and freedoms, focus on protecting our democracy.

And that's what it's all going to come down to, Omar, because I think swing voters want what most Americans want.

They want the ability to be able to give their families a way to live a better life.

Right now, it's the Kamala Harris agenda that is going to be able to do that.

But when he really got stuff done was when Democrats controlled things in his state, right?

That's what we saw.

And those are the things he did that you have Republicans pointing to as, oh, this is the radical left agenda.

But I want to ask you, Erin, because if you just kind of look at the guy and you see how he sounds, he doesn't seem like a lib.

Is that going to stick, do you think?

This is going to have to be the commentary Republicans move is that this is a wolf in sheep's clothing.

That might look like your uncle, but it's not your uncle.

That's not somebody you know why.

And then they can start to play the sound of what he has said about socialism being neighborly and about the progressive agenda that he has pursued.

This is not going to be an easy fight for Republicans because he does come off as so affable.

Everybody says he's such a likable guy.

You want to get a meal with him.

This isn't going to be a personality fight.

It has to be the policy fight, because between Kamala and between him, they are going to win on the personality fight.

So make it the policies.

Talk about when Democrats had control of the legislature in Minnesota and how progressive his policies were.

Kamala has tried to moderate under Joe Biden, and she's been appearing to be more moderate running as a candidate now, trying to have staff backtrack on fracking and Medicare for all.

She hasn't said that herself, but her staff's been saying it for her.

He ties more closely to those policies.

So is this moving more towards the left?

That's another opportunity for Republicans.

Let's talk about those policies, because yes, Republicans are trying to label him as a crazy liberal.

But let's talk about the policies that he passed with a Democratic legislature.

Paid leave.

Ivanka Trump was trying to push paid leave under the Trump administration, right?

Reproductive freedom.

Ask Republicans if that's something that they want to run on front and center and as a top issue.

Let's do it.

Bring it on.

We can argue the same thing about crime.

We can talk about the same thing about immigration.

Cutting taxes for middle class voters, right?

That is not an out there, far liberal agenda.

That is an American agenda that the vast majority of voters support.

But failing to protect your cities when there are violent riots going on and seeing them burned to the ground.

That is talking about- Yes, no, you're right.

They will exaggerate on that and he's going to have to answer for that.

I mean, the photos show themselves.

I mean, this is not a mostly peaceful incident there.

That was a very, very dangerous situation.

And he admitted, but he failed to step up and make the moment.

And he dealt with it.

And guess what?

Too little, too late for the billions of dollars in damages.

Yes, and those cities that are still not rebuilt at this point.

The state of Minnesota.

Send a camera to Minnesota and walk around the communities that are still charred.

The state of Minnesota, who went through that, reelected him, and this is a state that Republicans say they're going to win?

I don't think so.

It's an off-cycle year.

Let me just jump in here real quick because I think, look, it seems like there's ammo.

There is ammo.

I think it's fair to say.

I was there in Minnesota covering those protests.

And one thing that I think now, though, is when voters are looking at the picture that not just those in the base, but true swing voters who are trying to decide here, does Walz's history, Erin, I'll ask you the question, does Walz, does his military background, does the football coach background, does the Midwest background blunt maybe some of the policy criticisms that are allotted this way now?

It can blunt the appearance of the policy criticisms, but it doesn't blunt the actual policies.

Again, this cannot be a personality fight.

That is where Republicans will not win.

And neither side wins in a personality fight.

This has to be on the policies.

Just because he looks like your neighbor and your uncle doesn't mean he is.

It means that he supports a radical agenda, one that will not benefit the middle class, one that will only drive the economy down, that will raise your taxes.

And here's the thing.

It's hard to define them right now because you haven't heard real policy positions about what Kamala and Walz are going to do.

And this is the time where that needs to start happening, because they need to talk about what they're going to do for the American people instead of just placating at this point.

And the bigger point is, they haven't taken a tough question.

Now they, Tim hasn't even really been announced yet, so it's a little hard to bob criticism at him for that.

But is he going to be doing interviews?

Are they going to be taking questions?

Will they be doing press conferences?

Because you can't hide from your agenda the whole time and think the American people are going to elect you.

I don't think they want to hide from it.

I think they want to actually put it in front of the Senate.

Because like I said, who of those swing voters is not going to support paid leave?

Who of those swing voters is not going to support reproductive freedom?

And especially coming from someone who is a veteran, who owns a gun, who understands truly, doesn't pretend to like J.D.

Vance does, understand those small town rural voters that they need to appeal to.

Well, let me ask you about this, Erin, because you said the appearance of some things.

Some of these things, they're not, it's not just the appearance, right?

I mean, decades in the military and the guard.

I mean, this is this is like the sort of these are like the unsung heroes of the military.

Yeah.

I mean, arguably.

Since he was 17.

And the football coach thing, he's a sportsman.

I mean, isn't that maybe something that does get some folks in the middle who might not give, some folks who are disillusioned with Trump, might they just stop for a second and go, hmm, that they might not do for like a Josh Shapiro.

That's a that's a good hypothetical.

But who knows whether or not that's real?

Because even with Tim Walz being as affable and well-liked as you've heard members on both sides of the aisle say about him, people don't vote for the vice president.

They vote for the top of the ticket.

And so at this point, you have to use his policy positions, lump them in with Kamala, bring back who she was in the 20 cycle.

Talk about how progressive and how left she was and say, this is the ticket.

Kamala has been smiling this whole time and has been extremely loved by the media.

But this is what they actually want to do to the country.

And this is the direction they want to take them in.

And when you talk about paid family leave, yes, the Trump team can blunt that.

How?

We tried to pursue it in the White House.

These are things that we've worked on as well.

If you want to talk about service, J.D.

Vance served in the Marines and deployed to Iraq in service of this nation.

There's a way to counter each of these punches and Republicans have the ability to do it.

When it comes to the Second Amendment and firearm use, I mean, when it comes to J.D.

Vance was a Marine and Donald Trump has been endorsed by the NRA for years.

Again, all of this can be the same.

But to your point here, people vote top of the ticket.

So some voters might say, ooh, maybe he's a little bit better.

But I don't think that'll actually sway a voter.

I think what you're describing, I think is an example of how afraid they are because they have to caricature both Kamala Harris and now Tim Walz.

And that's not going to fall with credibility.