On their first day of campaigning together, Vice President Kamala Harris and her newly announced running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, declared themselves “Joyful Warriors,” speaking at an event that was opened by alternative folk band Bon Iver.
“As Tim Walz likes to point out, we are joyful warriors,” said Vice President Harris at the Wisconsin rally.
Describing Gov. Walz as a warrior comes at a strange time, considering he is facing credible accusations of engaging in stolen valor — that is, falsely claiming military service or embellishing one’s service — after U.S. military veterans from his former unit confirmed that Walz left the military to evade a deployment to Iraq.
After the initial allegations came to light, social media began scouring claims Walz made about is military service during prior campaigns, uncovering more examples of embellishments and outright fabrications.
The event also saw Harris claiming that, as President, she will lower the cost of living and bring down food costs and rental prices, appearing to embrace socialist-style government-imposed price caps on goods and services.
“We believe in a future where we lower the cost of living for America’s families,” said Harris, “While our economy is doing well by many measures, prices for everyday things like groceries are still too high.”
“It will be a day 1 priority to fight to bring down prices. I will take on big corporations that engage in illegal price gouging. I will take on corporate landlords that unfairly raise rents on working families,” Harris added.
As with many campaign promises Harris has made and will continue to make, the recurring question for critics will be: Why didn’t the Biden-Harris administration already accomplish this in the first four years?
Her promise to prevent landlords from unfairly raising rent also comes shortly after President Biden announced a plan to cap annual rent increases at five percent for large landlords, who would risk losing valuable tax benefits if they refuse to comply.
[RELATED: Biden Pushes 5% Rent Increase Limit and Pushes for More Low-Income Rental Units…]
While Harris wants to lower costs for renters, she made no mention of working to lower the cost of becoming a homeowner, as numerous young Americans are unable to afford to buy a starter home after a staggering increase in real estate costs since Biden took office.
At the end of 2020, the median sale price for a house was $228,600. Currently, that price sits at $412,300.
Reports of the rally, which was held in Eau Claire, Wisc., claimed that approximately 12,000 people attended, but numerous commentators have suggested that many of the attendees were more interested in the free Bon Iver concert than in politics.
Those accusations mirror the criticism the Harris campaign received after it drew in audiences to an Atlanta rally with a free concert from hip-hop artist Megan Thee Stallion, who twerked on stage at the political event.
Eau Claire, which is Bon Iver’s hometown, will be key battleground territory as the Democratic ticket hopes to win Wisconsin, which cast its electoral votes for Trump in 2016, but switched to Biden in 2020.
Obama won Wisconsin with 56.2 percent of the vote in 2008 and 52.8 percent of the vote in 2012; former Republican President Donald Trump won the state in 2016 (47.2 percent) but Biden flipped it in 2020 by a narrow margin (49.4 percent).
Someone needs to transcribe her speeches where she touts Communism and display them side by side with the Communist Manifesto.
Just like with Hillary, she needs a popular act to draw people so it looks like her rallies are well attended.
“I will take on big corporations that engage in illegal price gouging” Just like you’ve done for the last 3.5 years? These are weasel words that mean nothing. If it was illegal wouldn’t they be doing something now?
More like “alternative” to music.
Thank God there’s some fun back in race. Biden was too old and Trump is so so angry. Maybe if he were less mean, he would make more sense. Instead he’s short on policy and long on name calling.
This former Republican/ currently labeled a RINO by the MAGA GOP wing is going to happily vote for the younger candidate. Also, she’s so much nicer than Trump. I want a President that can laugh at joke and doesn’t think foreign policy is all about scaring us into believing in world War 3 the way he does. We could all use a little less fear mongering from the elder presidential candidate.