The GOP Case Against Walz

Primary Topic

This episode examines the GOP's strategic response to Kamala Harris's selection of Tim Walz as her running mate, focusing on why Republicans see Walz as an advantageous target for their campaign.

Episode Summary

In the episode "The GOP Case Against Walz," ABC News explores the political implications of Kamala Harris's vice presidential pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. The discussion reveals the Republican Party's initial relief at Harris not choosing Josh Shapiro, viewing Walz as a weaker opponent given his political shifts and controversial policies in Minnesota. The episode delves into Walz's legislative actions, such as transgender rights and immigration policies, which the GOP believes might alienate swing voters. Additionally, the episode touches on accusations against Walz regarding his military service, framing these as part of a broader strategy to undermine the Harris-Walz ticket. Amidst these political maneuvers, the episode highlights the significant shifts in voter sentiment reflected in recent polls, pointing to a potential increase in support for Harris-Walz among independent and black voters.

Main Takeaways

  1. Republicans felt strategically relieved when Harris chose Walz over Shapiro, seeing an opportunity to refocus their campaign.
  2. The GOP aims to capitalize on Walz's more liberal policies as governor, which they believe could alienate moderate voters.
  3. Controversial topics like transgender rights and immigration are central to the GOP's criticism of Walz.
  4. The episode highlights an ongoing issue with the Republican campaign's focus, suggesting a need for a reset to address policy over personal attacks.
  5. Recent polling suggests a shift toward the Harris-Walz ticket, particularly among independent women and black voters, signaling potential challenges for the GOP.

Episode Chapters

1: Campaign Strategies and Initial Reactions

Brad Milke discusses the implications of vice presidential picks and the GOP's reaction to Kamala Harris selecting Tim Walz. The chapter outlines the strategic relief within the Republican Party and their criticisms of Walz's policies.

  • Brad Milke: "For the last few weeks, I've been asking various political reporters, political analysts, how much does a vice presidential pick matter?"
  • Rachel Bade: "Republicans on the Hill and some sort of working with committees outside trying to elect Republicans, they're hoping that this choice of Walz is a chance of a reset for the Trump campaign."

2: Focus on Controversial Policies

This chapter delves into specific policies implemented by Walz that Republicans believe will not resonate with swing voters, including transgender rights and immigration.

  • Rachel Bade: "They're citing an AP story that has likened Minnesota to a, quote, trans refuge."
  • Brad Milke: "Walz signed legislation that allows undocumented immigrants in his state to get access to a free college program, subsidized health care, and free driver's licenses."

3: Political and Personal Attacks

Discussion on how the GOP is leveraging both policy criticisms and personal attacks against Walz, including questioning his military service.

  • Rachel Bade: "What bothers me about Tim Walz is the stolen valor garbage. Do not pretend to be something that you're not."

Actionable Advice

  1. Research candidates' policies to understand their potential impact on your community.
  2. Engage in local political discussions to share and gather diverse viewpoints.
  3. Verify political claims through credible sources to avoid misinformation.
  4. Participate in community forums or town halls to raise issues important to you.
  5. Vote in local and national elections to have a say in your governance.

About This Episode

The GOP hones its case against Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Austrian police claim to thwart a terror plot revolving around a Taylor Swift concert. And one year after a deadly Maui wildfire, the historic town of Lahaina is still trying to rebuild.

People

  • Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, Donald Trump, Josh Shapiro, Rachel Bade, Brad Milke

Companies

  • ABC News

Books

  • None

Guest Name(s):

  • None

Content Warnings:

  • None

Transcript

Brad Milke
Start here is brought to you by progressive insurance. What if comparing car insurance rates was as easy as putting on your favorite podcast with Progressive? It is. Just visit the progressive website to quote with all the coverages you want, you'll see Progressive's direct rate. Then their tool will provide options from other companies so you can compare. All you need to do is choose the rate and coverage you like. Quotetoday@progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust progressive progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates. Comparison rates not available in all states or situations. Prices vary based on how you buy it's Thursday, August 8. It's time for a republican reset. But is the top Republican interested? We start here.

As the Harris campaign hits the road, the Trump campaign tries to hone its attacks.

Rachel Bade
They're hoping that Harris selection of walls will give them the opportunity to do that.

Brad Milke
So when the honeymoon ends, where will Tim walls be vulnerable? Austria says it's thwarted a terror attack targeting a Taylor Swift concert.

Maggie Ruley
They had real concrete plans about how they were going to attack this concert.

Brad Milke
Police said they were already nervous about concerts. Now they're on high alert worldwide. And could there be another Lahaina?

Becky Worley
In Lahaina, I look around, there's still, you know, feet of dead, dry grasses everywhere.

Brad Milke
One year after a wildfire turned tragic, our reporter from Maui returns to the scene.

From ABC News, this is start here. Im Brad Milke.

For the last few weeks, ive been asking various political reporters, political analysts, how much does a vice presidential pick matter? And it turns out, as weve heard, there are a bunch of answers, right? One popular one is it doesnt matter at all unless its a bad pick, in which case it can just drag you down. Some people say you gotta get someone to balance out the ticket. Some say its all about governance. After all, if you win, that person is now a heartbeat away from the presidency. But the answer that has resonated the most with me just thinking about it, is that while none of this might actually matter to one voter, like no one's voting for the president, just because the vice presidential pick, it does become a sign of how the campaign is going to be run from here on out, right? It focuses your campaign, your messaging, your priorities. Trump and Harris both pick midwesterners, right? It doesn't mean that midwestern states are going to vote for them because of that, but it does tell you where their focus is going to be. But it also doesn't just shape the nominees campaign, it can also shape their opponents. Michigan, help me right now. Give a warm midwest welcome to the next president of the United States, Kamala Harris. Yesterday, as vice president, Kamala Harris and her new running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, began touring the country on a whirlwind whistle stop tour, reintroducing themselves to Americans. The Trump campaign seemed just as fired up about this.

Let's start the day with ABC's contributing political correspondent Rachel Bage. She spends most of her days covering the Capitol for Politico. So, Rachel, a lot of Democrats, it's clear, are excited by this pick. It also sounds like the Trump campaign is too. Why is that?

Rachel Bade
Yeah, I can tell you, Brad, that behind the scenes, there was this sort of feeling of dread that Harris was going to pick Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania.

There's an understanding that if Democrats win the White House, they have to win Pennsylvania. And Shapiro is very popular there, outran his republican opponents by double digits. And there was this belief that if she picked him, that Harris would basically be locking this race up. So naturally, when she turned to walls, they were overjoyed. I also can tell you that Republicans on the Hill and some sort of working with committees outside trying to elect Republicans, they're hoping that this choice of walls is a chance of a reset for the Trump campaign. There has been some frustration, I can tell you, amongst Republicans that the past two weeks have not been good for them ever since, really, Biden stepped down from his reelection campaign and that Donald Trump has sort of been off message, that he has been sort of engaged in these schoolyard taunts against his opponents, you know, questioning whether Kamala Harris is even black. I mean, like, that is not gonna win them the election in 2024. Republicans universally agree, so they wanna try to get him back focused on policy things that resonate with voters. And they're hoping that Harris selection of walls will give them the opportunity to do that.

Brad Milke
But if the Trump campaign was dreading, Shapiro and they're happy about walls, why would that be? Like, what are the actual differences or sort of the vibe on walls that makes them think he's ripe for attack?

Rachel Bade
So in Congress, walls did have this sort of centrist reputation. He flipped a district that had been held by Republicans for more than 100 years. He became the first Democrat to sort of represent a more conservative area of Minnesota. But when it came to how he governed as a governor, he actually moved more to the left.

Brad Milke
We're asking a fair shot. We're asking for health care and childcare. We're asking for an education. We're asking for safety in our streets. That's what we're asking for.

Rachel Bade
And so that's where Republicans see a prime target for them and for their campaign in particular.

They're citing an AP story that has likened Minnesota to a, quote, trans refuge. They note that he signed legislation that basically allows parents of minors who want to undergo various operations. Maybe their state doesn't allow it to come to Minnesota to do that in his state. This is an issue that swing voters, if you look at the polling, they're not super thrilled about that idea, specifically when it comes to minors. And Republicans have been particularly obsessed with this reporting about a legislation that walls signed that requires schools to basically put menstrual products in bathrooms, and not just in girls bathrooms, but also boys bathrooms. Republicans are just having a heyday with this right now, saying walls wants to put tampons in fourth grade boys bathrooms. And they think that that is gonna resonate with swing voters. They also wanna hit him on immigration. This is something they've hit Harris on very hard. The border in particular.

Walz signed legislation that allows undocumented immigrants in his state to get access to a free college program, subsidized health care, and free driver's licenses, or driver's licenses, just in general.

And that, Republicans think, again, won't resonate with swing voters. So they wanna talk about things like these two issues.

But again, the problem is trying to get the top of the ticket to actually focus.

Brad Milke
It's one thing to have JT Vance being the bulldog, but if Trump isn't gonna take the talking points, well, he's the guy at the top of the ticket. But, I mean, when it comes to Vance, he's specifically, he's not just talking about policy, he's also talking about stuff like what? Military service records? How does that work?

Rachel Bade
Yeah, I thought that was particularly interesting because you had people like Vivek Ramaswamy, who is a Trump surrogate, going on NBC and using his entire interview to make the case that Republicans in Trump need to be focused on policy, not personality.

Brad Milke
The risk I see for Republicans is that he is such a progressive and he's far on the left of many of his policies, that it becomes tempting to just focus on him. Instead of offering our own vision of who we are and what we stand for, that's ultimately what's going to be required for us to win this election.

Rachel Bade
A few hours later, you have JD Vance trolling Kamala Harris and walls on the campaign trail, and specifically going after Walts for his military service.

JD Vance
What bothers me about Tim Walts is the stolen valor garbage. Do not pretend to be something that you're not. And if he wants to criticize me for getting an Ivy League education, I'm proud of the fact that my mama supported me, that I was able to make something of myself. I'd be ashamed if I was him and I lied about my military service like he did.

Rachel Bade
We're not talking about policy here. We're talking about allegations that walls walked away from his service at the National Guard just when his unit was being deployed to Iraq. Now, I'm sort of baffled about why they're bringing this up because, number one, it's a double edged sword for Republicans. I can already hear the retort from walls right now talking about how Trump allegedly dodged the draft by talking about bones first. And so it just, it seems like there's a desperation right now to find an attack that works to sort of bring down or halt this sort of momentum that Harris Walsh campaign clearly has right now. But the campaign, specifically the Trump campaign and JD Vance, they're not yet listening to all these republican voices that are screaming at the top of their lungs to focus on policy, focus on the issues that voters care about, the things they're worried about, the border crime, you know, immigration, that sort of thing. And yet still, the Trump folks are focused on personality, right?

Brad Milke
And I mean, you look at the polling here for the Harris Walls campaign, we'll call it now. I mean, the NPR poll that came out the other day, I mean, a month ago, they had the Biden ticket at the time trailing Trump by three points. Harris now apparently leads that poll by three points. So, I mean, that's a six point swing. It's still within the margin of error. But you look at the groups like independent women have shifted by 20 points in this poll. Black voters swung by 20 points in these polls. Huge difference that you wonder if that can maintain, then that's alarm bells for Donald Trump and you can see why his campaign's looking for a reset. Okay, Rachel Bay there in DC. Thank you so much.

Rachel Bade
Thanks, Brad.

Brad Milke
Next up on start here, this goes beyond a cruel summer. Taylor Swift shows have been canceled over an alleged terror plot. That's on the other side of the break.

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Maggie, what do we know?

Maggie Ruley
Yeah. Well, this decision from Taylor Swift team is a huge deal to cancel three nights of concerts. But I think it just shows the seriousness of these threats. The decision came just hours after his officials announced the arrest of two suspects they said had made detailed plans for an attack throughout Vienna, particularly of her concerts. They didn't get into a ton of detail. Brad, we still have a lot of questions about who these suspects are. What we know right now is that at least one of the suspects is a 19 year old austrian citizen who allegedly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State about a month ago. And authorities saying they believe that suspects have been radicalized online, again, stressing that they had real concrete plans about how they were going to attack this concert. Now, police in Vienna said that they had minimized the concrete threat, but that there was still this, quote, abstract threat that remained. And that was enough for Taylor Swift's team to say, listen, we're not going to take any chances. We're going to cancel all three nights of this concert. They released a statement on social media saying with confirmation from government officials of a planned terrorist attack at Ernst Hubble Stadium, we have no choice but to cancel the three scheduled shows for everyone's safety.

Brad Milke
And who's, you know, this is the question we ask so often with, with potential terror attacks. Who would have been behind this? Is this a couple one off people or is this the work of a larger group?

Maggie Ruley
Well, it looks like right now, Brad, that we know at least one of the suspects had gone online and pledged their allegiance specifically to ISIS K. That's the ISIS offshoot that operates primarily out of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Now, the big questions here are how much was ISIS K. Really involved in this terror plot right now? Bradley not sure. It looks like right now that this terror plot was more inspired by ISIS, not necessarily directed by them, which is a important distinction to make. But, Brad, it does speak to this larger concern of us law enforcement, saying there are real threats around attacks on mass gatherings, especially after that attack in Moscow just last March on a concert hall there where a gunman killed 60 people. That attack was claimed by Isis K.

Brad Milke
Isis K in particular. But ISIS in general has a strong desire to attack our homeland. We should believe them when they say.

Maggie Ruley
That in the aftermath of that attack, law enforcement has been very concerned about future attacks, especially, like we mentioned on concerts and on soft targets, things like large gatherings, things like concerts. Those are areas where it's really hard to protect.

Right now, everything outside of these concerts in Vienna is going on as scheduled. But I can imagine there'll be a lot more concern going forward about her concerts and concerts in general.

Brad Milke
Yeah, really interesting. Also just really interesting to hear about the american, the fact that the intelligence was first apparently provided by american officials. Maggie Ruley, they're in London right now. Thank you so much.

Maggie Ruley
Thanks, Brad.

Brad Milke
As you can see over here, all these power lines have snapped.

Becky Worley
Now, we were looking at them earlier.

Brad Milke
Today marks one year since a wildfire ripped across the western coast of Maui and set the historic town of Lahaina ablaze.

This is a town frequented by tourists, but at its heart, it is a quiet place on a quiet road. And when that road was blocked, there was almost no way out.

Rachel Bade
If I don't make it through this, I love everybody.

Brad Milke
When it was all over, more than 100 people were dead. Nearly everyone else was suddenly without a home. For the last year, as part of our initiative called Maui Strong 808, ABC's Becky Worley has been keeping in contact with families and officials. She actually grew up on Maui herself. And tonight on ABC News, she is presenting a 30 minutes special called Maui Strong 808 rising from the ashes. And she joins us now from Lahaina. Becky, what has it been like there over the last year?

Becky Worley
I think I speak for everyone to say we're still kind of in shock.

You couldn't believe it happened when the fires ran through the island.

We had the fires in Kula, fires in the central part of Maui, and then we had the absolute devastation in Lahaina. And you still drive through it and can't believe that this happened.

It's so visually striking, Brad, because the island is so vibrantly green and blue and the red dirt and you hit Lahaina town and the ashen gray is so overpowering.

Oh, man.

Everything's like skeleton, like building skeletons. It feels so different and literal too, right? I mean, people lost their lives here and the fire was so hot that they just disintegrated to ash. And that's just like so sad and mind boggling to think, you know, the initial shock continues. And I am just so proud of this community and watching people come together to work towards healing, to work towards rebuilding. It is sadness and hope and it's all mixed up together.

Oh, your garden is so beautiful.

This one. This tree is gorgeous. Look at this one. A good example is someone like Nellyn Sisar makes my day every day. Make me smile by looking at these flowers. I know she lived in Lahaina, owned a home, lived there with her husband, her son, her grandchildren. What do you love about Lahaina? Lahaina is an exciting.

You know, it's a small community where people are gathered together. We help each other, we support each other. And the best thing is the aloha. She ran from the fire with just the things that she could carry. They went up on a road above Lahaina, and she said she watched her house burn while we're parked. On the first time, we can see our house burning.

It's super devastating. And then after that, we go all the way to Malaya. We spent our night there. Nellan lived in a hotel room for eight months and has incredible gratitude and a positive spirit. This is room 410, where we staying.

So sorry it's so messy, but to make 400 sqft into a home for eight months was really challenging. There are times when I remember everything. It makes me cry. I just hide from my husband and my children.

When I woke up in the morning in the shelter, I'm crying because, like, what are we gonna do?

She relocated to a home that FeMA found for her to rent, and that has been good and bad. She's now moved away from her community, so she feels a little isolated. And the hardest part was she had to drive through Lahaina town every day to go to work. So every time I saw Lahaina, I felt so sad. You have to drive through it? Yes. So I decided to quit.

That was just too hard. Too hard. But Nellan took us to her home site. The lot has been cleared by the US Army Corps of Engineers. Look at those. The Mingo trees survive.

Our living room here, dining room here. It's incredible when you see what they've done. Of the 1399 homes that were destroyed, they have cleared the lots for 1375 of them. 600 of those lots have been returned to the owners, ready to build. The county says that they've issued over 130 building permits that sewer and water will be back in place by the end of the year.

These are things that, in places on the continental us, might take two or three years. And so the mayor told me he is incredibly proud of the way that this community has come together to rebuild Maui and its infrastructure and get people like Nellan back to building. She's got plans with an architect, and her life is trying to get restarted.

Brad Milke
Well, and like you talk about plans to rebuild, right? But it's been so long already. And we hear more and more people expressing frustration with, like, getting insurance payouts, all this. Has anyone been able to start rebuilding yet? Anywhere there?

Becky Worley
Yes. But the first person to rebuild is a guy called Gene Milne.

And the reason why he was able to sort of leapfrog out ahead is because when the fire ripped through Lahaina, he had just finished construction on a new home.

Gene Milne
Very disappointing. It taken me about three years to get to that point.

Becky Worley
And so he was a builder himself, he's an owner builder and he watched it all go up in flames. But a positive guy himself. He said I was lucky, really. He was lucky, he says, because his permits were still open.

Gene Milne
I wanted to build right after the fire. I was ready to go, you know, get somebody, clean it up, let's start building again.

And so we just went into that holding pattern.

Becky Worley
So as soon as the US Army Corps of Engineers handed back the property to him, he was able to get started again.

Gene Milne
A very roller coaster week, average week. To just excited all the time coming in, getting up every morning, throwing some nails up, putting some walls up.

It's just amazing. I'm hoping that as other people get started that they're going to feel that same positive energy.

Brad Milke
I'm wondering, Becky, how people live in the meantime. Because I lived through an apartment fire that forced a lot of people to be out of their houses for more than a year after the fact. A community, like an apartment building or like a city, everyone kind of scatters, right? Because you can't live in the place as it's being rebuilt. So and so goes to their mom's house. So and so goes across town. So and so goes, you know, out of state for a while. Just as long as everything can be rebuilt, which shatters a community when you're talking about a close knit town like Lahaina. So, I mean, have people been able to stay in the area at all?

Becky Worley
And remember, Brad, we are the most geographically remote population center on the planet. We are two, 3000 miles from the continent. And therefore you can't just run over to the next county or state and stay with relatives. It becomes very complicated. So thousands of people here had to relocate into temporary housing, many leaving the island, many staying with relatives. And there have been a lot of short term solutions that have kind of popped out and come out of thin air.

Oh, wow. This is like a real. Like a container. Like a shipping container. Shipping containers. One example was a place called Ohana Hope village. It was built by a nonprofit in central Maui. And what's so unique about this is, in order to expedite the process, they decided to build an off grid facility where they didn't have to tie into the electric system, they didn't have to get onto the already overtaxed sewer system. And, you know, we've left this air conditioner on for like a week because it's free, it's solar. And so we did that intentionally, seeing if it would handle the power. And so far it has. They put in compostable toilets. Every unit has a solar system and a battery. And they have been able to put up enough housing that 325 people could live there. They already have, I think about 80 living there right now.

Rachel Bade
I just got a bunch of stuff in, so I'm just kind of unpacking.

Becky Worley
We talked to Patti Peterson. She's an 83 year old, third generation Lahaina woman who wanted some independence. She was living with her grandkids, and they wanted her to stay with her. But she said, hey, while I still can take care of myself, let me go live by myself. How's it working?

Rachel Bade
I mean, I think it's a blessing.

Becky Worley
Really, just to be able to have somewhere. So she really likes this idea because the village is built on these pods. They're amazing. They found them from Hungary, shipped them over on containers, and you can put five of these pop up pods into one shipping container. They laid them on the ground, they pulled them up. It's almost like some sort of a Lego structure, but they're pre wired, they're prefab, they have all of the windows built in, and they're totally off grid. So the speed and the innovation to do this has actually been fascinating to watch.

Brad Milke
Well, and officials have talked about fears of this happening again. I mean, are there lessons to be learned here?

Becky Worley
Yeah, there's definitely concern that with a changing climate, we need to approach natural disaster and thinking of fire as a natural disaster with a different set of tools and a different mindset. We've had brush fires here ever since I was a kid, and they're big and they're usually contained.

The grass is drier, the winds. We're used to strong winds, but as one rancher said to me, Becky, we've never had winds that strong with zero humidity. And that was what was so unique that day. So, you know, we're really looking at a changing climate, and people want to make sure that we're future proofing against anything like this happening again. I look around, there's still, you know, feet of dead. I dry grasses everywhere. Ellie Cochran is one of the House representatives from Lahaina. And she is working really hard on evacuation routes, on forcing landowners to manage the dry grass better on their mostly abandoned pineapple and sugarcane plantations. I mean, the other day the winds kicked up a little bit and we all looked at each other and went, this feels like that day. There's a forward thinking about this that I think will really change the way that we manage our resources in the future.

It was a perfect storm of everything going wrong at once, but people are definitely thinking about making sure this never happens again.

Brad Milke
And it's really incredible reporting that you've done. Like I'm talking to you right now. I can see a surfboard in the back of your car where you're talking to me from. I can almost hear the waves in the background. Becky Worley will be on ABC News live Prime tonight talking about all this. And then on Friday night, a network special, Maui rising the fight for Hawaii's future. 08:00 p.m. eastern. Becky, so valuable to have your perspective throughout this last year. Thank you so much.

Becky Worley
Mahalo, Brad. Thanks for still caring about Maui.

Brad Milke
Ok, one more quick break. When we come back, there are land speculators, then there are these guys. One last thing is next.

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Brad Milke
And one last thing I keep saying. It's been a big week for Kamala Harris and Tim Walls, but that also means it's been a big week for the people who design their websites.

Mike Debusky
Okay, so I've just typed in harriswalls.com into my phone, and the first thing you see, it's a bright, like, chartreuse lime green background with in all lowercase letters the word walls kind of right in the center of the screen. This is a reference to brat summer.

Brad Milke
This is ABC's Mike Debusky, who covers technology. But he says what's weird about the website harriswalls.com is it's not owned by the Kamala Harris campaign.

Mike Debusky
It was sold by an attorney here in New York City whose name is Jeremy Green, etcetera.

Brad Milke
Just like in the real estate industry, vacant web properties are often snapped up by buyers. Some are looking to build stuff for their company or personal use. Some are bought just to be sold on to somebody else.

Mike Debusky
It's like flipping houses, but with domain names, with websites, essentially.

Brad Milke
This guy, he says, just sold harriswalls.com for $15,000. So Mike called him up.

Mike Debusky
I'm Jeremy Green, etcetera. I'm a trademark attorney and I'm also a political cyber squatter. And he says he bought up a bunch of these websites related to various mixtures of people who are running for president or who could be running mates to those people who were running for president with the hopes that he was eventually going to sell one of them to a campaign.

Brad Milke
In fact, after you click through to that bright green landing page, the site informs you that by buying this site, you're also getting harrispritzker.com, comma, harrisfederman.com comma. Basically, any combination of Harris and a high profile Democrat. It's a package deal.

Mike Debusky
He's been doing this for a really long time. So interestingly enough, Ece actually was the owner of Clintoncaine.com in the lead up to the 2016 election. That domain name. Everybody started going to my website, which I had. I like to draw comics in my free time as a hobby. And so I had my own comics up there.

Brad Milke
What's so funny about this to me is this is not a new concept, right? The early Internet was like a gold rush for domain flippers as companies realized, oh, I can't avoid the web. It's embarrassing not to have wendy's dot or whatever. So if anything, my question to Mike was, are people still making a living off this type of thing, right?

Mike Debusky
It sounds like a little bit of a throwback. This is something that came up in my conversation with ECE is that some of this is just bragging rights, right? That you're not going to type in all the letters to a URL to go visit a campaign website. It's more likely that people are just going to google the name of their I candidate and then click on the first link in order to get to their website.

Brad Milke
In other words, he says, having harriswalls.com is no different than having Harriswalls.net, comma, but it can be worth the 15k just not to get dunked on or embarrassed. The modern domain economy thrives off ego. That said, AJ wouldnt confirm to Mike that the Harris campaign was even the buyer. He says hes keeping them anonymous.

Mike Debusky
It could be the Harris campaign, but just kind of keeping it on the down low. It could be the Trump campaign with maybe some plans to use it in some anti Kamala Harris messaging. Or it could just be another third party that's out there who maybe wants to buy this domain for $15,000 and then sell it again at a higher price. We don't know that at this point.

Brad Milke
In recent months, we've heard more and more stories about squatters rights, people taking advantage of mortgage that haven't evolved with the times. Well, for similar reasons, domain squatting is still alive and well, even though online the land is limitless.

I thought this was fascinating because apparently this guy still has short plays and long plays, like he might still have Vance for president, just in case. It's a big thing in four years. But since each of these sites cost you money every year to own, it makes sense that you'd be like, okay, if you're getting Harris walls, you also have to take the JB Pritzker address off my hands. Well, more on all these stories@abcnews.com. or the ABC News app. I'm Brad Milke. See you tomorrow.

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