Walz stops speech to help rally attendee who fell ill: 'Take care of your neighbors'

07 August 2024

Governor Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris’s newly-minted running mate, stopped his speech Wednesday afternoon in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, to urge staffers to get help for a supporter who apparently was ill. Refusing to continue until he was assured the rally-goer was OK, the Minnesota Democrat, a former school teacher, used the episode as an opportunity to urge Americans to help take care of their neighbors.

The event, short but powerful, stood in stark contrast to some rallies Donald Trump has held. the ex-president this year has scheduled rallies in searing heat, at times breaking 100 degrees, and when supporters in the crowd have fainted, the Trump campaign has bragged about their “enthusiasm.”

On Wednesday, minutes after telling the huge crowd, “we respect our neighbors” in his home state, the Governor paused his remarks for several minutes while the crowdgoer was being given assistance.

“Drink some water, folks. It is hot out,” Gov. Walz told supporters. “Thank you all for helping. Grateful. Thank you.”

Asking staffers for more water for other supporters, Walz reminded the crowd, “Take care of your neighbors.”

“Take care of one another on this. This is why we gather. Look, it’s hot. It is hot,” he told the audience. “We’ll make sure we’re ok, but I have to tell you all again, in all seriousness, to come and gather like this, to talk about our freedoms, the ability to talk about what could be good, and I have to say, this idea of caring for our neighbor and kindness and. a hand up when somebody need it, or just the sense that people go through things, and to be able to be there when they need it, that’s who we are. It’s not about mocking, it’s not name-calling.”

CNN reported the temperature in Eau Claire was 78 degrees.

On a Thursday in June at a Trump rally in Arizona, eleven supporters waiting for the ex-president to begin his speech were taken to the hospital due to extreme heat. BBC reported the temperature at the mega-church was 111 degrees.

“Team Trump boasted about people ‘braving’ extreme heat in Arizona while waiting to watch Trump ramble incoherently at a campaign rally for over an hour,” The New Republic reported about the medical event, “making no mention that at least 11 people collapsed and were hospitalized for heat exhaustion.”

“’That’s an enthusiasm that Joe Biden will never see,’ Trump’s newsletter proclaimed of the crowds stuck roasting on unshaded concrete. ‘That’s the enthusiasm Americans have to Make America Great Again!’” TNR added.

“That Team Trump apparently took no measures to meet its base’s most basic human needs amid an anticipated high of 108 degrees on Thursday—neither handing out water nor setting up cooling tents in anticipation of the heat—and instead touted their suffering as “’enthusiasm,'” TNR’s Talia Jane wrote.

“Three days after nearly a dozen people were treated for heat-related symptoms at an Arizona town hall he held in record-shattering heat,” The Daily Beastadded, “Donald Trump complained jokingly to a Las Vegas crowd at a similarly sweltering rally about how no one worries about him.”

“They never mention me. I’m up here sweating like a dog,” he said. “[The] Secret Service said we have to make sure everyone is safe. I said, ‘What about me?’ We never thought of that. They don’t think about me. I’m working my ass off. I’m working hard.”

Watch a clip of Gov. Walz below or at this link.

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