Boston, MA
Battenfeld: Tim Walz already a drag on the Democratic ticket
Democratic VP nominee Tim Walz is showing signs of being a drag on the ticket and a gaping omission by Kamala Harris’s vetting team – led by former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh.
Walz was rushed through the vetting process without any apparent red flags despite past criticism of his embellishment of his military service and other missteps from his past.
Will she now be saddled with the liberal Minnesota governor for the rest of the campaign?
Walsh, head of the National Hockey League players’ union, was among three Harris confidantes charged with interviewing and vetting the VP candidates, according to Politico.
How they could have missed such troubling red flags as Walz falsely claiming he served in combat and retired as a command sergeant major is not a good sign for Harris’ campaign, which this week had to scrub Walz’s bio to correct the misrepresentation.
Another member of Walz’s National Guard unit came forward Friday to criticize the Minnesota governor for bailing on their unit to run for Congress just two months before it was deployed to Iraq.
“Running for Congress is not an excuse,” retired Capt. Corey Bjertness, the chaplain of Walz’s field artillery regiment, told the New York Post. “I stopped everything and went to war. I left my wife with three teenagers and a 6-year-old and I was gone for 19 months.”
Thomas Behrends, who replaced Walz as command sergeant major, told the Post “He had the opportunity to serve his country and said ‘screw you’ to the United States.”
Walz and Harris have yet to hold to a formal news conference since he was named as her running mate – staying in the bunker and avoiding numerous questions about Walz’s military service. They appear to be sticking with the Biden strategy of reading from teleprompters at rallies and fear answering direct questions about the new running mate.
Walz has also been a staunch supporter of left wing Squad member Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a fierce critic of Israel and a defund the police advocate.
“When I’m having a tough day….I think Ilhan Omar is in Congress, and I smile,” Walz said of the congresswoman.
Somebody who hates America brightens your day?
Walz has also taken more than 30 trips to China, working there as a teacher and later traveling there as a member of Congress and governor.
The Wall Street Journal reported one China trip doubled as a honeymoon for Walz.
The mounting Walz resume goes against the Harris campaign’s attempt to frame him as a moderate Midwestern everyman father figure. In fact Walz is a classic left winger – further to the left than Harris.
The Trump campaign has already raised enough questions about Walz in an attempt to define him first, before the Harris campaign does it.
How relatable is a guy who put tampons in boys bathrooms and travels to China 30 times and heaps praise on an extremist congresswoman?
It’s going to be a little while longer before Roman Anthony returns to action.
The Red Sox outfielder has suffered another setback in his recovery from a sprained right hand and will be shut down from swinging for a couple of days.
Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy told reporters in Cleveland that Anthony tried hitting off a tee Thursday for the first time since suffering his injury on May 4, but that he found doing so to be painful.
“He hit off the tee (yesterday) and had some discomfort, so we’re going to slow play it,” Tracy said, per MLB.com’s Henry Palattella. “It’s going to be day-to-day, or even the better way is ‘action-to-action.’ (We’re going to be asking), ‘What did he do today, is that uncomfortable and do we have to wait?’ ”
Originally thought to be a minor issue that might not even require a stint on the injured list, Anthony has now missed 21 games and likely won’t be back until early-to-mid June.
The recovery process has also been halting. Anthony has continued doing most other baseball activities, including running and throwing, but it wasn’t until earlier this week that he could swing a bat free of discomfort.
Once he was able to comfortably take dry swings — or swing a bat without hitting the ball — the next step was hitting off a tee. Now he’ll be given a couple more days to heal and likely won’t try again until the Red Sox return home from Cleveland and are back at Fenway Park on Tuesday following Monday’s off day.
Tracy acknowledged that the recovery hasn’t gone as smoothly as expected, but emphasized that isn’t because of anything Anthony’s done wrong.
“That’s not Roman’s fault, it’s not anyone’s fault,” Tracy said. “It’s just he got hurt, and it’s a nagging injury on a hand when he’s trying to hit.”
Speaking to Rob Bradford on the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast prior to Thursday’s game against the Atlanta Braves, Anthony clarified the exact nature of his injury, which was officially announced by the team as a right wrist sprain. Anthony said he has a partially torn ring finger ligament, specifically his ring finger CMC (carpometacarpal).
The sprain versus torn verbiage has generated some confusion among fans, though medically there isn’t a meaningful distinction between the two.
“I know stuff came out yesterday about tear versus sprain versus strain and all these different things, and I don’t know what to say other than any of those are a tear,” Tracy said. “You strain a hamstring and that’s a partial tear; fibers let go a little bit and they need to heal.
“I don’t think anything is portrayed differently or wrongly. If a guy strains his hamstring, I won’t come out here and say he tore his hamstring. That’s not how that works.”
Prior to suffering his injury, Anthony was batting .229 with one home run and a .675 OPS through his first 30 games this season.
Surprise: Another weekend and there’s more rain on the way. It’s bad enough we’ve had to post a First Alert.
For now, we’ll watch as clouds thicken today. We’ll squeeze out some drops later this afternoon and evening.
A weather maker is winding up in Canada, wrapping in cold air. All of that is going to dive down to New England.
We’re in the thick of it tomorrow. Rain will be coming at us in bursts with some dry time in between. Winds will likely push past 50 mph in Boston.
Those winds will eat away at temperatures; with wind chills barely above freezing. And no – not just in the morning – but the afternoon, too!
It’s so cold there’s the threat of snow as that rain bumps into colder air over the Berkshires, Worcester Hills and southern New Hampshire right up to Mount Washington.
The snow isn’t going to pile up but just know there could be some flakes flying over our highest hills.
The blue on our Futurecast map marks the spots where snow could mix with rain.
Rain spins out by Saturday evening but not before dumping about half an inch over Boston.
We’ll try to salvage the rest of the weekend with temperatures in the upper 60s by Sunday. Still, there’s the threat of bits and pieces of rain.
By the way, this isn’t any weekend, it’s the last weekend of spring. Meteorological summer starts on June 1.
The first day of summer remains drab and dreary with more rain chances and temperatures in the low 60 on Monday.
Federal immigration demands are once again centered on Massachusetts.
The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday sent three letters to Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox, Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins and Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden demanding, among other things, information on how many ICE detainers BPD has received and declined to honor from 2022 to 2026 and any communication between the three departments related to immigration.
House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said in a statement that “releasing repeat criminals back to the streets solely because of their immigration status is crazy, and that’s exactly what Boston is doing.”
But Democrats push back on that framing.
“You’re familiar with Jim Jordan and his antics,” said Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey. “This is more circus, it’s more theater and it’s not making our community safe.”
A spokesperson for the City of Boston wrote, “the city has provided this information many times…” going on to say “…these policies are part of keeping Boston the safest major city in America.”
The letters call for the documents to be sent to the House Judiciary Committee by June 10th at 5:00 pm. District Attorney Hayden’s office told NBC 10 they are reviewing the letter, neither Commissioner Cox or Sheriff Tompkins responded to requests for comment.
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