EXCLUSIVE: Governor Tim Walz is smartly expanding his media interview schedule.
Kamala Harris’ vice presidential nominee will be virtually sitting down with the SmartLess podcast Monday, we hear.
Minnesota Gov. Walz, who is also appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live tomorrow, will hold a Zoom conversation with the popular podcast hosts, actors Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett. The interview is set to air sometime in the next week or so, according to sources.
(L-R) Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett speak onstage during SiriusXM Presents SmartLess Live (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for SiriusXM)
This comes on the heels of Walz’s less-than-stellar debate performance against GOP VP pick Senator JD Vance [R-OH] on Oct. 1. The two-term governor received criticism for being too congenial with his Republican rival and seemingly befuddled in the national spotlight for most of the 90-minute debate.
The Harris-Walz campaign has made it very clear since that debate that the governor will be conducting many, many more sit-down interviews with legacy and non-legacy media. For instance, Gov. Walz went into the heart of MAGA-land and appeared today on Fox News Sunday.
News of the Walz interview also comes as the SmartLess podcast guys received a splashy feature spread in Sunday’s New York Times touting their business and media success.
The SmartLess podcast has actually been very political this past year. Earlier in the spring, the trio had president Joe Biden, president Barack Obama and president Bill Clinton on the podcast, when the three POTUSes were appearing at a deep-pocket fundraiser at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall. VP Harris previously appeared on the podcast in 2020.
SmartLess was launched in 2020 as part of the trio’s SmartLess Media company, which is now behind a bevy of audio format shows and more forthcoming. The podcast moved from Amazon to SiriusXM early this year, in a reported $100 million three-year deal.
Gov. Walz’s ramped-up media appearances come amid Democratic nominee Harris’ own slew of interviews slated for this week, including The View, The Howard Stern Show, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and a special edition of 60 Minutes. The former district attorney was on an episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast released today.
The VP debate was the subject of yesterday’s Saturday Night Live Cold Open segment, featuring Bowen Yang’s fact-check fearing Vance and a goofy Walz impression by Jim Gaffigan. In the bit, Maya Rudolph’s Harris and Andy Samberg’s Doug Emhoff fretted over the two’s friendliness.
