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Tim Walz has revealed the bizarre name that Kamala Harris is listed under on his phone after he accidentally ignored the vice president’s call when she first asked him to join her on the Democratic party’s ticket.
The Minnesota governor traveled to Los Angeles on Monday evening for his late-night debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, as the Democratic duo embark on a media blitz just weeks out from the election.
Billed “America’s sweetheart” governor by host Jimmy Kimmel, the conversation turned to the moment that Harris tried to call Walz to ask him to be her vice presidential candidate in early August – a moment that didn’t quite go to plan.
“In typical me-fashion, I missed it,” Walz admitted of the call.
Walz was one of the final candidates to face extensive questioning and vetting by Harris and her team at her official residence in Washington DC on August 5, before the Democratic presidential candidate asked him to be her running mate.
When Harris attempted to phone Walz to reveal the good news, he didn’t pick up – until an aide probed him to answer the call.
“It was an unmarked number so I’m thinking it’s like a car warranty thing. I got a call from a high ranking aide and said, ‘Pick up your dang phone,’” Walz explained to laughter from the studio audience.
Kimmel teased: “Is she in your contacts now so that doesn’t happen again?”
“She is,” Walz replied, before revealing she’s been given a now not-so-secret moniker.
Kimmel probed what pseudonym she’s listed under in Walz’s phone, the Democrat admitted: “My dry cleaner.”
Walz continued: “They told me to come up with something and that was all I could think of.”
Kimmel joked about what might happen if Walz’s actual dry cleaner needs to get hold of him, to which Walz chuckled: “I didn’t think that far ahead.”
Walz went on to give a peak behind the curtain of his relationship with Harris.
“We get on really well, she’s amazing, she makes me laugh. And, by the way, I think the president should know how to laugh, not at someone but with things,” he said.
In the late-night interview, there was also a fleeting mention of Walz’s vice presidential debate against GOP rival JD Vance last Tuesday.
Both political pundits and a snap poll from ABC viewers suggested that the Ohio senator delivered a more polished, well-prepared showing on the New York City stage.
But there was one moment where Walz delivered something of a killer blow, when he asked Vance whether he believes the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump.
Vance side-stepped the question, leaving the Democrat branding it a “non-answer”.
“That should have been the lede shouldn’t it, 58-minutes before?” Walz reflected on Monday night.
He continued: “This idea that, ‘Look, we get to turn the page on that.’”
He added to cheers: “I plan to wake up on November 6 with Madame President.”
