Walz backs off comment that Electoral College should go: ‘My position is the campaign’s position’

(CNN) — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Thursday attempted to walk back a comment he made earlier in the week calling for the elimination of the Electoral College, trying to align himself more closely with Vice President Kamala Harris’ position.

After Walz said at a fundraiser on Tuesday he believes the Electoral College “needs to go,” which the Harris campaign later said was not an official campaign position, Walz told ABC News in an interview that “my position is the campaign’s position” on the issue. He said he was attempting to “make sure that everybody understands their vote … matters.”

“It’s not the campaign’s position. And the point I’m trying to make is – is that there’s folks that feel every vote must count in every state. And I think some of folks feel that’s not the case,” Walz said in a clip of the interview released Thursday evening.

“The point I’m saying is: I’m in five states in two days, we’re out there making the case that – the campaign’s position is clear, that that’s not their position. Their position and my position is – is to make sure that everybody understands their vote, no matter what state they’re in, matters.”

Walz’s comment mark the latest instance of the Democratic vice presidential nominee trying to clear up a previous remark made on the campaign trail or from his long career in politics prior to joining the Harris campaign. Walz has faced scrutiny for previously misrepresenting his military rank, falsely claiming to have carried assault weapons “in war,” wrongly insinuating his family conceived using in vitro fertilization and incorrectly stating he was in China during the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests.

When asked if he and Harris disagree on whether the Electoral College should be eliminated, Walz reiterated that his position on the issue aligns with the campaign’s view.

“I have spoken about it in the past, that she’s been very clear on this. And … my position is the campaign’s position,” he said.

The attempted clarification from Walz comes after he told supporters at a closed-door fundraiser at California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s private residence in Sacramento, California, on Tuesday he believes the national popular vote should determine the winner of presidential elections rather than the Electoral College.

“I think all of us know the Electoral College needs to go. We need – we need national popular vote, but that’s not the world we live in. So we need to win Beaver County, Pennsylvania. We need to be able to go into York, Pennsylvania, win. We need to be in western Wisconsin and win. We need to be in Reno, Nevada, and win,” he said, according to a pool report.

A Harris campaign official told CNN on Tuesday eliminating the Electoral College is not an official campaign position. In a statement to CNN on Tuesday, a campaign spokesperson said Walz was “commenting to a crowd of strong supporters about how the campaign is built to win 270 electoral votes.”

Despite the Harris campaign distancing itself from calls to get rid of the Electoral College, Harris has previously expressed openness to the idea. In a 2019 interview, Harris, who was running for president at the time, said she’s “open to the discussion” around abolishing the Electoral College.

The ABC News interview will be released in full Friday morning.

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