Sunday Snapshot: Walz's rural push and Trump's "enemy from within"
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Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at a rally at York Exposition Center UPMC Arena on Oct. 2 in York, Pennsylvania. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz returned to "Fox News Sunday" for the second consecutive week — fresh off a pheasant hunt — as he courts conservative and rural voters who aren't sold on Donald Trump.
- Walz competed for views with his opposite number, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), who is a fixture on the Sunday show circuit.
- But morning's most viral moment came from Trump himself, who claimed the U.S. military may need to sort out "left-wing radicals" and "the enemy from within."
Here's what you may have missed when newsmakers took to the airwaves this Sunday, October 13.
1. Gun-owning Governor: "No one's coming for your guns"
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz defended Vice President Kamala Harris' approach to gun control legislation Sunday, reaffirming he and Harris are both gun owners who support the right to bear arms — but who share concerns about widespread gun violence.
- "No one's coming for your guns," Walz said. "I continue to buy them. The Vice President is a gun owner."
The big picture: Walz is the campaign's envoy to disillusioned conservatives and rural voters.
- It's no coincidence that he chose Fox News for his Sunday appearance, a day after he joined hunters in Minnesota to mark the start of pheasant hunting season.
Flashback: During her first bid for the White House, Harris said she supported a mandatory buyback program for assault-style weapons, a policy she has backed off this cycle.
Asked about mandatory buybacks on Sunday, Walz said "nobody's proposing that."
- Walz characterized such questions as a "red herring issue," contending: "We can own guns, protect the Second Amendment, and then our first responsibility is protect our children in society."
- Walz did call for stricter background checks, red flag laws and the use of trigger locks.
What to watch: The Harris-Walz campaign is making a concerted push for rural voters across the swing states, aided by the newest addition to its campaign trail cast: former President Bill Clinton.
2. Vance: "Element of truth" in Trump's misleading comments about Aurora, Colorado
Ohio Sen. JD Vance (R) dismissed an assertion from the Republican mayor of Aurora, Colorado, that Trump's claims about his city being overrun by immigrants were "grossly exaggerated."
What he's saying: "You just said the mayor said they were exaggerated," Vance said to ABC's Martha Raddatz when asked about the mayor's comment. "That means there's got to be some element of truth here."
Catch up quick: Trump, who held a campaign stop in Aurora on Friday, has repeatedly suggested the city was taken over by Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang, as a case study in the national immigration debate.
- But Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman, who once fueled the misinformation about the city, said in a statement last week that "concerns about Venezuelan gang activity have been grossly exaggerated" and the incidents were "limited to several apartment complexes in this city of more than 400,000 residents."
- Aurora police said last month at least 10 people linked to the gang were operating in the city, several of whom have been arrested.
Zoom in: Vance sparred with Raddatz Sunday after the ABC host repeated Coffman's statement: "Do you hear yourself? Only a handful of apartment complexes in America were taken over by Venezuelan gangs, and Donald Trump is the problem?"
- He accused Raddatz of being overly "focused with nitpicking" Trump's comments.
The big picture: Trump has vowed to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, saying he'd start in Aurora and Springfield, Ohio, another city swept into the national spotlight after Trump and Vance echoed false claims Haitian migrants there were eating pets.
3. Trump: Election Day chaos will be from "enemy from within"
Trump agreed there could be violence on Election Day, but said it won't come from "the side that votes for Trump."
- Trump warned on Fox's "Sunday Morning Futures" that America faced real danger from the "enemy from within," including "radical-left lunatics."
- "It should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary by the military," Trump added.
Between the lines: Trump would have no power to order the military to step in on Election Day.
- However, the Harris campaign quickly seized on the remarks to claim Trump plans to "use the military against" fellow Americans who don't support him.
Zoom out: Trump was responding to a question from host Maria Bartiromo about the threat from people entering the U.S., including an Afghan man who was charged with conspiring to conduct an Election Day terrorist attack on behalf of ISIS.
- He quickly pivoted to his claim that the real threat was "the enemy within."
4. Rep. Clyburn "concerned" about Black men sitting out election
Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Sunday he's "concerned" about Black men staying home or backing Trump.
Context: The Former House Majority Whip's worry comes as a recent NYT/Siena poll showed Harris with just 70% among Black men vs. 85% for President Biden in 2020.
What he's saying: "Yes, I am concerned about Black men staying home or voting for Trump," Clyburn said on CNN's "State of the Union." "But my concerns don't tend to keep me from being energetic about this campaign."
- While campaigning in Michigan last weekend, Clyburn said he met with Black men, religious leaders and union officials for "frank and direct discussions."
- "Black men like everybody else, want to know exactly what I can expect from a Harris administration — and I've been very direct with them," he said.
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) argued in a Sunday interview with CNN's Dana Bash that Black men will not vote for Trump "in any significant numbers," despite the poll's findings and Trump's efforts to win them over.
- While he noted Black men are "not a monolith," Warnock contended: "This idea that large numbers of Black men are going to vote for Donald Trump is not going to happen."
5. Mayorkas: Congress needs to "act swiftly" on FEMA funding
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas affirmed Sunday that FEMA has the money to address the immediate needs of people impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton, such as providing food and water, but needs more resources "to ensure that individuals can recover."
- He called on Congress to replenish the agency's Disaster Relief Fund and noted that "hurricane season is not over."
- "We need Congress to act swiftly to fund what should be a nonpartisan, apolitical phenomenon," he said.
Yes, but: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on CBS News' "Face the Nation" Sunday that additional FEMA funding "can wait," pointing to $20 billion Congress recently allotted to the agency as part of a stopgap government spending bill.
- "It would be premature to call everyone back now, because these storms are so large in their scope and magnitude, it's going to take a little bit of time to make those calculations," Johnson added.
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