CNN host Michael Smerconish said that concerns around the 1995 DUI arrest of Vice President Harris' running mate, Tim Walz, are a major issue that the campaign has to confront.
"The DUI story is indefensible," he said, later asking if Walz was properly vetted by the Harris campaign.
In comments to reporters in 2006, Walz's campaign for Congress in Minnesota's 1st District insisted he was "not drunk" and blamed a "misunderstanding" with police on "Walz's deafness," which his then-campaign manager said had since been "surgically corrected.
"I don't buy it," Smerconish said, pushing back on claims that Walz's DUI was related to his "hearing disability."
"In the end, it's going to be about the top of the ticket. But to me, the DUI is bigger than the
stolen valor allegation, not because of the drinking but because of the lie," he said.
Walz has been criticized by veterans, including by some former Army National Guard members that served alongside him, for leaving the Guard before it was deployed to Iraq.
When asked how the Harris campaign should deal with the controversy around Walz's representation of
his 1995 DUI, Smerconish said that it needs to be tackled "full-on."
"Maybe this is as a result of the expedited nature of her ascendancy as a candidate," Smerconish said of the Harris' campaign vetting of the Minnesota governor. "But it makes me wonder how much they really knew about it."