Sunday shows preview: Harris campaign gains traction, VP speculation swirls

This week’s Sunday news shows will most likely focus on the rise of Vice President Harris’s presidential campaign.

Harris became the likely Democratic presidential nominee in the wake of President Biden dropping out of the 2024 race last week and endorsing her. Following the president ending his reelection campaign, Harris has quickly snapped up key endorsements and massive amounts of fundraising dollars.

The vice president’s very possible rise to the top of the Democratic presidential ticket has also fueled speculation about who her pick for running mate will be. Names that have been floated as possible picks for the position include Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D), Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly (D) and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D).

Buttigieg, who is set to appear on “Fox News Sunday” this week, pushed back against attacks aimed at Harris claiming she was hired due to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in a podcast released Saturday.

“Well, I do think that those attacks have been a bad look for Republicans,” Buttigieg said.

“And, you can tell because, when you got somebody like [House Speaker] Mike Johnson [(R-La.)], who is a very, very conservative figure, right, the Speaker of the House, telling his own caucus, like, ‘Hey, cool it,’ he’s basically saying that they are embarrassing the party, and I think acknowledging that they are diminishing the party’s chances by indulging in that kind of rhetoric.”

Like his fellow speculated Harris running mate pick, Walz is also set to hit the airwaves on Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Walz and former President Trump got into a recent back-and-forth over the Minnesota Democrat’s appearance on Fox News earlier this week.

“Take it from this small town guy: Donald Trump knows nothing about rural America,” Walz said in a post on the social platform X Tuesday. “That’s why he’s going to lose Minnesota. And Wisconsin. And Michigan. And Pennsylvania.”

As Democratic enthusiasm has built around Harrs’ campaign, Republicans have taken swings at the vice president. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has said following Biden leaving the race, “it was predictable that corporate media would provide hundreds of millions of dollars worth of glowing coverage to his replacement.”

“They are trying to do that with Kamala but it won’t work — she is too vacuous, too liberal and too unaccomplished for the voters to buy the manufactured narrative,” DeSantis, who will be one of multiple guests on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” this week according to a post on X from the show, continued in a post on X Monday.

Below is the full list of guests scheduled to appear on this week’s Sunday talk shows:

NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday” — Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.).

ABC’s “This Week” — Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D); New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R); Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D).

CBS’ “Face the Nation” — Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.); Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.); Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.); Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas); New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D); 

CNN’s “State of the Union” — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D); Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.); Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

“Fox News Sunday” — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg; Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.).

Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R); Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.); Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R); Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa); conservative author Peter Schweizer.