Rachel Maddow admits MSNBC hosts started ‘stamping and clapping’ during Walz’s DNC speech

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said that the network’s fellow hosts, reporters and commentators gave Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz a round of applause and cheered for him during his Democratic National Convention (DNC) speech on Wednesday night.

“I had no idea it was going to be like that,” Maddow said Wednesday night after Walz formally accepted his party’s nomination for vice president. “The room in here, in terms of our little crowd at MSNBC mothership, everybody got out of their seats and started stamping and clapping.”

Former football players from Mankato West High School, where Walz once coached, appeared on stage Wednesday night at the DNC to support him in a moment that was being widely shared online. 

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After Walz finished his speech, Maddow said that the moment was electrifying for her and other MSNBC hosts in the room. 

“I was probably six feet away from half the football team on this side of the stage,” MSNBC reporter Jacob Soboroff said when asked by Maddow what the energy in the DNC event hall was like. 

“The wattage of the smiles on their faces, it just screamed, ‘I cannot believe I am standing on this stage right now, in front of the … United States of America,” he said. “It was a really incredible thing to experience.” 

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“There is nothing more real, Chris Hayes, than still having your uniform shirt, your jersey from when you won the state championship,” Maddow told MSNBC host Chris Hayes. 

“I love that moment,” Hayes responded. “You get the call and you’re like, ‘yes,'” he said, imagining the players’ excitement when they were asked by the DNC to appear alongside their old coach. 

Walz also spoke on Wednesday about fertility treatments that he and his wife received in order for him to have children.

In another moment that has gone viral online, Walz’s son, Gus, became visibly emotional and clapped for his dad. 

“That’s my Dad,” Gus Walz appeared to say. 

Gus, 17, is Walz’s younger child and is currently a senior at St. Paul Central High in Minnesota.

Fox News’ Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.