Of all the possible lies about his past that Gov. Tim Walz could have been confronted about by moderators during the vice presidential debate on Tuesday night, the weakest was possibly that he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.
And yet, he still didn’t have an answer for it — acting every bit like a wide-eyed, panicked Don Rickles without the jokes, suddenly finding himself on a vice-presidential debate stage without the slightest hint of why he was there.
As Trending Politics’ Colin Rugg noted on X, “Walz has claimed on multiple occasions that he was in Hong Kong during the tragedy in Tiananmen Square in June 1989.”
This one had been fact-checked pretty extensively before Tuesday.
“As recently as February, Mr. Walz said on a podcast that he had been in Hong Kong, then a British colony, ‘on June 4 when Tiananmen happened,’ and decided to cross into mainland China to take up his teaching duties even though many people were urging him not to,” The New York Times (of all publications) noted.
“It was not true. Mr. Walz, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, indeed taught at a high school in China as part of a program sending American teachers abroad, but he did not actually travel to the country until August 1989,” it added.
Moderator Margaret Brennan explained the circumstances to the audience and then asked, “Can you explain that discrepancy?”
It’s never good when any answer to that question starts with the “I grew up in small, rural Nebraska, town of 400” bromide, but start with it Walz did.
Walz then proceeded to stumble over himself, visibly uncomfortable, for two minutes, explaining how he “rode his bike under the streetlights” with his friends and joined the National Guard and something something something, yadda yadda yadda. You may have noticed none of this answers that question.
Did Tim Walz lose the debate?
He then finally got around to explaining that, as a teacher, yes, he did travel to China, but after the Tiananmen Square protests.
He eventually got around to explaining, long into this shaggy-dog evasion, that sometimes he gets “caught up in the rhetoric” and that he “misspoke on this,” adding that he was a “knucklehead.”
JUST IN: Tim Walz turns into a stumbling mess, calls himself a ‘knucklehead’ after he was confronted about the lie that he was in Hong Kong in 1989 during Tiananmen.
After going on a 2-minute rant about how good of a guy he is, Walz finally answered the question.
Walz has… pic.twitter.com/rJ324rYytH
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 2, 2024
“Now, look, my community knows who I am,” he said during his rambling answer:
I don’t know about his community, but America certainly does:
Tim Walz is digging himself deeper and deeper.
This is NOT going well for him. pic.twitter.com/xbQoyGL69P
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 2, 2024
Stolen Valor, Liar, tampons, Tim is done
— Valentina Gomez (@ValentinaForUSA) October 2, 2024
Walz is a perfect example of a politician caught in lies.
Calling himself a ‘knucklehead’ is just admitting he can’t own up to the truth. It’s pathetic!
If you can’t even remember your own history, how can you lead anyone?
— John (@johnEiid) October 2, 2024
Even the establishment media, in its polite way, called Walz out.
“Walz has exaggerated certain aspects of his background, and Republicans have tried to point to that as proof that he’s not as authentic as the Harris campaign touts him to be,” MSNBC’s Clarissa-Jan Lim wrote in the live blow-by-blow of the debate on the network’s website.
“Walz stumbled over his response a bit, and him getting caught in yet another instance of overstating his experience is not great. Whether that line of criticism against him resonates with voters remains to be seen.”
He’s lied about his military experience. He’s lied about his China experience, and he’ll gladly lie about the candidate who picked him to be her running mate. No wonder he got the gig. It’s too bad he’s so awful when it comes to the actual practice of lying.
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