Walz's gaffe factory: His words have been getting him in trouble for years
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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at a press conference in Milwaukee in August. Photo: Jim Vondruska/Getty Images
CHICAGO — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's own words are tripping him up as he transitions to the national stage. To close observers back home, his tendency to misspeak or make inaccurate or inconsistent public comments may sound familiar.
Why it matters: Walz's rise from a largely under-the-radar governor to a vice presidential candidate has put the Minnesota Democrat's record and statements under new, intensified scrutiny.
- This week, Walz family members said their efforts to start a family were not aided by IVF, as previous statements and coverage indicated.
- Since joining the Democratic presidential ticket, Walz has been criticized for misstating his military rank at retirement and saying he carried weapons of war "in war," when he was never deployed to a combat zone.
- He's also faced a fresh news cycle over the repeated false statements his 2006 congressional campaign made about his 1995 arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence.
The campaign has since updated online references to his rank at retirement and said he "misspoke" at a 2018 event in which he referenced carrying weapons of war "in war," despite never being deployed to a war zone.
- In 2018, during his first run for governor, he acknowledged the DUI arrest prompted him to give up alcohol.
- Walz was "using commonly understood shorthand for fertility treatments" when he previously discussed IVF, Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson Mia Ehrenberb told Axios.
Zoom in: In the midst of the 2020 uprising over the police killing of George Floyd, Walz was one of several lawmakers who had to walk back unsubstantiated claims that the vast majority of the looting and burning was done by people from "outside" of Minnesota.
- Arrest records suggested his assertion that 80% of the people looting and burning the Twin Cities were from "outside" Minnesota was false.
- When asked in a 2022 interview about the impact pandemic school closures had on Minnesota kids, he said "over 80% of our students missed less than 10 days of in-class learning." In reality, the governor's across-the-board school closures lasted from mid-March 2020 to the June 2020 start of summer break. Many remained in remote learning mode into 2021.
- After GOP outrage at the comment, his office clarified he was referencing just the 2021-22 school year.
- In March of 2022, he told Axios his office would soon release a COVID "after-action" report as a "playbook for future administrations and future Minnesotans." When Axios requested a copy months later, aides walked back the claims and said there isn't a "specific document."
- In May of this year, he told reporters he had been texting late into the night about an infrastructure spending deal. When Axios asked for copies under the state's public records law, his spokesperson said the governor misspoke and that such texts didn't exist.
Between the lines: Former President Trump is such a fountain of exaggerations and mistruths that media outlets have built fact-checking efforts around covering him.
What they're saying: "Governor Walz speaks the way real people speak and often off the cuff. The American people appreciate that Governor Walz tells it like it is and doesn't talk like a politician, and they appreciate the difference between someone who occasionally misspeaks and a pathological liar like Donald Trump," a spokesperson told Axios after this story published.
What we're watching: Walz's vice presidential debut has largely been confined to controlled appearances in front of friendly audiences.
- The months ahead will feature fewer scripted encounters, more sit-down interviews and the vice presidential debate on Oct. 1.
