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 sounds very familiar, writes Axios Twin Cities co-author Torey Van Oot, who's covered Walz for years.

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.

• Walz family members said this week their efforts to start a family were not aided by IVF, as previous statements and coverage indicated. They instead used IUI, also known as artificial insemination.
• Walz has been criticized this month for misstating his military rank at retirement and saying he carried weapons of war "in war."
• 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 Ehrenberg 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.

• 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." Many schools were in remote learning mode into 2021.
• In March of 2022, he told Axios that his office would soon release a COVID "after-action" report as a "playbook for future administrations and future Minnesotans." Aides later walked that back.
• In May of this year, he told reporters he had been texting late into the night about an infrastructure spending deal. His spokesperson later 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.

Walz's spokesperson did not respond to Axios' requests for comment by deadline.

• The governor has previously pushed back on attacks targeting his time in the Guard, saying he is "damn proud of my service to this country."

Share this story

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has single-handedly raised the stakes of the 2024 elections by revealing he'd consider making it easier on Democrats to pass votes on protecting voting and abortion rights.

• But Schumer will need to avoid losing the Senate majority for the idea to pay off.

Why it matters: It's the most aggressive plan outlined by a Democratic leader on how the party would codify Roe v. Wade.

• Schumer's plan would move the Senate closer to getting rid of the filibuster, a longtime rule that requires 60 votes instead of a simple 50-vote majority to advance legislation.
• Schumer said he has a chance at getting it done in 2025 because Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) are leaving the Senate. They opposed skirting the filibuster.

The bottom line: Multiple Democratic sources told Axios there were more than two Democrats privately opposed to the filibuster carve-out in 2022.

• If the same level of opposition continues, the sources said, it would be a heavier lift for Schumer to bypass the filibuster for abortion and voting rights than he thinks.

The prospect of a RFK Jr. alliance with former President Trump suddenly looks much more real.

Why it matters: "I like him, and I respect him," Trump told CNN after RFK Jr.'s running mate Nicole Shanahan said the campaign is considering dropping its bid and joining forces with Trump.

• One Kennedy backer called off a fundraiser next month in Utah after Shanahan's interview, NBC reports.

The bottom line: Kennedy exiting the race would likely help Trump, who tends to perform worse in polls when third-party candidates are included.

Former President Obama's campaign manager from 2008 is accusing Trump of mailing it in so far in 2024.

• David Plouffe, who's now advising the Harris campaign, said Trump "campaigned hard" in 2016 and "was out there a lot" in 2020, but he's got a "really lazy schedule" in 2024.
• Plouffe told Axios' Mike Allen today that Harris will campaign "much more vigorously" than Trump.

The other side: "David Plouffe is a has-been that nobody should ever listen to because he has some of the worst instincts in politics," Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told Axios in a statement.

• "The fact is that President Trump has outworked every single person throughout this election cycle, and has held more rallies, fundraisers and political events than anyone else."

Go deeper