Well, that may have backfired a little.
Democratic VP hopeful Tim Walz tried to showcase his hyped-up firearm skills at a hunting event Saturday, but detractors quickly seized on his apparent struggles to load a Beretta A400 semiautomatic shotgun.
Clad in an orange vest and chaps while tramping through straw-like high grass, Walz participated in the three-hour annual Minnesota Governor’s Pheasant Hunting Opener near Sleepy Eye, Minn., but didn’t bag any birds.
Footage posted on social media during the hunting expedition showed Walz hunched over adjusting his Beretta while complaining that something “never fits quite right” and noted that it was designed to help mitigate pressure on the shoulders.
Since ascending to the vice presidential nomination, Walz has boasted about his hunting prowess, taunting GOP veep candidate JD Vance by saying, “I guarantee you he can’t shoot pheasants like I can.”
Walz has also crowed about being one of the best shots during his previous tenure as a representative in Congress.
The Harris-Walz campaign has promoted the fact that both the Minnesota governor and Vice President-turned Dem-presidential candidate Kamala Harris are gun owners while seeking to fend off GOP criticisms of their support for gun control.
Harris claims to own a Glock and says that she has fired it at a gun range. The campaign launched the coalition group Hunters and Anglers for Harris-Walz last week and has sold off camouflage hats in a bid to appeal to rural America.
Allies and the camp of former President Donald Trump quickly mocked Walz on X over his Saturday hunting excursion, chiding that he looked like a neophyte with the Beretta, which costs about $2,159.
“Glock-enthusiast Kamala Harris needs to teach Tim Walz how to load a gun,” user Kate Hyde quipped.
Conservative influencer Ian Miles Cheong chided, “Incredible. Tim Walz has never used a gun before in his life. So much for being a military badass. Just another lie in a long string of lies.”
The Trump War Room wrote alongside a clip from MSNBC covering the outing, “MSNBC implies that Tim Walz going pheasant hunting is nothing more than a desperate attempt to make up ground with male voters. Sorry Tim, men aren’t voting for a gun grabber.”
Trump campaign adviser Tim Murtaugh needled, “The report from The Great Pheasant Hunt of 2024 is that, if Walz fired his gun at all, he didn’t hit anything. The claim is that one of his friends killed a pheasant but they didn’t recover the bird – even while using dogs. So, no proof of any success.”
Trump campaign co-manager Chris LaCivita added, “My prediction was in fact accurate …staged ..and watching him bumbling around trying to load his shot gun was fun.”
During the three-hour hunting trek, only one pheasant was shot but none recovered, according to CBS News reporter Shawna Mizelle.
After the hunting venture, Walz posted a video with a hunting dog who seemed very excited.
“Hard to tell who was more excited for the pheasant opener today — me or the pup!” he posted on X.
Many strategists have observed that the Harris-Walz campaign has been leaning on the Minnesota governor to try to boost her standing with male voters amid a pronounced gender gap in the polls ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
Walz had achieved a high rating from the National Rifle Association during his stint in Congress, but as governor, he pushed several gun-control measures.
They include a bill he signed last year to boost background checks as well as a so-called “red flag law,” which provides a system where courts can take away guns from individuals seen as potentially dangerous.
Walz has also taken flack for a past remark on gun control in which he said, “We can make sure those weapons of war, that I carried in war, are only carried in war.”
Walz never served in a combat zone.
