Democratic vice presidential hopeful Tim Walz fessed up to making numerous false statements, but implied that voters aren’t too concerned about his “misspeaking.”
When confronted about his various fibs ranging from being in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square massacre to his wife’s reproductive assistance and more, Walz argued that sometimes he gets tripped up by his passion.
“I think they heard me the other night speaking passionately about gun violence and misspeaking,” Walz told “Fox News Sunday,” alluding to how he flubbed an answer during the VP debate and sputtered out the unfortunate turn-of-phrase, “I’ve become friends with school shooters.”
He also referenced how his wife Gwen corrected the record in August regarding the couple’s oft-stated claim they used in vitro fertilization (IVF) to conceive their two children, revealing she had actually used intrauterine insemination (IUI).
Walz downplayed the discrepancy, and attempted to turn it around to attack former President Trump.
“I don’t think people care whether I used IUI or IVF when we talk about this. What they understand is Donald Trump would resist those things,” he added in the Fox News interview.
Walz, 60, had spent weeks heavily implying — and at times outright claiming — that she used IVF when knocking Republicans on the issue.
“I will own up when I misspeak. I will own up when I make a mistake,” Walz further insisted during his first Sunday show interview since becoming the Democratic VP nominee.
He then attempted to deflect.
“Let’s be very clear: On that debate stage The other night, I asked one very simple question, and Senator Vance would not acknowledge that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election,” he countered.
The Harris-Walz campaign quickly made an ad out of that VP debate moment in which GOP vice presidential hopeful JD Vance, 40, declined to state that former President Donald Trump, 78, lost the election.
Walz struggled during the debate when pressed about his bogus claim about being in Hong Kong for the Tiananmen Square massacre, laying the blame on his tendency to be a “knucklehead at times.”
The VP contenders also clashed on changes the governor signed into law regarding Minnesota’s abortion policy. The Born Alive Infants Protection Act excised language calling on medical personnel to “preserve the life and health of the born alive infant.”
Walz contended Sunday that, “Minnesota law aligns with every other case of what physicians are required by their ethical responsibilities. And so it changed nothing other than aligning with all care that physicians provide in any circumstances for any medical case.”
He later referenced ProPublica’s story about Amber Thurman, a Georgia woman who died after rare complications from her use of the abortion pill mifepristone in conjunction with misoprostol. The article explained that doctors waited to operate on her, but did not reveal why.
“States like Georgia force women to cross the border and then we have the death of Amber Thurman,” Walz claimed.
Host Shannon Bream pointed out that Thurman’s family attorney faulted medical malpractice for Amber’s death.
Walz also accused Vance and Trump of misrepresenting his and Vice President Kamala Harris’ position on abortion.
“The vice president and I have been clear, the restoration of Roe v. Wade is what we’re asking for. This is a woman’s right to make her own choices,” he said.
The Minnesota governor’s interview on Fox News comes as the Harris-Walz campaign has at long last begun to make its candidates available for more interviews.
Critics have long pummeled Harris and Walz for keeping a fairly light media itinerary since ascending to the party’s presidential ticket.
Harris, 59, has plans to sit down with late-night comedian Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show,” as well as appearing on “The View,” “The Howard Stern Show” and more later this week, according to the campaign.
