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From The Hill: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), pressed at the vice presidential debate on false statements he made in which he said he was present during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, said: “I’m a knucklehead at times.”
Walz was pushed to reconcile public statements he made saying he was at the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, with public evidence reported by news outlets including Minnesota Public Radio and APM Reports that he wasn’t in China at that time.
“Look, my community knows who I am. They saw where I was at. They — look, I will be the first to tell you I have poured my heart into my community. I’ve tried to do the best I can, but I’ve not been perfect, and I’m a knucklehead at times, but it’s always been about that,” Walz said, stumbling a bit over his words.
“Those same people elected me to Congress for 12 years,” Walz added.
Pressed again on the discrepancy between his remarks and public reporting on his travels to Tiananmen Square, Walz said, “All I said on this was I got there that summer and misspoke on this, so I will just — that’s what I’ve said.”
“Many times, I will talk a lot. I will get caught up in the rhetoric. But being there, the impact it made, the difference it made in my life, I learned a lot about China. I hear the critiques of this,” Walz stammered.
Walz then tried to drag Trump into the mess, saying, “I will make the case that Donald Trump should have come on one of those trips with us. I guarantee you he wouldn’t be praising XI Jinping about COVID. And I guarantee you he wouldn’t start a trade war that he ends up losing. So, this is about trying to understand the world. It’s about trying to do the best you can for your community, and then it’s putting yourself out there and letting your folks understand what it is.”
“My commitment, whether it be through teaching, which I was good at, or whether it was being a good soldier or was being a good member of Congress. Those are the things that I think are the values that people care about,” he said.
Walz was reminded that he hadn’t really answered the question.
“All I said on this was, as I got there that summer and misspoke on this. So, I will just… that’s what I’ve said. So, I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protests, went in and, from that, I learned a lot of what needed to be in in governance,” he then declared.
No mention was made about Walz’s “good soldier” comment. He has also faced severe backlash for misrepresenting his military record.
WATCH how it all went down in the video below:
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
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