Politico: Tim Walz Sometimes Has a Tendency to "Misspeak"

Politico just femsplained to us yesterday that Tim Walz's panicky Coward's Eyes were just a sign of "passion" and "emotional intensity" that will make women hot and bothered, but that JD Vance's beard demonstrates toxic masculinity that will make women disgusted.

They're now here to explain that Walz's long, long list of documented lies are just some excusable "misspeaking" from an man who's "just so honest" that he frequently lets that honesty cause him to accidentally tell a lot of lies that are helpful to him.

Tim Walz has a tendency to misspeak. It may haunt the campaign.

Key members of Harris' circle weren't aware of some of Walz's inaccurate statements until they became public, despite the vetting process.

Tim Walz has a problem misspeaking.

Strange. That's not the word you use when Republicans misspeak.

Since being tapped as Kamala Harris' running mate, the folksy, plain-speaking Minnesota governor has had to explain a growing number of inaccurate statements -- and at times embellishments -- about his past. They range from comments about his military service to his visit to Hong Kong more than three decades ago to clarifying that his family didn't specifically use in vitro fertilization.

It's unclear whether Walz's verbal errors will undercut his credibility with voters. But the need to continually clean up those claims could politically hurt Walz and Harris, who are locked in a tight race with Donald Trump and JD Vance. And in some cases, key members of Harris' circle weren't aware of some of the inaccurate statements until they became public despite the vetting process, according to four people familiar with the conversations who were granted anonymity to discuss the matter.

Of course Kamala Harris didn't know-- she doesn't know anything.

How many times have we read articles, planted by Kamala Harris's embarrassed and abused staffers, stating that Kamala Harris doesn't bother to do the most basic homework and read their digests of the current cycle's news and the Administration's policies, and then she rips them for leaving her "unprepared"?

That's where Kamala Harris's favorite excuse originated -- she would respond to these articles by having another of her aides leak to the press that sometimes her staff "Fails to Position Kamala for Success." Her loyal aides also leaked it that Joe Biden and the White House staff were also "Failing to Position Kamala for Success."

Well, your staff can write your reports for you, Kamala, but they can't read them for you. If you want to get schnockered by 2:30 pm every single day and spend the rest of the day in a drunken daze, it's really your alcoholism that is Failing to Position You For Success.

She's a DEI hire. Always has been. It's always on the White Man to do her homework for her and rig things so that she gets Social Promotion after Social Promotion up the career ladder.

...

The most recent example came Tuesday, when a CBS debate moderator pressed Walz over his claim that he had been in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, when Hong Kong was still under British rule (Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997). Walz over the years had said publicly he had been in Hong Kong during the crackdown in Beijing, including 10 years ago in Congress.

But on Tuesday during the debate, he awkwardly responded that "all I said on this was, is, I got there that summer," and "I'm a knucklehead at times" before conceding he "misspoke."

On Wednesday, Walz sought to clean up his debate comments during a campaign stop in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, where polling shows Harris and Trump virtually tied.

"Yeah, look, I have my dates wrong," Walz told reporters in Harrisburg. "I was in Hong Kong in China in 1989. ... I speak like everybody else speaks. I need to be clearer."

Candidates running for higher office have long embellished their records or personal histories. President Joe Biden had long been known to overstate even minor details of his personal life, like his academic achievements. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) in 2010 had to explain why he misstated his military record when he claimed he served in Vietnam when he in fact served in the Marine Corps Reserves during the Vietnam War -- but stateside. Former Rep. George Santos is well known for lying about a number of things, including that his mother was killed in the 9/11 attacks

Walz's misstatements could contradict the image that the campaign has painted of him as an upstanding, everyday Midwest guy.

"He's just honest," Bob Frisby, 70, who lives in Rochester, Minnesota, recalled of Walz in an interview shortly after Harris tapped the governor as her running mate.

What an incredible claim Politico has inserted in an article about Walz's problem being that he's just not honest.

One of the earliest claims that came under scrutiny during the presidential campaign centered on Walz's military record. Walz has repeatedly and inaccurately described himself as a "retired command sergeant major" including in radio ads from his very first congressional bid. But he never finished the final coursework to retire at such a rank. The Harris campaign quietly changed its website description, after questions from reporters, to say Walz once served at the command sergeant major rank.

In 2018 while campaigning for governor, he stated that he didn't want "those weapons of war, that I carried in war" accessible to everyday Americans during a discussion about why he was reversing his position from his congressional days to support an assault weapons ban, giving the incorrect impression that he served in combat. Harris' campaign later said he "misspoke."

He also drew criticism for using his family's struggles with fertility during the campaign as a way to highlight his stance on reproductive rights, a key issue during the campaign. He even attacked Vance over it, saying, "if it was up to him, I wouldn't have a family because of IVF." The Harris campaign had to clarify that Walz and his wife, Gwen, didn't specifically use in vitro fertilization, but another similar treatment that Republicans haven't talked about banning.

Walz himself raised some of these issues with Harris and her team during the vice presidential vetting process, according to two people familiar with the conversations. Harris' circle, for example, knew of Walz's 1995 DUI arrest when he was a school teacher in Nebraska, despite Walz's past campaign and official staff trying to downplay and in some cases outright mislead reporters about the circumstances of the arrest.

Harris' vetting team called some of Walz's former House colleagues and other allies to check out that episode, his drinking habits and temperament since then, according to two other people familiar with the calls at the time.

"As the governor has said, he sometimes misspeaks. He speaks like a normal person and speaks passionately about issues he cares deeply about including democracy and stopping gun violence in our school," a spokesperson for the Harris-Walz campaign said, adding Trump and Vance "repeatedly lie and mislead about their plan to ban abortion nationwide" and other topics.

"Lying" is "just speaking passionately" -- when a Marxist does it.

BDW @BryanDeanWright

What a regime headline.

Chris Stigall @ChrisStigall

I think the word you're looking for is "lie." Walz has a tendency to lie.

The Vigilant Fox @VigilantFox

WATCH: Scott Jennings leaves CNN panel speechless as he torches Tim Walz's lame excuse of being "too dumb to tell the truth."

This is glorious.

Jennings quickly pointed out that "everybody seems to be worried" about Trump and Vance's dishonesty, but nobody is looking at Tim Walz, "who gave the most disastrous response to a question about his own dishonesty, about being in Tiananmen Square that I've ever heard in a debate."

Walz made claims that he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. However, he admitted during the VP debate that he "misspoke" and called himself a "knucklehead" for doing so.

Jennings is not happy with that answer.

"He also did the same thing with Dan Bash when questioned about dishonesty a couple of months ago. And effectively, what he has said is, 'Sorry, guys, I'm too dumb to tell the truth.' I mean, he called himself a knucklehead. I have bad grammar. This is a guy who holds himself up to be a schoolteacher and a coach. Is that the life lesson he's giving the kids that are under his care?" he asked.

"We spend 99% of our time going down rabbit holes about Vance and Trump and honesty in campaigns, and we spend no time, no time at all holding Walz and Harris to the same standard, and I don't understand it."

@ScottJenningsKY nailed it. This is 56 seconds well worth watching.

Note that Politico is repeating the Harris-Walz spin that Walz is just "speaking with passion:"

posted by Ace at 03:55 PM

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