DEMOCRATIC vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz said he befriended a “school shooter” and mixed up Iran and Israel in a nervy display during Tuesday night’s debate with his Republican counterpart JD Vance.
The Minnesota governor gave a bumbling display at times, at one point describing himself as a “knucklehead” when previous untrue remarks he made about his time in China were brought up.
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Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz during Tuesday’s debateCredit: Getty
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Ohio Senator JD Vance during Tuesday’s debateCredit: Getty
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Walz was answering a question from the CBS debate moderators about gun violence in schools when he seemed to stumble over his words.
“I sat in that office with those Sandy Hook parents,” he said. “I’ve become friends with school shooters. I’ve seen it.”
Former President Donald Trump mocked Walz for the comments, taking to his Truth Social account to slam the remarks.
“Did Tampon Tim just say he has ‘become friends with school shooters?'” he said, using a nickname for the governor.
“He isn’t even qualified to be Governor, let alone Vice President. Walz and Kamala DO NOT HAVE WHAT IT TAKES!”
Trump later posted, “Second time he has said, ‘I’ve been friends with school shooters.’ What does he mean by this? Is he insane?”
The president’s fiery posts stood in sharp contrast to the largely civil tone of the debate, which saw the two candidates agree on a number of points.
Earlier in their answers to the same question, the pair had given their solutions to school gun violence.
Walz described how one of his children had witnessed a shooting at a community center during a volleyball game.
“These things don’t leave you,” he said.
That led to one of the conciliatory moments during Tuesday’s debate, as Vance offered his condolences for what Walz’s son had seen.
“I’m sorry about that,” he said.
Walz said he had changed his mind on certain gun laws after meeting with the parents of children killed in the Sandy Hook shooting.
“Their seven-year-old was dead, and they were asking us to do something, and look, I’m a hunter. I own firearms,” he said.
I’ve not been perfect, and I’m a knucklehead at times.
Tim Walz
He said that his state of Minnesota had passed stronger red-flag laws and pointed to Finland as a country with high gun ownership but low rates of gun violence.
Walz appeared nervous from the off as the debate began.
He appeared to confuse Iran and Israel twice in his first answer, at one point referring to “Israel and its proxies,” and instead launched personal attacks on Trump and Vance.
He praised what he said would be Kamala Harris’ “steady leadership,” drawing a contrast with the presidential debate when a “nearly 80-year-old Trump talking about crowd sizes.”
For his part, Vance said the Middle East was at peace during Trump’s presidency and said he was the only president to have no major war during his time in office.
It comes as…
JD Vance and Tim Walz locked horns in first VP debate ahead of election
Walz was branded ‘Biden Jr.’ during his rambling answers to some of the debate questions
Donald Trump slammed the CBS hosts for their ‘bias’ after they cut the candidates’ mics during Vance’s answer
Vance ‘has chance to become Maga movement leader but must avoid being cocky,’ expert warns
Expert warns Walz has ‘more holes than swiss cheese’ in wake of Vance debate
Closet Trump voters are still ‘not coming clean,’ ex-Biden advisor says
Battleground states remain too close to call
Just hours before Tuesday’s debate – the only time the Republican and Democratic vice-presidential candidates will face off ahead of the election – Walz was also accused of lying about his time in China.
Walz claimed on multiple occasions that he was in Hong Kong at the time of the Tiananmen Square massacre on June 4, 1989.
Publicly available records show he was in Nebraska at that time and did not arrive until the summer of 1989.
Walz was asked directly about these discrepancies by debate moderators Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan and admitted that he had “misspoken” in the past.
Stumbling over his words, he said, “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.”
He continued: “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.
“Those same people elected me to Congress for 12 years.”
Pressed again about his previous remarks, Walz went on.
“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,” he said.
“So I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protest, and from that, I learned a lot of what needed to be in governance.”
This is not the first time Walz has been accused of making false or misleading remarks about his past.
He has previously faced claims of misrepresenting his military service as well as key details about his family’s fertility treatment.
INSIDE THE SPIN ROOM
The mood in the Republican camp was gleeful in the wake of Vance’s debate performance, with Trump saying his veep candidate had “crushed it.”
Writing on Truth Social, Trump said, “JD crushed it! Walz was a Low IQ Disaster – Very much like Kamala.
“Our Country would never be able to recover from an Administration of these two. Can you imagine them representing us with sharp, fierce Foreign Leaders? I can’t!”
Donald Trump Jr. was also full of praise for Vance’s performance, telling CNN he had delivered a “masterclass.”
“I think he literally won every issue across the board,” he told the network’s Kaitlan Collins.
“I think he was actually very comfortable in so many of the issues that Republicans tend to fail.”
Trump Jr., who urged his father to pick Vance as his running mate, went on to say that his father is ruling out a debate because he won’t “have a chance at getting a fair debate.”
The Harris campaign put out a more somber statement, saying that Walz would “uphold the constitution,” while JD Vance had “refused to commit to certifying the results of a free and fair election.”
He also once again ruled out a second head-to-head debate with Harris, claiming that “Lyin’ Kamala” only wanted one “because they lost so badly tonight.”
Vance went on Fox News following the debate saying that he had come to talk about the “issues” and to “remind the American public that Donald Trump is not the caricature that Kamala Harris and the media have made him out to be.”
In contrast, Walz and his wife Gwen left the debate spin room shortly afterward and were seen grabbing a slice from a New York pizza shop.
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JD Vance and his wife Usha talk with Tim Walz and his wife Gwen following the debateCredit: AP
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Walz went for a New York slice following Tuesday’s debate performanceCredit: Getty
