In perhaps the least shocking revelation in political history, Tim Walz appears to have lied again, this time about his political origin story.
Almost as soon as Kamala Harris' running mate burst onto the national scene, Walz's penchant for fabulism did as well. As RedState reported, he has repeatedly stolen valor over the years, from claiming to have carried weapons "in war" to claiming to be a retired Command Seargent Major when he was demoted for not completing the necessary training.
Walz's tall tales didn't end with that scandal, though. He has also misled the public on various other topics in pursuit of propping up his political career. For example, while falsely attacking Republicans, the Minnesota governor claimed his children were conceived with IVF. That wasn't true. Further, Walz claimed to have received an award from the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce. He didn't, and what amounted to a cease and desist letter had to be sent.
This is a guy who even lies about really stupid things. After being added to the ticket, Walz appeared in a scripted video claiming he liked "white guy tacos" and nothing spicier than black pepper. Hilariously, he had posted on social media two years earlier bragging about how he won a cooking competition making a spicy taco dish with chili powder in it.
You get the idea. This guy is Joe Biden's protege when it comes to fluffing his past, and his self-described political origin story is no different. According to Walz, he was just an unsuspecting high school teacher who took two students to a George W. Bush rally for "educational" purposes. It was only after being denied entry into the rally that he was then inspired to eventually run for Congress and bring about change. You know, the typical slop that politicians come up with.
The problem is that various parts of his story don't add up. According to the Washington Examiner, Walz was not with two of his students (one was a political activist) when he attended the rally and he was allowed to enter contrary to his claims of persecution.
For one, Walz was admitted into the Bush rally, according to a source familiar, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the August 2004 event. The two teenagers Walz arrived with, Matt Klaber and Nick Burkhart, were not his students, the Washington Examiner confirmed.
Moreover, the teenagers were barred from the event after a confrontation that made local news earlier in the week — leading to them initially being denied tickets.
And while Walz framed the squabble as the “moment that I decided to run for office” since he had “never been overly involved in political campaigns,” evidence suggests that Walz was already politically active by that point: He participated days earlier in an anti-Bush protest before the 2004 Bush rally in Mankota, Minnesota, on Aug. 4, an image confirms.
It's also worth noting that the sign he was holding up outside the same rally claimed that he was a veteran of the war in Afghanistan.
A photo taken by then-Minnesota GOP aide Michael Brodkorb shows Walz clutching a sign before the rally that read, “Enduring Freedom Veterans for Kerry.”
The Enduring Freedom title is known to refer to people who served in Afghanistan — something Walz never did. Walz spent time in Italy and Norway supporting NATO forces. The 24-year Army National Guard veteran did not see combat.
Regardless, it seems pretty clear what Walz was doing. He didn't go there to give some students an educational experience, something that never made sense anyway. He went there looking to manufacture an origin story that he could then use to his advantage while running for office.
The situation is very similar to his stolen valor scandal. Both centered around Walz pretending to be something more than he was. It wasn't enough to be a boring assistant coach. He needed to be the big, bad military guy who had carried "weapons in war" while getting thrown out of a rally by George W. Bush. Thus, he set out to make that narrative a reality, and for decades, the press has bought it uncritically. It wasn't until conservative media outlets began to dig deeper that the litany of falsehoods was revealed.
What else is going to come out about Walz? That's an evergreen question at this point.