Kamala Harris' running mate, Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, has been mired in controversy since he was announced as the Democrats' vice presidential pick a few days ago. Let's review the list so far. There are at least two stories concerning his time in the National Guard, not only his claiming a rank he didn't hold, but lying about it for what appears to be political gain.
Then earlier on Friday, my colleague Bonchie wrote about Walz's hosting events with a radical Islamist cleric numerous times.
Walz Scandal Involving a Muslim Cleric and Adolf Hitler
But to those who have known him for years, it's no surprise. As they tell it, despite the Democrats' attempts to paint him as someone who is even-keeled and willing to work across the aisle, he's shown himself to be blatantly partisan. Another of his chief weaknesses, according to Minnesota GOP Chair David Hann in an interview with Fox News Digital: being "thin-skinned":
Partisan, divisive, very thin-skinned, mean-spirited. He does not like to be challenged. He does not like people to differ with him, and he can get angry if he thinks that you're not agreeing with him sufficiently.
Another part of Gov. Walz's biography that Team Harris would probably love to quietly delete is on how he handled the dispatching (or late dispatching) of the National Guard during the BLM rioting sparked by outrage over the death of George Floyd, as Minneapolis burned. The most damaging part of this revelation is why Hann thinks Walz held off sending them out--sheer politics.
He continued:
He didn't do anything for three days, and I think it's because he was fearful of alienating this left-wing base that is the Democratic Party. They were talking about this as a protest against police violence.
I think that if he were to call in the National Guard when it started to get out of control, that would have been seen as, oppositional to their narrative of, we're just out here protesting, you know, excessive police force.
Under the condition of anonymity, a former Minnesota GOP state senator told the publication that Walz was "very frustrating" and "difficult" to work alongside:
He's very nice, very engaging. Comes off like everybody's friend. But it's very treacherous as far as what he's done to the state and his vision. He's got a veneer of extreme liberalism that is quite obvious now.
A video of a news report has resurfaced, of an interview with Walz during the time of the BLM riots, and it's a disgraceful window into how the Minnesota governor views his fellow Guardsmen:
Now, the rest of the country outside Minnesota knows better who this man is and what he believes about America. And learning about his negligence over the lives and livelihood of people in his own state for what looks like political gain should warn away all but the most cynical among us.