Democratic Minnesota governor Tim Walz unraveled at the vice presidential debate Tuesday night when asked to explain why he falsely claimed that one of his many China visits coincided with the Tiananmen Square massacre.
“You said you were in Hong Kong during the deadly Tiananmen Square protest during the spring of 1989,” CBS News moderator Margaret Brennan asked. “But Minnesota Public Radio and other outlets are reporting that you didn’t actually travel to Asia until August that year. Can you explain that discrepancy?”
Walz responded with a longwinded justification for the many visits he made to China as a teacher, the optics and national-security implications of which have been criticized by Republicans.
“Look, I grew up in small rural Nebraska, town of 400, town of where you rode your bike with your buddies until the street lights come on and I’m proud of that service,” Walz replied. “I joined the National Guard at 17, worked on family farms, and then I use the GI bill to become a teacher…My first year out I got the opportunity in the summer of ’89 to travel to China, 35 years ago, be able to do that.”
When he returned to the states, Walz started a program to take “young people” to China, explaining his repeated visits back to the country.
“We would take basketball teams, we would take baseball teams, we would take dancers, and we would go back and forth to China,” he said. “The issue for that was to try and learn. Now look, my community knows who I am, they saw where I was at. 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…”
Walz neglected to mention that the China trips he organized as a high school teacher in the 1990’s were partially sponsored by the Chinese Communist Party. A trip in 1994 doubled as a honeymoon after Walz planned his wedding so that it would fall on the fifth anniversary of the CCP’s Tiananmen Square crackdown.
A local Minnesota publication interviewed Walz and his wife, writing, “Walz and his wife honeymooned in China after getting married on the 5th anniversary of Tiananmen Square. Why? ‘He wanted to have a date he’ll always remember,’ said his wife.”
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R., Ky.) in September requested information from the FBI about Walz’s estimated 30 trips to China and whether he interacted with Chinese Communist Party affiliates. Comer announced Monday that a whistleblower has come forward to his committee to reveal that DHS employees discussed Walz’s China trips in internal chats and even produced intelligence reports on the Minnesota governor’s ties to China.