Panicked Over Veep Debate Debacle, Politico Rushes to the Rescue: Walz “Misspeaks” a Lot

The shellacking that GOP Senator J.D. Vance gave Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz during Tuesday’s vice presidential debate apparently triggered a panic attack among the leftist Mainstream Media.

Case in point: Politico. Having witnessed a confused, walleyed Walz blow the debate — “I’m a knucklehead,” he declared in a refreshingly candid moment — the website rushed out a story to explain the loss.

The man who thinks boys need tampons often “misspeaks.” Indeed, Walz “misspeaks” a lot, Politico reported. And that’s left Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign damage-control team with a full-time job: Cleaning up Walz’s “misspeak.”

The story was a message to the campaign: Get control of this guy.

Inaccurate Statements?

That not-so-subtle message begins the headline over the story, which explained Walz’s oft-falsified claims about this highly-questionable past, including false claims about his military career.

“Walz says he ‘speaks like everybody else,’” the headline says. “And it’s not working for the campaign.”

A subhead delivered news that must have sent dope-smoking Harris running for her stash of weed: “Key members of Harris’ circle weren’t aware of some of Walz’s inaccurate statements until they became public, despite the vetting process.”

In other words, someone dropped the ball before Harris fished Walz out the Land of 10,000 Lakes and left him flopping on the splintery pier of national media attention.

Politico didn’t bury the lead: “Tim Walz has a problem misspeaking,” the first sentence warned:

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.

Strangely, Politico didn’t call Vance “folksy” and “plain-speaking.” Instead, in a separate piece, it told readers that his beard “can be negative, conveying aggression and opposition to feminist ideals.” As well, the Walz Rescue story continued with another line that Politico would never publish about former President Donald Trump. “It’s unclear whether Walz’s verbal errors will undercut his credibility with voters,” Politico explained.

But leave the open, anti-Trump bias aside.

Four sources told the website that “key members of the Harris circle” were clueless about Walz’s fabulist tales. One of them was the false claim that he was in Beijing, China’s, Tiananmen Square during the famous protests of 1989.

Bad Vetting

CBS moderator Margaret Brennan asked about it, which gave the Walz the chance to fess up.

“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,” Politico reported:

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.”

Or he just needs to tell the truth so “clean up” is unnecessary.

Politico also outlined Walz’s other notorious falsehoods. They include the lie about retirement from the Minnesota National Guard as a command sergeant major, and that he and his wife, Gwen, used in vitro fertilization to conceive their two children.

“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,” Politico continued:

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.

With the long list of falsehoods on the table, Politico turned to a spokesman for the Harris campaign to explain. Then it dutifully called in far-left Democratic Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker to finish the Walz rescue. Where Walz only “mispeaks,” he said, the Ohio Republican is a quotidian liar:

“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.

Democrats in recent weeks have had to downplay and defend some of Walz’s past inaccurate comments, including about his military rank. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker classified the comments as Walz “misspeaking on occasion” over the course of his career.

“You can pick and choose the things that you want … over somebody’s entire career and call it out,” Pritzker told reporters, adding that “JD Vance is lying every day.”

So Why Pick Walz?

With all that “misspeaking,” not least Walz’s bald-faced lie about his drunk-driving arrest in 1995, some Democrats might wonder why Harris picked a largely unknown governor, particularly given that Minnesota is a solidly Democratic state, and has been since 1976.

One answer: Walz’s far-left radicalism on abortion, “transgenders,” and other issues. Like Harris, Walz is a pro-abortion extremist. He signed a measure last year that permits infanticide in Minnesota. 

As the National Catholic Register explained, since 1976, Minnesota had required “responsible medical personnel” to take “[a]ll reasonable measures consistent with good medical practice” to “preserve the life and health of the born alive infant.” 

That wouldn’t do for Walz, of course: 

The legislation Walz signed in May 2023 got rid of the word “preserve” and replaced the previous wording with a revised requirement “to care for the infant who is born alive.”

In other words, babies who survive the abortionist’s killing instruments can be left to die.

Walz’s approval of the change aligns with then-Senator Harris’ abortion extremism. In 2019 and 2020, she voted against a bill that would have required life-saving measures for such unfortunate infants.

Walz is also in line with Harris on “transgender” surgeries. Where Harris would provide taxpayer-subsidized procedures for illegal aliens, Walz signed a “Trans Refuge” bill that permits doctors to perform surgeries on kids who flee from states that forbid the mutilating operations.

And, of course, Walz famously signed a bill that requires public schools to provide menstrual products “to all menstruating students in restrooms regularly used by students.”

That means boys can get free tampons.

Thus, Walz’s nickname — Tampon Tim.