Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is running to be vice president.
In my lifetime, I’ve seen a lot of vice presidents be treated as the bumbling idiots of their respective administrations, potentially chosen as assassination prevention–no one may like the president, but the vice president is worse.
Even when they’re not treated like morons, they’re still not people the other side wants as commander in chief.
And Tim Walz is shaping up to fit into the former camp, not the latter. In addition to the stolen valor accusations that have surrounded him, now we have talk of his supposed friendships with school shooters.
There was one moment from Tuesday’s vice presidential debate that Donald Trump couldn’t stop thinking about. The former President posted on Truth Social eight times about it, and his campaign and supporters have also latched on, in a sharp contrast from the notable cordiality shown on stage between Trump’s running mate Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance and his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Minn. Gov. Tim Walz
“I’ve become friends with school shooters,” Walz said, seeming to mean parents of school shooting victims
“Is he insane?” Trump posted, calling it “a very big mistake.”
Trump’s campaign shared a video clip of the moment on X that racked up over 5 million views within hours.
“Yikes! Not ready for primetime,” said Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt. “Gaffe of the 2024 election,” said conservative social media influencer Andy Ngo, while longtime Republican pollster Frank Luntz said it “may be the worst line in any 2024 debate.”
“This is concerning,” said Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), one of several Trump-supporting members of Congress to also highlight the moment.
“My daughter was killed in the Parkland school shooting,” said Andrew Pollack, a pro-Trump school safety activist, in a widely-shared post on X. “It’s absolutely abhorrent that Tim Walz has befriended school shooters. Disqualifying.”
Elon Musk, who has endorsed Trump, called it “mind-blowing” and shared a clown emoji.
That’s a lot of takes over what was inarguably the dumbest gaffe I’ve ever seen a political candidate, and that’s saying something.
And yes, it was a gaffe. However, some of the usual suspects are very upset about it:
“Does anyone affiliated with Trump have the ability for truth?” asked Fred Guttenberg, another gun safety advocate and parent of a victim of the Parkland school shooting in 2018. “The @TrumpWarRoom knows @Tim_Walz misspoke & meant he became friends with families affected by school shooters, people like me. If this level of distortion is all they have from last night, then Tim kicked JD’s ass.”
What’s funny about Guttenberg’s outrage is how little folks on his side of the debate have taken issue with the constant claim that JD Vance brushed off school shootings as a sad “fact of life” when he clearly did no such thing. They might not like what he offered as a solution, but saying he brushed anything off suggests he didn’t propose anything.
I’d look to find his take on the comment, but he blocked me despite never interacting with me on X before. Go figure.
Look, I agree that Walz probably misspoke. At least, I pray that was the case. However, I’m not exactly inclined to grant a lot of grace to him considering how any slip-up from a gun rights advocate gets mangled by the very same people.
Hell, look at how they keep misrepresenting what Vance actually said about school shootings. They’re blatantly and willfully pretending he said something he didn’t, so how is anyone out of line for pointing out what Tim Walz actually said?
The fact of the matter is that, as others have pointed out, this is a sign that Walz isn’t ready for prime time, and that’s the best-case scenario.
A worse case is that he actually has become friends with school shooters.
Either way, there’s reason to at least be concerned about the comment, no matter what Fred Guttenberg and people like him seem to think.
