Politico: "Walz has a tendency to misspeak."
Tim Walz has a problem misspeaking.
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.
It’s unclear whether Walz’s verbal errors will undercut his credibility with voters. But the need to continually clean up those claims could politically hurt Walz and Harris, who are locked in a tight race with Donald Trump and JD Vance. And in some cases, key members of Harris’ circle weren’t aware of some of the inaccurate statements until they became public despite the vetting process, according to four people familiar with the conversations who were granted anonymity to discuss the matter.
Even Walz admits he "misspoke."
The most recent example came Tuesday, when a CBS debate moderator pressed Walz over his claim that he had been in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, when Hong Kong was still under British rule (Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997). Walz over the years had said publicly he had been in Hong Kong during the crackdown in Beijing, including 10 years ago in Congress.
But on Tuesday during the debate, 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.”
Walz’s misstatements could contradict the image that the campaign has painted of him as an upstanding, everyday Midwest guy.
"Misspeaking." Funny when other politicians do the same thing another word is used.