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441753 |
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Date: October 01, 2024 at 19:45:54
From: old timer, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Walz on Tiananmen Square screwup: ‘I’m a knucklehead at times’ |
URL: Walz on Tiananmen Square screwup: ‘I’m a knucklehead at times’ |
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hadn’t heard about this one but another example of walz lying about what
he has done
Walz on Tiananmen Square screwup: ‘I’m a knucklehead at times’
BY IAN SWANSON - 10/01/24 10:22 PM ET
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), pressed at the vice presidential debate on
false statements he made in which he said he was present during the
Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, said: “I’m a knucklehead at times.”
Walz was pushed to reconcile public statements he made saying he was at
the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, with public evidence
reported by news outlets including Minnesota Public Radio and APM
Reports that he wasn’t in China at that time.
“Look, my community knows who I am. They saw where I was at. They —
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, but it’s always been about that,” Walz said,
stumbling a bit over his words.
“Those same people elected me to Congress for 12 years,” Walz added.
Pressed again on the discrepancy between his remarks and public
reporting on his travels to Tiananmen Square, Walz said, “All I said on this
was as I got there that summer and misspoke on this, so I will just — that’s
what I’ve said.”
“So I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protest, and from
that, I learned a lot of what needed to be in governance,” he added.
It’s not the first time Walz has been pressed on previous remarks he’s
made — the Minnesota governor has been scrutinized for his portrayal of
his military service and details of his family’s fertility journey.
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Responses:
[441763] [441784] [441764] [441755] |
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441763 |
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Date: October 02, 2024 at 08:29:55
From: Redhart, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Walz on Tiananmen Square screwup: ‘I’m a knucklehead at times’ |
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apparently he said he was there in April, and it was
actually August of the same year?
Then he took responsibility for the mistaken dates?
Not exactly an "I don't have top secret documents"
level of lying LOL...something, btw, Trump still
refuses to take responsibility for.
That's all ya got?
You should hear me trying to remember all the
grandkid's birthday without a calendar.
Yet, Vance told some real whoppers..the difference is,
he did it Yale slick.
I went to a local watch party with friends, and when he
claimed Trump had a peaceful transferrence of power,
There was uproareous laughter in the room!!
That's just one example.
They were laughing at Vance.
It's true, Walz never looked as smooth as Vance, and
frankly, that was predicted. But the substance
underneath was everyman common sense.
Do you think Vance is going to get in trouble with
agreeing with Walz too many times??
Do you think Trump is going to lay into him for not
being vulgar and leaving blood on the floor?
One of the things that was very apparent is there are
two Vances. One that does interviews on right wing
media that talks about "cat ladies" and pet eating
haitians, and another that seems to not know what the
other vance is saying behind his own back.
Then there is a third, I guess.. that thinks Trump's a
nazi, but not if he gets to be first in line for the
office of President behind him, I guess.
The guy's a chameleon.
And some of that pretzel logic he was spewing was a
work of art..no one bought it where I was, but watching
him try to connect EVERY issue to the border and
migrants was a contortionists black belt.
Walz was Walz...not a debater from Yale, not a slick
suit, but an everyman, a coach, a national guardsman
and a governor who has actually been in the
trenches..with no slick tongue, but humility and
serving the people Vance aimed to dupe instead.
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Responses:
[441784] [441764] |
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441784 |
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Date: October 02, 2024 at 12:34:58
From: mitra, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Walz on Tiananmen Square screwup: ‘I’m a knucklehead at times’ |
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Yes. Vance appeared as if he were selling a pyramid
scheme, Walz appeared as himself.
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Responses:
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441764 |
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Date: October 02, 2024 at 08:38:17
From: shadow, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Walz on Tiananmen Square screwup: ‘I’m a knucklehead at times’ |
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Unfortunately there are those who look no deeper than The
Surface...and as I've noted, if it's loud, if it's got an
authoritarian swaggy tail, if it promises safety from
everything they fear, CH-CHING! They're in like flint, for
them... And if they mention Jesus, for these people who
don't care whether Jesus is emulated by them or not, whoa,
lookout...they're Appointed by God!
And, fortunately...though I love them no less, these poor
sweeties, there are far more of us than there are of
them...
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Responses:
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441755 |
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Date: October 01, 2024 at 20:23:13
From: old timer, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Walz on Tiananmen Square screwup: ‘I’m a knucklehead at times’ |
URL: Walz says he ‘misspoke’ after unearthed newspaper reports undercut claim he was in Hong Kong during Tiananmen Square protests |
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cnn on the this issue
Walz says he ‘misspoke’ after unearthed newspaper reports undercut
claim he was in Hong Kong during Tiananmen Square protests
By Aaron Pellish, Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck, CNN
Updated 10:56 PM EDT, Tue October 1, 2024
—
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said on Tuesday he “misspoke” when he
previously said he’d visited Hong Kong in the spring of 1989 during
protests in China’s Tiananmen Square but insisted he “was in Hong Kong
and China” during the pro-democracy protests.
His comments during Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate followed
the unearthing of reports that contradict previous claims he made about
his travel to China, including a claim that the Democratic vice presidential
nominee was in Hong Kong preparing for a teaching position in 1989
during the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests that ended in
hundreds of protesters killed by the Chinese government.
“My community knows who I am. They saw where I was at,” Walz said
during the debate. “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, but it’s always been about that.
Those same people elected me to Congress for 12 years.”
When pressed by CBS News’ moderators specifically about the
discrepancy between his past comments and the media reports on his
travel, Walz first said he “misspoke” on this.
“All I said on this was, I got there that summer and misspoke on this, so I
will just – that’s what I’ve said,” he said, before adding, “I was in Hong
Kong and China during the democracy protests went in. And from that, I
learned a lot of what needed to be in, in governance,” he said.
Walz regularly organized and chaperoned trips to China during his time as
a teacher prior to entering politics.
He previously said he visited Hong Kong in “May of ’89,” weeks before the
Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing. During a 2014 hearing of the
Congressional-Executive Commission on China honoring the 25th
anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, Walz, then a Minnesota
congressman, appeared to recall specific details of his trip to the region
at that time.
Heading into the vice presidential debate, Tim Walz is fighting nerves
“As a young man, I was just going to teach high school in Foshan in
Guangdong, and was in Hong Kong in May of ’89,” he said. “And as the
events were unfolding, several of us went in. And I still remember the train
station in Hong Kong.”
“The opportunity to be in a Chinese high school at that critical time
seemed to me to be really important. And it was a very interesting
summer to say the least. Because if you recall, as we moved in that
summer and further on and the news blackouts and things that went on,
you certainly can’t black out news from people if they want to get it,” he
continued.
Walz further claimed in a June 2019 radio interview that he was in Hong
Kong on June 4, 1989 – the day of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
“I was in Hong Kong on June 4, 1989, when, of course, Tiananmen Square
happened. And I was in China after that. It was very strange ‘cause, of
course, all outside transmissions were, were blocked – Voice of America –
and, of course, there was no, no phones or email or anything. So I was
kind of out of touch. It took me a month to know the Berlin Wall had fallen
when I was living there,” he said.
View this interactive content on CNN.com
During a 2009 hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on
China to commemorate the Tiananmen Square protests, Walz claimed that
he was in Hong Kong at the time, preparing to go teach in China.
“Twenty years ago today, I was in Hong Kong preparing to go to Foshan to
teach at Foshan No. 1 Middle School,” he said. “To watch what happened
at the end of the day on June 4 was something that many of us will never
forget, we pledge to never forget, and bearing witness and accurate
telling of history is absolutely crucial for any nation to move forward.”
Walz’s claims that he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square
protests have been repeated in media reports. But contemporaneous
newspaper reports first resurfaced by the Washington Free Beacon, a
conservative news outlet, place Walz in Nebraska around that time. An
issue of the Alliance Times-Herald dated May 16, 1989, features a photo
of Walz touring a Nebraska National Guard storeroom. In the photo’s
caption, the paper notes that Walz “will take over the job” of staffing the
storeroom from a retiring guardsman and “will be moving to Alliance,”
Nebraska. A separate newspaper article about Walz’s planned trip to
China published by a Nebraska-based outlet in April 1989 reported that
he planned to travel to China in early August of that year.
When asked by CNN if Walz was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen
Square protests, the Harris campaign was unable to provide evidence to
substantiate Walz’s claim.
A source close to Walz told CNN that “the point Gov. Walz is making when
he discusses this is that some folks in the World Teach program discussed
dropping out after Tiananmen Square, but he continued on with the
program because he believed it was important for the Chinese people to
learn about American democracy and American history.”
The contradiction was first reported by Minnesota Public Radio News and
APM Reports.
Walz also appears to have exaggerated the number of times he’s traveled
to China. In a 2016 interview, he said he’s visited China “about 30 times.”
In another meeting of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China,
in 2016, Walz claimed to have visited Hong Kong “dozens and dozens and
dozens of times.”
When asked for clarification on how many times Walz traveled to China, a
Harris campaign spokesperson told CNN the number of trips Walz took to
China is “likely closer to 15.”
Fact check: Walz makes false claims about Vance, Trump and Project
2025
China has long held a significant place in Walz’s life since he first traveled
to the country in 1989. Walz and his wife, Gwen Walz, were married on
June 4, 1994 – the fifth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre
and spent their honeymoon leading students in an educational trip to
China, something Walz did regularly during his time as a teacher before
joining Congress. Ahead of their wedding, Gwen Walz told the Nebraska-
based Star-Herald newspaper that they planned to get married on the
Tiananmen Square massacre anniversary because “he wanted to have a
date he’ll always remember.”
Since joining the Harris campaign, Walz has not spoken at length about
China or his history of travel to the country.
Republicans in recent days have circled Walz’s ties to China as a target for
further scrutiny. Jason Miller, a senior advisor to Donald Trump’s
campaign, indicated Monday that he expects Vance to attack Walz for his
history of trips to China.
“Tiananmen Tim! Funny they’re changing this now – we were planning on
calling him out for this at the debate tomorrow night! Anything else you
want to fess up to, Tim???,” Miller said in a social media post in response
to clarification offered by the Harris campaign about Walz’s trips to China.
Congressional Republicans have joined the Trump campaign in calling into
question Walz’s ties to China. House Oversight Chairman James Comer
subpoenaed Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Monday
for documents related to Walz as part of allegations made by
“whistleblower disclosures” provided to the committee that Walz has ties
to the Chinese Communist Party. The subpoena is the latest step by
House Republicans to spotlight Walz’s ties to China through a probe that
began in August shortly after he joined the Democratic ticket.
The inconsistencies around Walz’s travel to China and Hong Kong mark
the latest instance in which the governor’s past comments have been
revealed to be inaccurate since he became the Democratic vice
presidential nominee. In August, a Harris campaign spokesperson said
Walz “misspoke” in a 2018 video in which he said he handled assault
weapons “in war.”
Later that month, Gwen Walz clarified that the couple had used a fertility
treatment other than in vitro fertilization to conceive after her husband
had suggested they had used IVF.
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