Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has been in politics for nearly 20 years but until recently was virtually unknown, a simple man who showed up at campaign events in a flannel shirt and hiking boots.
According to the criteria of
“Never underestimate a public school teacher.” With this line, Kamala Harris’s vice presidential candidate sent Chicago’s United Center into a frenzy.
Nicknamed “Coach Walz” for his past as a teacher and high school football coach, he energized attendees on the third day of the Democratic Convention with an emotional speech in which he presented himself as a simple man who is connected to the concerns of the middle class.
Walz was elected governor of Minnesota, a state that voted Democratic in the last general election but whose rural population is overwhelmingly Republican and conservative in 2019. In 2022, he was re-elected for another four years.
On Wednesday, in front of a stadium flooded with signs reading “Coach Walz” or “coach Walz, formally accepted the nomination as the Democratic vice presidential candidate.
But all sorts of comments about her life are also circulating on social media. Are they real or not? DW, the German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle, took on the task of verifying them, and this is what it found.
Did Tim Walz lie about his military service?
No. The Republican electoral machine has launched attacks against Walz, focusing on his record as a member of the National Guard.
Speaking in Michigan, Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance said that despite serving 24 years in the National Guard and reaching the rank of sergeant major, the Minnesota governor had not “spent a day in a combat zone.” “He abandoned his unit before they were sent to Iraq (…) What bothers me about Walz is that he stole the credit”said Vance, who served in the Marine Corps for four years as a correspondent and was deployed to Iraq from August 2005 to February 2006.
Walz, 60, enlisted in the Nebraska National Guard at age 17, later transferred to the Minnesota National Guard and retired in 2005 after 24 years of service when he decided to pursue a career in Congress, which he achieved the following year.
His battalion was deployed to Iraq shortly after Walz’s departure, and he rose to the rank of master sergeant, one of the highest possible ranks.
Walz specialized in artillery, a job that left him with hearing problems and required surgery.
Despite admitting he has never been in combat situations, Walz has responded to natural disasters in the National Guard, and in 2003 he worked with the European Security Force in Italy in support of the war in Afghanistan and has participated in military maneuvers.
Did Walz order tampons to be placed in boys’ bathrooms in Minnesota schools?
No, it is a lie spread by Donald Trump.
In mid-August, while addressing a crowd at a campaign rally in Bozeman, Montana, former US President Donald Trump accused Harris’ running mate of advocating socialism and being too liberal on issues related to transgender children.
“He ordered tampons to be put in boys’ bathrooms” in the state of Minnesota, where he governs. “This is his ideology; that’s why he elected him” Harris, Trump said.
What is true is that as governor of Minnesota, Walz signed a bill last year requiring schools to provide menstrual products at no additional cost: “Products must be available to all menstruating persons (students) in the bathrooms regularly used by students in grades 4-12…”
However, the bill does not specify that these products must be located in men’s restrooms. US media have clarified that the bill aims to ensure access to menstrual products for all menstruating students, including trans men and non-binary students who can use such bathrooms.
Was Walz arrested in 1995 for drunk driving?
Yes. Walz was arrested in 1995 for drunk and reckless driving.
According to court and police records related to the incident, Walz admitted in court that he had been drinking when he was pulled over for driving 95 mph in a 55 mph zone in Nebraska.
Walz was transported by a state police trooper to a local hospital for a blood test, which revealed he had a blood alcohol level of .128, well above the state’s legal limit of .1 at the time.
When Walz first ran for Congress in 2006, his campaign provided misleading information about the incident. An investigation by the CNN revealed that his campaign denied he was drunk that night and claimed he was never arrested. His press team insisted the DUI charge had been dropped because it was unfounded.
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