Minnesota Democrat Gov. Tim Walz was chosen by Vice President Kamala Harris to shore up Midwestern votes, yet his past misstatements have put his campaign staff under constant damage control, Politico reported on Thursday.
Many political observers were surprised when Harris chose Walz over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, due to Minnesota already being well in hand for the Democrats and Pennsylvania being a critical swing state.
Walz's every-man style of speaking was intended to help Harris hold the "blue wall," yet the outlet has reported that some in his campaign staff were unaware of his many inaccurate statements that continue to be used against him.
During Tuesday's debate against Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, Walz was pressed about his claim that he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. 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.
"All I said on this was, is, I got there that summer," Walz told the CBS moderators, adding, "I'm a knucklehead at times," before conceding he "misspoke."
Mike Mikus, a Democratic strategist in Pennsylvania told the outlet, "Any time you are forced to go off message is never welcome," adding, "But in the end, voters are looking for somebody who is more concerned about what these candidates are going to do to improve their lives than, 'Did he get every single fact correct?'"
On Wednesday, Walz was forced to clean up his remarks again during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania.
"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."
The campaign staff was forced to openly admit Walz's tendency for exaggeration yet used the opportunity to differentiate between their candidates slips of the tongue, and their opponents nefarious intentions.
"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."
Following Tuesday night's debate, Vance told reporters that he sympathized with Walz and his struggle with presenting a consistent message.
"Look, I've got to be honest, I feel a little bad for Gov. Walz," Vance said. "And the reason I feel bad for him is because he has to defend the indefensible, and that is the record of Kamala Harris."