Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, struggled to provide clarity regarding his earlier assertions of being in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 while participating in the vice presidential debate against Republican Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio.
Although Walz had previously claimed to be in the area during the significant events of spring 1989, credible investigations by Minnesota Public Radio and other sources have indicated that he did not arrive in Asia until several months afterward, as highlighted by the debate moderator. When the moderator addressed this inconsistency, Walz offered an extensive explanation of his personal history and various achievements.
“Well, and to the folks out there who didn’t get at the top of this, look, I grew up in small rural Nebraska, a town of 400, a town that you rode your bike with your buddies till the street lights come on, and I’m proud of that service,” Walz said when asked to explain the discrepancy on his claims. “I joined the National Guard at 17, worked on family farms, and then I used the GI Bill to become a teacher, passionate about it, a young teacher. My first year out, I got the opportunity in the summer of ’89 to travel to China.”
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