Politics

Walz, after coming under fire for military record, backtracks on China visit

Written by ABC Audio ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on October 2, 2024

(NEW YORK) — During the first and only vice presidential debate of this election cycle Tuesday evening, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz admitted he “misspoke” about being in China during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.

Walz has repeatedly claimed he was in China for the protests during his year-long stint as a high school teacher in the southeastern Chinese town of Foshan.

As recently as in February, Walz said during an episode of the podcast “Pod Save America” that he was in Hong Kong during the protests.

“I was in Hong Kong when it happened – I was in Hong Kong on June 4th when Tiananmen happened … Quite a few of our folks decided not to go in,” he said.

It appears Walz did not actually travel to the region until August 1989, according to local newspaper clippings obtained by ABC News. The pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, which led to a deadly government crackdown by the Chinese government, lasted from April 15 to June 4 that year — ending about two months ahead of Walz’s travel to the country.

Pressed to clarify news reports that disprove such claims, Walz said that he “misspoke” in his earlier claims but then reiterated that he “was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protest.”

While evading the question over whether he was telling the truth about the timeline of his travel, Walz defended his character by admitting he has gaffes, has “not been perfect” and is a “knucklehead at times.”

This marks another instance of Walz appearing to have misspoken about his past.

The Democratic vice presidential pick previously came under fire for his military record, with critics attacking the way he has characterized his experience and pointing out instances of him failing to correct inaccuracies.

In addition to Walz repeatedly saying that he retired with a rank he achieved but did not retire with, the Harris-Walz campaign admitted he misspoke when stating in 2018 that he carried weapons of war “in war.”