As we know, the MAGA cult (aka the Republican party) has epic piles of chutzpah and sheer gall. But their new attack on Tim Walz as a pathological liar has got to be the most audacious projection they’ve ever done.
Kevin Drum helpfully unpacked their ridiculous claims:
Let us investigate the vast history of lying by Gov. Tim Walz as alleged by the Trump campaign:
Retired from the National Guard as a command sergeant major.
He did rise to the rank of command sergeant major, but upon retirement his rank reverted to master sergeant.Had children via IVF.
Walz almost always refers only to “fertility treatments,” but a couple of times has used the term IVF. In fact he and his wife underwent IUI, commonly referred to as IVF but actually a different, more affordable fertility treatment.Won an award from the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce (2006).
It was the Junior Chamber of Commerce,Taught in China for a year through a program at Harvard University (2006).
It was a program affiliated with Harvard.Earned the title of Nebraska Citizen-Soldier of the Year (1989).
He did indeed earn this award, but so did 51 other people. I’m not sure how this counts even under the strictest definition, but I’m including it for completeness.Referred one time to “weapons of war, that I carried in war” (2018).
Has admitted this was a misstatement.Denied he had been drinking when he was pulled over in 1995 for speeding (2006).
Possibly the only serious falsehood, from 18 years ago. However, he corrected the record himself six years ago when he ran for governor.
To my knowledge he hasn’t done this:
PolitiFact published its 1,000th fact check of a claim made by Donald Trump. The publication, which usually refrains from wading into political discussions or weighing in on a politician’s overall character, took the opportunity to release an analysis of those years of work. Its finding? Trump lies a lot.
“American fact-checkers have never encountered a politician who shares Trump’s disregard for factual accuracy,” the authors wrote. “Ever since he descended the escalator at Trump Tower in 2015, we have encountered a firehose of claims.”
The analysis found in particular that Trump’s immigration-related claims tended toward inflammatory falsehoods and that more than 70 percent of PolitiFact’s checks on immigration, foreign policy, crime, COVID, and health care were largely false. It concluded, also, that “Trump’s falsehoods have fueled threats to democracy.”
Virtually everything that comes out of Donald Trump’s mouth is a lie., but the biggest of all was that he actually won the 2020 election, which he began saying before the ballots were even counted.
It is utterly ridiculous that we’re even discussing Tim Walz at all in this context. Insane.