Tim Walz Faces Uncomfy Fact-Check on Tiananmen Square Ahead of Debate

Tim Walz may not have been telling the truth about when he traveled to China.

CNN reported Tuesday that the Minnesota governor’s previous claims that he was in Hong Kong in May 1989, during the Tiananmen Square protests, was contradicted by a newspaper report from that month featuring a photo of Walz touring a Nebraska National Guard storeroom. Another newspaper article from April 1989 mentioned Walz as planning on going to China in August that year.

These accounts contradict what Walz has said about his time in Hong Kong and China. During a congressional hearing in 2014, when Walz was still in Congress, he claimed he was in Hong Kong during the pro-democracy protests.

“As a young man, I was just going to teach high school in Foshan in Guangdong, and was in Hong Kong in May of ’89,” he said. “And as the events were unfolding, several of us went in. And I still remember the train station in Hong Kong.”

In another radio interview in June 2019, Walz said that he was in Hong Kong on June 4, 1989, the day of the Tiananmen Square massacre. But when CNN reached out to the Harris-Walz presidential campaign to ask if the Minnesota governor was there at the time, the campaign couldn’t provide evidence.

Walz appears to have exaggerated how often he’s been to China as well. He’s said in previous interviews that he’s been to the country “about 30 times” and to Hong Kong “dozens and dozens and dozens of times.” When asked for clarification, the campaign said Walz has visited China “likely closer to 15” times.

These revelations are undoubtedly going to be used as fodder by Republicans, including the Trump campaign. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer has already launched one politicized investigation into Walz’s connections to China, and Comer has not hesitated to attack the Minnesota governor’s family in the process.

Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance is sure to bring up CNN’s report during the vice presidential debate on Tuesday night, and it remains to be seen what kind of response Walz will have. Vance has struggled to attack his Democratic counterpart, and has a huge polling disadvantage to overcome, and may be on the offensive. Walz will not only have to be able to explain the discrepancy over his time in China but also parry any weird attacks Vance sends his way.

Donald Trump’s latest campaign brag doesn’t seem to make any sense at all.

As the Republican presidential candidate has toured the country, he’s shopped around a recurring line—that he doesn’t need a teleprompter.

“Isn’t it nice to have a guy that doesn’t need teleprompters?” he boasted Tuesday during a campaign stop in Waunakee, Wisconsin.

But the truth of Trump’s podium setup became abundantly apparent as the camera zoomed out, revealing two teleprompters, one on either side of him. This has been the case for multiple events now.

Trump’s long, winding, circular rants don’t appear to be scripted verbatim, though they do hit consistent talking points. But the unplanned and sometimes unsavory details he includes in them have posed problems for his campaign in recent history.

In August, after it became clear to his campaign that his affinity for making childish, ad hominem attacks against Vice President Kamala Harris was actually hurting his poll numbers rather than hers, Trump was relegated to carefully scripted speeches at smaller “messaging events.” But even then, Trump was unable to contain himself, making constant references to unrelated topics that made it difficult to clearly convey his policy stances.

Donald Trump goaded the crowd at a campaign rally Tuesday into booing WNBA star Brittney Griner, who was released from Russian detainment in 2022.

During an event at Dane Manufacturing in Waunakee, Wisconsin, Trump quickly turned away from talking about current events and almost immediately started complaining about a hostage trade that happened nearly two years ago.

President Joe Biden had successfully negotiated Griner’s return in a prisoner swap for former Russian military officer and arms dealer Viktor Bout, who Trump claimed was “the greatest buyer of military equipment, they say, anywhere at any time.”

“They got him back … and we got our basketball player back,” Trump said, pausing as the crowd began to boo. “That was the trade.”

“Well, if it is true, she used to tie her sneakers during the national anthem, right?” Trump said. “And we got her … back, and they got the best, the b—and I’m not saying he’s a nice human being, but he was the number one arms dealer in the world for a long time.”

This isn’t the first time that Trump has made this exact comment. Trump, who has a tendency to repeat his own jokes over and over, complained about Griner during an interview with Logan Paul in June.

He said that a “great arms dealer” had been exchanged for “the basketball player that wouldn’t stand up during the national anthem.” Trump complained the deal that freed Griner after she was imprisoned for 10 months “wasn’t exactly the greatest trade.”

Several other MAGA conservatives, including Trump’s own son, also callously criticized Griner’s release.

But Trump doesn’t seem to be thrilled by the release of any U.S. hostages from Russia. Earlier this year, he heaped criticism on Biden for securing the release of four American citizens, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan. It’s clear the only exchange Trump would approve of is one that he oversees.

Senator Ted Cruz is getting worried in his reelection campaign against Democratic challenger Representative Colin Allred in Texas.

Cruz told Newsmax on Tuesday morning that Chuck Schumer said, “I’m his number one target in the country, and the Democrats are spending over $100 million.”

“Chuck Schumer and George Soros are flooding cash into the state of Texas. There have been multiple polls in the last three weeks that show it as a four-point race, a three-point race, a two-point race, and there have been two polls that show it as a one-point race,” Cruz said.

Cruz warned that Allred was “an extreme left-wing Democrat,” throwing out the usual accusations that the congressman supports open borders, defunding the police, and higher taxes, and that he is targeting Cruz with “relentless attack ads.”

“I want to encourage your viewers this morning: I need your help,” Cruz said, directing people to his campaign website to “contribute, because we are getting swamped by Chuck Schumer and George Soros.”

It’s telling how desperate Cruz is getting if he’s using a TV appearance to plead for campaign contributions in a solid Republican state like Texas. He isn’t exaggerating about the polls, one of which shows Allred behind Cruz by only a single percentage point in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to a statewide office in 30 years.

Cruz was struggling to raise money early in the race in April, and at the time, he also invoked Soros in a similar plea for donations on Fox News. But his last entreaty didn’t seem to help him, and his attacks on Allred are falling flat in the face of the congressman’s moderate reputation.

One might think Cruz would try a more moderate approach to combat Allred, but instead, he’s continued to push a right-wing message. He’s helped to spread a debunked racist attack on Haitian immigrants, refuses to say whether he’d accept a Democratic presidential victory in November, and continues to fawn over Donald Trump, who has insulted him numerous times. Is any of that going to help him defeat Allred, or will he have to flee to Cancún?

Suddenly, Donald Trump cares about witness safety and privacy in his court cases, but only when it comes to his January 6 case.

On Tuesday, Trump’s legal team filed a motion demanding Judge Tanya Chutkan redact even more of Jack Smith’s dossier against him in the federal election interference case. As Smith has compiled and submitted new evidence of the former president’s work to overthrow the 2020 election, Trump’s lawyers have asked the special counsel for redactions of “identity-related information” and “sensitive witness statements” before it is released to the public.

In their court filing, Trump’s lawyers accuse Smith’s office of politicizing the trial with disregard to witness safety and anonymity. “The Office believes President Trump’s Constitutional rights to impartial jurors and fair proceedings—to say nothing of witness privacy and even safety—all take a back seat to the Office’s political goals.”

This motion comes after Smith submitted a new, still-sealed brief on Trump’s actions in 2020, following the Supreme Court’s controversial presidential immunity ruling. The brief, with previously unseen evidence, is designed to convince Chutkan, and any higher courts, that the former president should still face justice for attempting to overturn the election.

Smith asked Chutkan to allow the public to see a redacted version of the brief. To be clear, Smith is not asking for the witnesses be named outright but rather is asking that the public be able to see the broad strokes of his brief. As expected, Trump’s team is yelling election interference.

“The Office wants their politically motivated manifesto to be public, contrary to the Justice Manual and longstanding DOJ norms in cases not involving President Trump, in the final weeks of the 2024 Presidential election while early voting has already begun throughout the United States,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in their filing.

Interestingly, Trump didn’t seem to care about safety when he unleashed his followers on witnesses and courtroom staff in his New York fraud case. Earlier this year, he also asked Judge Aileen M. Cannon if he could out some of the witnesses in his classified documents case. The threat of being identified caused one witness to preemptively come forward for their own safety.

It’s fair to say from Trump’s response, his team does not want these statements and evidence to see the light of day.