Tim Walz raised eyebrows when he described becoming “friends with school shooters” during the vice presidential debate on CBS.
The Minnesota Governor, who at times looked nervous, made the gaffe while speaking about gun reform. He said he’d sat with parents of Sandy Hook victims, before adding that he’s “become friends with school shooters.”
Walz presumably meant he has become friends with parents who lost children during school shootings.
It was a notable moment in civilized encounter, with both men showing respect for each other throughout their first and potentially only vice presidential debate.
Vance had his microphone cut off at one stage after he interjected out of turn while discussing Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio.
When the candidates were asked about immigration, CBS moderator Margaret Brennan fact-checked Vance , saying Springfield had a “large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status, temporary protected status.”
Vance took aim at the moderator for fact-checking him and insisted on explaining how the migrants were given temporary legal status, according to The Express US.
“The rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact check and since you’re fact-checking me. I think it’s important to say what’s actually going on,” Vance told the moderators.
“There’s an application called the CBP One App where you can go on as an illegal migrant, apply for asylum or apply for parole and be granted legal status at the wave of a Kamala Harris open border wand.”
Brennan urged him to wrap up. “Thank you, Senator, for describing the legal process,” she said. “We have so much to get through.”
When Walz tried to jump in himself, the candidates were told that the audience could no longer hear them because their mics had been cut.
Walz accused Vance and Trump of “villainizing” Haitian immigrants. He said Ohio’s Governor was forced to send in extra police to provide security to the city’s schools after Vance tweeted false claims about Haitians stealing and eating pets.
“This is what happens when you don’t want to solve it [immigration], you demonize it,” he said.
Vance said 15,000 Haitians in the city had caused housing and economic issues that the Biden administration was ignoring.
Later, Walz was asked to clarify comments he made about visiting Hong Kong during the deadly Tiananmen Square protests in the spring of 1989.
He said “I’m a knucklehead at times.”
“All I said on this was, as I got there that summer and misspoke on this,” Walz said. “So I will just that’s what I’ve said. So I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protests went in and from that I learned a lot of what needed to be in in governance.”
The Republican freshman senator from Ohio, and Walz, a two-term Democratic governor of Minnesota, clashed on other issues including the economy, climate change and abortion.
