Newly unnearthed newspaper articles from 1989 called into question Walz’s claims that he was in Hong Kong on June 4 of that year.
Minnesota Governor and Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz’s claims that he was in China at the time of the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989 has come under scrutiny after contemporaneous Nebraska newspaper articles were unearthed suggesting he was in the U.S. at the time.
Walz is set to face off against Ohio Senator JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, in the CBS News vice presidential debate on Tuesday night.
The presidential race remains a toss-up, with Harris and Trump being separated by only a razor-thin margin in key battleground states five weeks out from Election Day.
New media reports drew scrutiny to Walz’s previous statements that he was in China at the time of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, when government authorities violently suppressed student protesters in central Beijing on June 4, 1989. It is estimated anywhere from several hundred to several thousand civilians were killed during those protests.
The Claim
Walz has said numerous times he was in Asia at the time of the protests, including in a 2014 statement commemorating the 25th anniversary of the event, at which point he was serving as a member of Congress.
„This year marks the 25th Anniversary of heroic events in Tiananmen Square. The courage of Chinese reformers during this monumental and heartbreaking day has been a beacon for the democratic spirit throughout the world.
