A resurfaced clip that has gone viral shows Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris’s newly announced running mate, saying that free speech should not always be guaranteed in a democracy.
"There's no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech, and especially around our democracy," Walz said in December 2022 on MSNBC when asked about penalties for spreading election misinformation.
Walz’s controversial remark resurfaced amid growing scrutiny over his far-left policy record and its effect on Harris’s Democratic ticket. Republican nominee Donald Trump on Wednesday called Walz a "very liberal man" and said he "could not be more thrilled" about Walz being Harris’s running mate.
During the 2020 riots in Minneapolis following the death of George Floyd, the Minnesota governor waited days before calling in the National Guard, allowing anti-police protesters to burn down a police station and cause $500 million in damage.
"[Harris and Walz] make an interesting tag team because Tim Walz allowed rioters to burn down Minneapolis in the summer of 2020, and the few that got caught, Kamala Harris helped bail them out of jail," said Sen. J.D. Vance (R., Ohio), Trump’s running mate.
Walz also signed bills last year that allowed 55,000 convicted felons to vote in his state, provided free college and health care to illegal immigrants, and required menstrual products in boys’ bathrooms at all public schools from grades 4 to 12.