I'd venture a guess that little more than three months ago, a strong percentage of Americans didn't know who Minnesota Democrat Gov, Tim Walz, was, much less care. My how things change. Now, Walz is widely known as a political hack who has an arm's length relationship with the truth — at best.
As Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris' vice presidential running mate, Walz has a helluva time remembering facts and truths, meaning he has an ever-growing list of flat-out lies, from serving on the battlefield to having been in Hong Kong during Communist China's 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. (He was actually in Nebraska at the time.)
Walz has also taken political two-stepping to a new height as he continues to try to "Walz" around free speech like a champ, redrawing the boundaries between constitutionally protected free speech and speech that Democrats don't like; particularly speech and written content that run counter to their various narratives.
As George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley put it in a recent column:
Today, there is no more nimble performer of that dizzying dance than Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz. Indeed, “Walzing” has become the Minnesota governor’s signature political two-step after his controversial statements on his allegedly socialist views, eliminating the electoral college and other topics.
During an interview with Fox News host Shannon Bream on Sunday, Walz tried his best to politically two-step around his past controversial comments, such as eliminating the Electoral College and his declaration that there is “no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech.” As Turley duly noted, decades of Supreme Court rulings run counter to Walz's claim.
First of all, misinformation and hate speech are not exceptions to the First Amendment: Whether it is the cross burnings of infamous figures like KKK leader Clarence Brandenburg or the Nazis who marched in Skokie, Ill., hate speech is protected.
Yet both Harris and Walz are true believers in the righteousness of censorship for disinformation, misinformation and malinformation.
The Biden administration defines misinformation as “false, but not created or shared with the intention of causing harm” — meaning it would subject you to censorship even if you are not intending harm. It defines malinformation as “based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate.”
So you can post “true facts,” but would still be subject to censorship if you are viewed as misleading others with your pesky truth-telling.
In other words, the left twists itself into illogical pretzels as it calls to suppress or outright ban conservative speech or content, while intentionally shredding the U.S. Constitution at the drop of a left-wing hat.
WATCH: @GovTimWalz joins @ShannonBream to address the Harris-Walz campaign's plans for the country, with just 22 days until the election. pic.twitter.com/UC6qTMKsWN
— Fox News Sunday (@FoxNewsSunday) October 13, 2024
As I wrote on October 4, we are arguably living through the most dangerous anti-free speech movement in American history. From the Biden-Harris administration pressuring Mark Zuckerberg's Meta to censor COVID-19 information to a Columbia University professor and former Biden aide's NYT op-ed in which he declared that "The First Amendment is out of control," the left continues to up its anti-free speech game.
And the Harris-Walz ticket is the current hood ornament of the anti-free speech clown car.
READ MORE:
On Sunday — the second Sunday in a row in which Walz appeared on "Fox News Sunday" — Bream asked the Minnesotan to expound on his belief that the Electoral College should be kicked to the curb and the presidential elections should be decided by national popular vote.
"Let's ask about the Electoral College. You made some news when you said 'It needs to go."' The [Harris-Walz] campaign said it's not their position; you said you line up with the campaign, now..."
After Bream explained to Walz why the Founders created the Electoral College, which he ignored, the Democrat vice presidential nominee attempted a double backflip off the high board.
My point on this is people feel, and they have to feel, every vote counts in every place in the country. And I think what the point this was is they see it in battleground states and not across the country. The campaign's position is clear on this: it's not to get rid of the Electoral College, but it's to focus on every vote and think your viewers out there listening want to see these campaigns in every corner, talking to every person and look, as a rural guy ... those are areas that need to be heard.
Nonsense, and illogical as can be.
If the Electoral College was no more, rural voters wouldn't see a single Democrat presidential candidate in future elections. We know that. Walz knows that. And two-stepping Tim knows we know he knows.
In other words, never mind the Constitution.
Look, in just a matter of days, Walz went from declaring the Electoral College "needs to go" to saying his and the campaign's position is "not to get rid of the Electoral College."
Raise your hand if you think ol' Tim still wants to dump the EC in favor of the popular vote. Yeah, me too; of course he does.
Free Speech, Misinformation, and Other 'Walzes'
Bream next jumped into the issue of censorship and free speech.
You said "There's no guarantee to free speech for misinformation or hate speech," but first of all the Supreme Court very clearly in a 2017 unanimous decision [ruled] that hate speech is protected; that's the kind of stuff that needs to be protected — stuff none of us like to hear. But more importantly, who gets to decide on the decision of what misinformation is?
Did you watch the expression on Walz's face as Bream dismantled his ridiculous claims?
The embattled governor again jumped into his infamous two-step routine.
Look, the First Amendment is foundational ... The point being on this is we're seeing censorship come in the form of book -bannings in different places, we're seeing it in attempts in schools. The issue on this is the hate speech and the protected hate speech: speech that's aimed at creating violence, speech that's aimed at threats to individuals — and that's what we're talking about with this.
Mind-numbing, isn't he? Besides, Shannon Bream is at least as smart as Walz, and she's one heck of a lawyer. In other words, two-stepping Tim, you were trying to fight way above your weight class, and you were getting demolished every step of the way.
Toss in Jonathan Turley's expert analysis, and Walz was totally cooked.
'[B]ook bans” are not equivalent to the Harris-Walz censorship policies.
After years of supporting censorship and blacklisting, Democrats are attempting to deflect questions by claiming that the GOP is the greater threat.
First, a reality check: The Biden-Harris administration has helped fund and actively support the largest censorship system in our history, a system described by one federal court as “Orwellian.”
These are actual and unrelenting efforts to target individuals and groups for opposing views on subjects ranging from gender identity to climate change to COVID to election fraud.
Moreover, as Turley wrote:
School districts have always been given wide latitude in making such decisions on curriculum or library policies. Indeed, while rarely mentioned by the media, the left has demanded the banning or alteration of a number of classic books, including “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Of Mice and Men,” under diversity or equity rationales.
I have long opposed actual book bans perpetrated by both the left and the right. However, school districts have always made such access and curriculum decisions.
So here we find ourselves.
After decades of the Democrat Party supporting censorship — by instead referring to the practice as "content moderation" and "fact-checking," Kamala Harris and Tim Walz now don't want to discuss it — but they sure do want to continue it.
Who'd have thunk? Other than every First Amendment advocate in America, I mean.
If Harris-Walz isn't the most anti-free ticket in history, I'm unaware of which ticket took home the trophy.
