At first of the ultimate week of August 2024, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s vice-presidential marketing campaign discovered itself the topic of a brand new conspiracy principle. The rumor didn’t contain deceptive claims of Walz being “abusive” towards his son, signing a regulation to inventory tampons in boy’s loos or having “recruited younger boys” right into a highschool’s Homosexual-Straight Alliance group. Slightly, this new rumor concerned Walz and his household’s canine: a black Labrador combine named Scout.
The rumor started on Aug. 26 — Nationwide Canine Day — when X consumer and Honeyhive Methods president Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) posted (archived), “Sure, that is Tim Walz tweeting about his canine Scout. Solely downside is that these are two fully totally different canines.” The publish displayed two of Walz’s posts from his X account and implied Walz claimed two totally different canines represented Scout.
Within the first post (archived), dated June 15, 2022, Walz posed with Scout. The second publish (archived) displayed the date Oct. 19, 2022, and confirmed Walz kneeling down close to the bottom to pet a special canine sporting a lightweight blue harness. That second publish featured the caption, “Could not consider a greater solution to spend a wonderful fall day than on the canine park. I do know Scout loved it.”
Turning Level USA founder and president Charlie Kirk reposted (archived) Grage’s publish, including, “Tim Walz is an all-time legendary liar.” Users on X famous that former College of Kentucky swimmer and political activist Riley Gaines additionally apparently promoted the conspiracy principle.
At across the identical time these customers posted concerning the rumor, the second publish on Walz’s account — the one exhibiting him petting a special canine — disappeared. In line with an archived page capture, that publish remained lively till someday after 9:24 a.m. EDT Aug. 26. An try and load the publish from its original link displayed the message, “Sorry, that publish has been deleted.”
A short while later, at 10:12 a.m. EDT, Grage posted (archived), “JUST IN: Tim Walz simply deleted this tweet. The place is Scout?”
Nonetheless, quickly after, Kirk and Gaines each deleted their posts. The reality of this rumor was the second publish merely confirmed Walz petting one other particular person’s canine at a canine park. In any case, a video on Walz’s Instagram account appeared to point out him sporting the identical outfit in the identical setting from the deleted publish. Within the video, Walz may very well be seen petting Scout, with the opposite canine sporting its mild blue harness roaming close by.
In different phrases, Walz merely appeared in a photograph petting one other canine at a canine park, along with his personal canine, Scout, exterior of the body of the image. One consumer on X posted (archived), “It took me precisely 45 seconds to go to @Tim_Walz’s Instagram web page and see it is a video of his canine Scout taking part in with one other canine on the canine park.”
We didn’t discover any corrections posted on Kirk’s or Gaines’ accounts however will replace this story if we obtain extra particulars. Kirk didn’t reply to an e mail in search of remark.
In the meantime, one other consumer critically responding to Kirk, stated, “The fake outrage by this image actually reveals how a lot of an out of contact elitist that you’re. I do know it could beneath you to go to a canine park, so it is most likely exhausting so that you can perceive how they work.”
This consumer responded to Kirk’s publish earlier than he deleted it.
We reached out to the Harris-Walz marketing campaign to ask about this rumor, together with inquiring about why somebody eliminated the second publish exhibiting Walz petting one other particular person’s canine. We obtained an emailed response from Teddy Tschann, the nationwide press secretary for Walz’s vice presidential marketing campaign, and can replace our story if he offers any additional particulars.
