Walz made a speech during an appearance at the Humans Rights Campaign National Dinner–the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization–in Washington on Saturday night.
Walz took to stage to highlight his support for his running mate, Kamala Harris (“Yes, by the way, she’s more qualified than anybody that’s ever run for this office, let’s be clear”) along with the pair’s record on queer rights.
“I’m an old, straight, white guy, I’m teaching social studies, you’re all picturing the damn stereotype here. Turns out I’m opposite world of Tommy Tuberville though,” he said before describing his involvement with his former school’s gay-straight alliance.
Yet the Minnesota governor used the opportunity to namecheck more than just Tuberville.
“It’s a fact of life some people are gay,” Walz said. “But you know what’s not a fact of life? That our children need to be shot dead in schools. That’s not a fact of life.”
Vance told a crowd during a rally in Phoenix, Arizona, last week, that increased security was the answer to school shootings, rather than tougher legislation on guns.
“I don’t like that this is a fact of life. But if you’re—if you are a psycho, you want to make headlines, you realize that our schools are soft targets. And we have got to bolster security at our schools… We’ve got to bolster security so if a psycho wants to walk through the front door and kill a bunch of children, they’re not able to,” Vance said.
“If these psychos are going to go after our kids we’ve got to be prepared for it,” Vance said. “We don’t have to like the reality that we live in, but it is the reality we live in. We’ve got to deal with it.”
While the Harris-Walz campaign had already condemned Vance’s comments, Walz used his speech to reiterate, “Folks are banning books, but they’re okay with weapons of war being in our schools. Look, that’s not this country, it doesn’t have to be this way, it doesn’t happen elsewhere, we’re going to make sure our children are seen, they bring their authentic selves, then we’re going to make sure they’re safe when they get there, so thank you all,” he said.
Republicans however have supported Vance over his comments, claiming the criticism is driven by Democrats with an agenda.
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