At the start of the final week of August 2024, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's vice-presidential campaign found itself the subject of a new conspiracy theory. The rumor did not involve misleading claims of Walz being " abusive " toward his son, signing a law to stock tampons in boy's bathrooms or having " recruited young boys" into a high school's Gay-Straight Alliance organization. Rather, this new rumor involved Walz and his family's dog: a black Labrador mix named Scout.
The rumor began on Aug. 26 — National Dog Day — when X user and Honeyhive Strategies president Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) posted ( archived ), " Yes, this is Tim Walz tweeting about his dog Scout. Only problem is that these are two completely different dogs." The post displayed two of Walz's posts from his X account and implied Walz claimed two different dogs represented Scout.
In the first post ( archived ), dated June 15, 2022, Walz posed with Scout. The second post ( archived ) displayed the date Oct. 19, 2022, and showed Walz kneeling down near the ground to pet a different dog wearing a light blue harness. That second post featured the caption, "Couldn't think of a better way to spend a beautiful fall day than at the dog park. I know Scout enjoyed it."
Turning Point USA founder and president Charlie Kirk reposted ( archived ) Grage's post, adding, "Tim Walz is an all-time legendary liar." Users on X noted that former University of Kentucky swimmer and political activist Riley Gaines also apparently promoted the conspiracy theory.
At around the same time these users posted about the rumor, the second post on Walz's account — the one showing him petting a different dog — disappeared. According to an archived page capture , that post remained active until sometime after 9:24 a.m. EDT Aug. 26. An attempt to load the post from its original link displayed the message, "Sorry, that post has been deleted."
A short time later, at 10:12 a.m. EDT, Grage posted ( archived ), "JUST IN: Tim Walz just deleted this tweet. Where is Scout?"
However, soon after, Kirk and Gaines both deleted their posts. The truth of this rumor was the second post simply showed Walz petting another person's dog at a dog park. After all, a video on Walz's Instagram account appeared to show him wearing the same outfit in the same setting from the deleted post. In the video, Walz could be seen petting Scout, with the other dog wearing its light blue harness roaming nearby.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CkBMwZGprB2/
In other words, Walz simply appeared in a photo petting another dog at a dog park, with his own dog, Scout, outside of the frame of the picture. One user on X posted ( archived ), "It took me exactly 45 seconds to go to @Tim_Walz's Instagram page and see this is a video of his dog Scout playing with another dog at the dog park."
We did not notice any corrections posted on Kirk's or Gaines' accounts but will update this story if we receive more details. Kirk did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Meanwhile, another user critically responding to Kirk, said, " The faux outrage by this picture really shows how much of an out of touch elitist that you are. I know it would beneath you to go to a dog park, so it's probably hard for you to understand how they work."
This user responded to Kirk's post before he deleted it.
We reached out to the Harris-Walz campaign to ask about this rumor, including inquiring about why someone removed the second post showing Walz petting another person's dog. We received an emailed response from Teddy Tschann , the national press secretary for Walz's vice presidential campaign, and will update our story if he provides any further details.
Sources:
Callaghan, Peter. "Who's Running Minnesota While Tim Walz Campaigns with Harris?" MinnPost , 20 Aug. 2024, http://www.minnpost.com/state-government/2024/08/wheres-walz-not-in-st-paul-often-since-joining-the-kamala-harris-presidential-ticket/ .
"Meet Minnesota's New First Dog: Scout." Office of Governor Tim Walz & Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan , 5 Sept. 2019, https://mn.gov/governor/newsroom/press-releases/?id=1055-401951 .
Moye, David. "GOP Strategist Brutally Mocked For Easily Debunked Tim Walz Dog Claim." Yahoo News via HuffPost , 26 Aug. 2024, https://uk.news.yahoo.com/gop-strategist-brutally-mocked-easily-185414206.html .
@timwalz. "A Perfect Start to a Day Looks Like…." Instagram , 22 Oct. 2022, https://www.instagram.com/p/CkBMwZGprB2/ .
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