Fact Check: No, Jeff Walz Didn't Say Said His Brother, Tim, Was Neighborhood Bully

Claim:

Jeff Walz said his brother, vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, was the neighborhood bully.

Rating:

Labeled Satire ( About this rating? )

A rumor that Jeffrey Walz, the brother of Democratic vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, said that Tim Walz was a bully was circulating online at the end of September 2024, as the presidential race heated up. A post on the America's Last Line of Defense Facebook page claimed as much:

Jeff Walz says his brother Tim was the neighborhood bully: "He picked on everyone."

(Facebook/America's Last Line of Defense)

Variations of the rumor had been spreading since earlier that month on X and another Facebook page , as well.

Some readers seemed to interpret the post as a factual recounting of real-life events. However, there was no evidence that this was the case.

The pinned comment below the Facebook post linked to an article on the Dunning-Kruger Times:

Jeff Walz Breaks His Silence: "My Brother Was the Neighborhood Bully"

Jeff Walz, the brother of Vice-Presidential candidate Tim Walz, has opened up about his brother's brutal nature. "Tim was a bully," said the brother, according to our source, "Nobody liked him."

Unfortunately, we weren't able to verify the source or the quote, so we sent ALLOD Journalisticator Tara Newhole to investigate.

Furthermore, the Facebook page is part of America's Last Line of Defense (ALLOD) — a network of websites and social media accounts that also describes its output as "satirical." The Dunning-Kruger Times' " About Us " page describes its content as follows:

Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined. Any similarities between this site's pure fantasy and actual people, places, and events are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and satirical.

ALLOD and its affiliates have a history of making up stories calculated to enrage readers for social media engagement, sometimes relying on artificial-intelligence software to do its storytelling.

The fictional story spread as news stories revealed the Walz brothers had been estranged for eight years and that Jeffrey Walz had considered endorsing former President Donald Trump in the 2024 election.

Snopes has addressed other satirical claims from ALLOD in the past, including the assertion that singer Taylor Swift had lost 30 million followers after endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential contest, and a rumor that the U.S. football team Minnesota Vikings had denounced Walz' values .

For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources that call their output humorous or satirical.