Since the announcement of Tim Walz as her running mate, the Harris campaign and its supporters have touted him as a “guy’s guy,” and salt of the earth midwesterner, with the hopes that his presence could offset some anxieties heartland voters had about Kamala Harris as a California liberal. They constantly spotlighted his experience coaching a high school football team, and shared photos of him hunting. Shortly after he was announced as the Democratic vice presidential nominee, the campaign released a camo hat.
Fox News reports:
The Harris campaign has leaned heavily into Walz’s Midwestern roots in an effort to appeal to voters in critical Rust Belt swing states, with the Minnesota governor often touting his gun owner status and history as a hunter while calling for “common sense” gun legislation.
But Walz is having a difficult time living up to what his campaign needs him to be.
As the Harris-Walz campaign struggles with male support, Tim Walz invited the press to an annual pheasant hunt in what many described as a desperate public relations stunt.
The Daily Caller reports:
Walz took part in the annual Governor’s Pheasant Hunting Opener near Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, Saturday, to kick off the season for the upland game bird, the Associated Press reported. Video posted to social media shows Walz struggling to load the shotgun while talking to reporters.
Social media held nothing back, insisting that Walz was struggling loading his shotgun not because of a faulty or difficult firearm, but because like many other aspects of his life, he had exaggerated or outright fabricated credentials for political gain, and that he was a novice hunter instead of the expert veteran he’d positioned himself as.
Fox News continues:
“Tim Walz claims that he’s a lifelong bird hunter, but this clearly proves he has no idea how to load or charge a semi automatic shotgun,” said conservative commentator John Cardillo. “I shoot A LOT of sporting clays with both semi-autos but mostly over-unders. He’s a first timer right here.”
“After Watching Tim Walz trying to handle a shotgun, I officially retract any criticism from him avoiding combat zones,” added conservative commentator Jason Robertson, alluding to accusations of “Stolen Valor” Walz faced earlier in the campaign. “He is a HERO. He is so bad with a weapon that he saved American Lives skipping the War Zone.”
Walz came under fire shortly after his vice presidential candidacy for insinuating that he served in combat carrying “weapons of war” despite being stationed in Italy and claiming a higher rank than he’d earned.
This happened shortly after a “Men for Harris” ad meant to depict farmers, mechanics, and other traditionally masculine men voicing their support of the Democratic ticket backfired completely. The ad’s script had actors talk about how they weren’t afraid to rebuild carburetors, they weren’t afraid of bears, and they weren’t afraid of women in power. It wasn’t officially associated with the campaign, but only highlighted the Party’s growing problem with male voters and how out of touch they are with the demographic.
Following the DNC in Chicago, CNN’s Dana Bash drew a comparison to the two conventions, saying, “2016 and now is very different campaigns, very different female candidates but they are doing so in trying to put forward a male figure, Tim Walz being one of them, Doug Emhoff last night who can speak to men out there who might not be the sort of testosterone laden, gun-toting kind of guy who wants to listen to Hulk Hogan and the kind of players that came out at the RNC.”
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