Gov. Tim Walz went viral for all the wrong reasons during a stopover at the Minnesota State Fair Sunday, appearing to duck a reporter who asked him about the grim news that six Israeli hostages had been executed by Hamas in Gaza.
In the video, which has been widely shared and viewed millions of times online, Walz, clutching a vanilla milkshake, is seen speaking to a small crowd of fairgoers and reporters.
An unidentified woman’s voice inquires off camera, “What’s your reaction to the six hostages being found in Gaza?”
At that very moment, Walz’s attention is drawn to an approaching aide holding a smartphone. Walz tells the man, “alright,” and tells the cheering crowd “thanks, everybody!” as he bids them farewell with a friendly wave without addressing the question.
Although it’s not certain whether Walz heard the question, the clip drew sharp criticism from conservatives online, who seized on the moment to paint the vice presidential candidate as having run away from a simple question about a horrible tragedy.
“Tim Walz was asked his reaction to the 6 executed hostages being found in Gaza, including one American citizen. You know what he said? Nothing – he ran away. Which is exactly what he did when his troops were deployed to Iraq. This man is a Grade A coward,” right-wing commentator Rogan O’Handley wrote on X in a post that amassed more than 1.5 million views.
“What a spineless disgraceful man. Tells you all you need to know,” one commenter wrote in response.
Walz seemed to acknowledge the controversy hours later when he made a post on X expressing sorrow for the victims’ families and condemning Hamas.
“The anguish of losing a child is something no family should have to endure. Gwen and I send our deepest condolences to the Goldberg-Polin family, after Hamas’ murder of their son Hersh,” he wrote in the post viewed over 2 million times.
“Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization — and we condemn their continued atrocities against both Americans and Israelis in the strongest possible terms.”
But social media users could sniff an attempt at damage control, and bombarded the comments to his post with clips of the interaction and pointed accusations of insincerity.
“Why did you need time to prepare such an easy response? It doesn’t require deep thinking. Shame on you,” one woman wrote in response.
Walz’s appearance at the Minnesota State Fair came after Israel Defense Forces found six Israeli hostages executed during a rescue operation in the tunnels below Gaza’s Rafah.
Among the bodies recovered was Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who had been held by Hamas terrorists since Oct. 7, when war broke out between Israel and Hamas.
