Tim Walz’s 2022 gubernatorial opponent blasts VP pick as ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’ — and has advice for JD Vance

The doctor who ran against Democratic vice president pick Tim Walz in the Minnesota gubernatorial race two years ago warned voters that the white-haired National Guard veteran is a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” – and even had some advice for JD Vance.

“He comes across as everyone’s favorite uncle and jovial but the fact is he can be a pitbull when he needs to be,” Dr. Scott Jensen told The Post of Walz, who was tapped this week as Kamala Harris’ running mate for the November presidential election.

Jensen, a Republican and COVID-19 skeptic, was endorsed by Donald Trump when he vied to unseat Walz during the heated 2022 race.

He described his former opponent as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” who had no problem going back on his word to advance his political agenda.

Walz, 60, boasted that he “can’t wait” to debate Donald Trump’s VP pick, Ohio Sen. JD Vance – but Jensen warned that the face-off may never even happen.

“My advice to JD Vance is I wouldn’t want to make a hotel reservation and make sure it’s not refundable,” Jensen quipped.

“If it’s politically strategic, I think he’ll do it regardless of what he told people he will do,” he added of the possibility that Walz could decide not to debate his opponent in the end.

“That’s just the way he does politics.”

Jensen, 69, got a sense of Walz’s slippery tendencies in the run-up to Election Day in 2022, he said.

In the months before the election, Walz supposedly told the press “‘we’ll have more debates, absolutely,’” Jensen recalled.

The pair ultimately faced off in three debates but opponents “never had any statewide televised debate,” Jensen lamented.

“We had a localized [debate]….that was not allowed to be televised here in the two major cities of Minnesota, Minneapolis and St. Paul,” he claimed.

“He basically went back on his word.”

The Oct. 18, 2022 televised debate was filmed at a TV station in Rochester, according to MPR News.

The showdown was aired live on Gray Television studios outside the Twin Cities — and was only streamed online throughout the state, the outlet said.

The Republican also said Walz has a reputation within his adopted home state of being able to emerge from scandal or negativity curiously unscathed.

“In Minnesota, I think an awful lot of people feel like anything he does wrong just never sticks,” the doctor said.

“He dilly-dallies around in terms of calling the National Guard in helping out the Twin Cities. In the end, it’s Mayor Frey’s fault because he didn’t fill out the correct paperwork or it’s the troops themselves,” he said, referring to the controversy over when and how Walz called in the National Guard during the protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

“When he closed down schools in many areas for more than a year during COVID and schools didn’t perform as well, it wasn’t his fault. It was the students’ fault,” Jensen added.

“He has an ability to slide out from underneath difficult situations. He’s very skilled at that.”

Jensen is just the latest to criticize Walz in the wake of his debut as Harris’ would-be veep.

Over the past few days, the governor has come under fire for his military record – including claims that he left his National Guard unit in the lurch on the brink of deployment – and renewed criticism over his handling of the destructive 2020 protests.

JD Vance, a Marine Corps veteran, jumped into the fray when he accused Walz of “stolen valor” for some of his comments about his military experience.

Harris was asked about the barrage of detractors on Thursday.

“Listen, I praise anyone who has presented themselves to serve our country. And I think that we all should,” Harris told reporters.

Harris and Walz are expected to appear together Friday night for a rally at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona – the latest stop on their whirlwind tour of battleground states in the wake of their ticket debut in Philadelphia Tuesday night.

The Trump campaign, meanwhile, batted down Walz’s viral comments that the Republican Party was “weird” as a “smokescreen.”

“There’s so much weirdness with just their obsession with tearing down so much of the cultural norms. It’s just, it’s a smokescreen. They’re trying to, they said they’re trying to ‘David Copperfield’ their way out of some really, really terrible policies,” a Trump official told The Post in West Palm Beach on Wednesday.