Walz misleadingly claims to have been in Hong Kong during period tied to Tiananmen Square massacre

WASHINGTON (AP) — Multiple news reports indicate that Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz misleadingly claimed he was in Hong Kong during the turbulence surrounding the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, part of a broader pattern of inaccuracies that Republicans hope to exploit.

On Tuesday, CNN posted a 2019 radio interview in which Walz stated he was in Hong Kong on the day of the massacre, when publicly available evidence suggests he was not. The Associated Press contacted the Harris-Walz presidential campaign regarding the misrepresentations and did not receive a response.

After a seven-week demonstration in Beijing led by pro-democracy students, China’s military fired heavily on the group on June 4, 1989, and left at least 500 people dead.

Minnesota Public Radio reported Monday that publicly available accounts contradict a 2014 statement made by Walz, then a member of the U.S. House, during a hearing that commemorated the 25th anniversary of the massacre. Walz suggested that he was in the then-British colony of Hong Kong in May 1989, but he appears to have been in Nebraska. Public records suggest he left for Hong Kong and China in August of that year.

The vice presidential candidate also has made statements in which he misrepresented the type of infertility treatment received by his family, and there have been conflicting accounts of his 1995 arrest for drunk driving and misleading information about his rank in the National Guard. Mr. Walz and his campaign have also given different versions of the story of his 1995 arrest for drunken driving.

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