Vice Presidential candidates JD Vance and Tim Walz agreed that schools need to be safer for children before the Democrat made a stunning admission.
‘I got a 17-year-old and he witnessed a shooting at a community center playing volleyball,’ the Minnesota governor said recounting how his son Gus, 17, witnessed a tragedy himself. ‘Those things don’t leave you.’
Vance was shocked by the story and immediately offered his condolences.
‘I didn’t know your 17-year-old witnessed a shooting. I’m sorry about that. Christ have mercy. It is awful,’ the Republican said.
The rare moment of bipartisan agreement came just over an hour into the vice presidential debate where the two had been sparing with each other.
Then just moments later while Walz was advocating for gun control reforms he made a bizarre disclosure: ‘I’ve become friends with school shooters.’
Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Governor Tim Walz gestures as he speaks during a debate with Republican vice presidential nominee U.S. Senator JD Vance. During the debate Walz claimed: ‘I’ve become friends with school shooters’
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The admission was in response to a question regarding why Walz had changed positions and now backs an assault weapons ban.
He also said he met with the parents of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting as well.
Still, It is unclear what point exactly he was trying to make.
The strange claim earned him scorn of victims immediately.
‘My daughter was killed in the Parkland school shooting. It’s absolutely abhorrent that Tim Walz has befriended school shooters. Disqualifying,’ tweeted Andrew Pollack, whose daughter was murdered in the Parkland school shooting.
And attention of the ex-president.
‘Did tampon Tim just say he has ‘become friends with school shooters?’ Trump wrote on his Truth Social app.
‘He isn’t even qualified to be governor, let alone Vice President. Walz and Kamala do not have what it takes!’
Gus Walz, son of Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, cries during the Democratic National Convention Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago, as his mother Gwen Walz watches
It is unclear why Walz claimed to be friends with shooters
Though Vance and Walz did find common ground on securing schools.
‘I don’t want my kids to go to school in a school that feels unsafe … we have to increase security in our schools,’ Vance said.
‘I think that Governor Walz and I actually probably agree that we need to do better on this. The question is just how we actually do it.’
‘We have to make the doors lock better. We have to make the doors stronger. We’ve got to make the windows stronger, and of course, we’ve got to increase school resource officers, because the idea that we can magically wave a wand and take guns out of the hands of bad guys, it just doesn’t fit with recent experience. So we’ve got to make our schools safer.’
