Walz says he 'misspoke' after unearthed newspaper reports undercut claim he was in Hong Kong during Tiananmen Square protests

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is interviewed by CNN’s Dana Bash in Savannah, Georgia, on Aug. 29. (Will Lanzoni/CNN via CNN Newsource)

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said on Tuesday he “misspoke” when he previously said he’d visited Hong Kong in the spring of 1989 during protests in China’s Tiananmen Square but insisted he “was in Hong Kong and China” during the pro-democracy protests.

His comments during Tuesday night’s vice-presidential debate followed the unearthing of reports that contradict previous claims he made about his travel to China, including a claim that the Democratic vice-presidential nominee was in Hong Kong preparing for a teaching position in 1989 during the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests that ended in hundreds of protesters killed by the Chinese government.

“My community knows who I am. They saw where I was at,” Walz said during the debate. “Look, I will be the first to tell you, I have poured my heart into my community. I’ve tried to do the best I can, but I’ve not been perfect, and I’m a knucklehead at times, but it’s always been about that. Those same people elected me to Congress for 12 years.”

When pressed by CBS News’ moderators specifically about the discrepancy between his past comments and the media reports on his travel, Walz first said he “misspoke” on this.

“All I said on this was, I got there that summer and misspoke on this, so I will just – that’s what I’ve said,” he said, before adding, “I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protests went in. And from that, I learned a lot of what needed to be in, in governance,” he said.

Walz regularly organized and chaperoned trips to China during his time as a teacher prior to entering politics.

He previously said he visited Hong Kong in “May of ’89,” weeks before the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing. During a 2014 hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China honoring the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, Walz, then a Minnesota congressman, appeared to recall specific details of his trip to the region at that time.

“As a young man, I was just going to teach high school in Foshan in Guangdong, and was in Hong Kong in May of ’89,” he said. “And as the events were unfolding, several of us went in. And I still remember the train station in Hong Kong.”

“The opportunity to be in a Chinese high school at that critical time seemed to me to be really important. And it was a very interesting summer to say the least. Because if you recall, as we moved in that summer and further on and the news blackouts and things that went on, you certainly can’t black out news from people if they want to get it,” he continued.

Walz further claimed in a June 2019 radio interview that he was in Hong Kong on June 4, 1989 – the day of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

“I was in Hong Kong on June 4, 1989, when, of course, Tiananmen Square happened. And I was in China after that. It was very strange ‘cause, of course, all outside transmissions were, were blocked – Voice of America – and, of course, there was no, no phones or email or anything. So I was kind of out of touch. It took me a month to know the Berlin Wall had fallen when I was living there,” he said.

During a 2009 hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China to commemorate the Tiananmen Square protests, Walz claimed that he was in Hong Kong at the time, preparing to go teach in China.

“Twenty years ago today, I was in Hong Kong preparing to go to Foshan to teach at Foshan No. 1 Middle School,” he said. “To watch what happened at the end of the day on June 4 was something that many of us will never forget, we pledge to never forget, and bearing witness and accurate telling of history is absolutely crucial for any nation to move forward.”

Walz’s claims that he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests have been repeated in media reports. But contemporaneous newspaper reports first resurfaced by the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative news outlet, place Walz in Nebraska around that time. An issue of the Alliance Times-Herald dated May 16, 1989, features a photo of Walz touring a Nebraska National Guard storeroom. In the photo’s caption, the paper notes that Walz “will take over the job” of staffing the storeroom from a retiring guardsman and “will be moving to Alliance,” Nebraska. A separate newspaper article about Walz’s planned trip to China published by a Nebraska-based outlet in April 1989 reported that he planned to travel to China in early August of that year.

When asked by CNN if Walz was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests, the Harris campaign was unable to provide evidence to substantiate Walz’s claim.

A source close to Walz told CNN that “the point Gov. Walz is making when he discusses this is that some folks in the World Teach program discussed dropping out after Tiananmen Square, but he continued on with the program because he believed it was important for the Chinese people to learn about American democracy and American history.”

The contradiction was first reported by Minnesota Public Radio News and APM Reports.

Walz also appears to have exaggerated the number of times he’s traveled to China. In a 2016 interview, he said he’s visited China “about 30 times.” In another meeting of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, in 2016, Walz claimed to have visited Hong Kong “dozens and dozens and dozens of times.”

When asked for clarification on how many times Walz traveled to China, a Harris campaign spokesperson told CNN the number of trips Walz took to China is “likely closer to 15.”

China has long held a significant place in Walz’s life since he first traveled to the country in 1989. Walz and his wife, Gwen Walz, were married on June 4, 1994 – the fifth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre and spent their honeymoon leading students in an educational trip to China, something Walz did regularly during his time as a teacher before joining Congress. Ahead of their wedding, Gwen Walz told the Nebraska-based Star-Herald newspaper that they planned to get married on the Tiananmen Square massacre anniversary because “he wanted to have a date he’ll always remember.”

Since joining the Harris campaign, Walz has not spoken at length about China or his history of travel to the country.

Republicans in recent days have circled Walz’s ties to China as a target for further scrutiny. Jason Miller, a senior advisor to Donald Trump’s campaign, indicated Monday that he expects Vance to attack Walz for his history of trips to China.

“Tiananmen Tim! Funny they’re changing this now – we were planning on calling him out for this at the debate tomorrow night! Anything else you want to fess up to, Tim???,” Miller said in a social media post in response to clarification offered by the Harris campaign about Walz’s trips to China.

Congressional Republicans have joined the Trump campaign in calling into question Walz’s ties to China. House Oversight Chairman James Comer subpoenaed Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Monday for documents related to Walz as part of allegations made by “whistleblower disclosures” provided to the committee that Walz has ties to the Chinese Communist Party. The subpoena is the latest step by House Republicans to spotlight Walz’s ties to China through a probe that began in August shortly after he joined the Democratic ticket.

The inconsistencies around Walz’s travel to China and Hong Kong mark the latest instance in which the governor’s past comments have been revealed to be inaccurate since he became the Democratic vice presidential nominee. In August, a Harris campaign spokesperson said Walz “misspoke” in a 2018 video in which he said he handled assault weapons “in war.”

Later that month, Gwen Walz clarified that the couple had used a fertility treatment other than in vitro fertilization to conceive after her husband had suggested they had used IVF.

This story and headline have been updated with Walz’s remarks during Tuesday night’s debate.