'I'm a Knucklehead at Times': Walz Admits He Wasn't in Hong Kong During the Tiananmen Square Massacre

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D.) admitted that he wasn’t in Hong Kong during the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, saying he was a "knucklehead" who "misspoke" when he repeated the false claim for years.

"I've tried to do the best I can, but I've not been perfect, and I'm a knucklehead at times," said Walz when asked about the false biographical claim during the vice presidential debate on Tuesday. "I got [to Hong Kong] that summer, and I misspoke on this."

Yet Walz still insisted that he "was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protests and from that I learned a lot"—an assertion that contradicts records showing Walz didn’t travel to Asia until months after the Chinese government crushed the protests.

Walz’s comments come after numerous media outlets, including the Washington Free Beacon, reported that 1989 newspaper records showed Walz was in Nebraska at the time of the Chinese government crackdown.

The Minnesota governor has repeatedly claimed he was in Hong Kong during the student protests that culminated in the Tiananmen Square massacre on June 4. But contemporaneous newspaper articles reviewed by the Free Beacon indicate he didn’t travel to Hong Kong and China until months later. The discrepancy was first reported in a profile on Walz by Minnesota Public Radio on Monday.

When asked about the conflicting reports by a debate moderator, Walz launched into a two-minute rambling response about bike riding, Donald Trump, and his record in Congress.

"I grew up in a small, rural, Nebraska town of 400," Walz said. "You rode your bike with your buddies ‘til the street lights came on … I joined the National Guard at 17, worked on a family farm, and then I used the GI Bill to become a teacher, passionate, a young teacher."

He said he visited China as a student teacher and later founded a travel company to "take young people there."

"We would take basketball teams, we would take baseball teams, we would take dancers, and we would go back and forth to China," he said. "This is about trying to understand the world. It's about trying to do the best you can for your community, and then it's putting yourself out there and letting your folks understand," he said.

Walz eventually said he "misspoke" when pressed again about the discrepancy. The Minnesota governor has given detailed descriptions of his supposed experience in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square massacre.

He said during a congressional hearing in 2014 that he "was in Hong Kong in May of '89" during student demonstrations.

"And as the events were unfolding, several of us went in. And I still remember the train station in Hong Kong," Walz said.

He also claimed in a 2019 radio interview, first reported by CNN on Tuesday, that he "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."

Walz made similar comments during a 2009 congressional hearing commemorating the Tiananmen Square protests, CNN reported.

"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."

Contemporaneous news reports show Walz touring a National Guard storeroom in Alliance, Nebraska, in May 1989. They indicate that Walz did not leave the United States until August of that year, at least two months after the student protests ended with the Tiananmen Square massacre.

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