Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently criticized Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, whom Vice President Kamala Harris selected as her running mate for her campaign. During a press conference earlier this week, the Republican governor claimed that Walz has made recent claims that are contrary to his actions.
DeSantis called out actions from Walz, such as his handling of the pandemic. “As Florida governor, I learn a lot about other states because when people leave those states, they tell me why they left those states,” he said. “I remember during COVID, the absolute frustration that people had moving from Minnesota because of how they were being treated.”
The governor further blasted the “draconian” COVID restrictions, which seem to contradict his current rhetoric toward being neighborly. “This is a guy who’s out there with a line in his stump speech saying, ‘Our neighbors can do what they want, mind your own damn business,’” he continued. “Why did you set up a snitch hotline for neighbors to report on their neighbors for violating your draconian COVID restrictions? That’s not minding your own damn business! That’s government overreach.”
DeSantis continued sounding off on Walz, “And he’ll say, ‘Make your own healthcare choices.’ That’s fine, great. Then why did he impose a mandate to take an experimental MRNA Covid shot on your people? He did that for all state employees. I don’t think it was constitutional, it certainly wasn’t giving them an option for something that just came on the market. Are you kidding me? This is absolutely ridiculous. And on and on it goes about the policies that were done that have given them a net decrease in population.”
Governor Walz has also been criticized by former President Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, particularly on allegations of stolen valor. Vance also rebuked a narrative that he is a member of the elite, ignoring his humble beginnings. “The fact that Tim Walz wants to turn it into a bad thing, that I actually worked myself through college, through law school, and made something myself — to me, that’s the American dream — and if Tim Walz wants to insult it, I think that’s frankly pretty bizarre,” he said.
“What really bothers me about Tim Walz — it’s not even the positions that he’s taken, though certainly he has been a far-left radical,” Vance said. “When the United States of America asked me to go to Iraq, to serve my country, I did it. I did what they asked me to do, and I did it honorably. And I’m very proud of that service. When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did? He dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him.”
Continuing to call out Walz on the accusations of quitting the National Guard to avoid deployment, he said, “He was making a point about gun control. He said we shouldn’t allow weapons ‘that I used in war’ to be on America’s streets. Well, I wonder, Tim Walz, when were you ever in war? When was this? What was this weapon that you carried into war, given that you abandoned your unit right before they went to Iraq? And he has not spent a day in a combat zone.”
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Watch DeSantis below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.