Much like Vice President and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris went on ABC’s “The View” and melted down when tossed a softball question, Minnesota Governor and 2024 Kamala Harris running mate Tim Walz went on The View and was tossed softballs. Instead of nailing home runs, however, Walz had a meltdown.
Particularly, Walz lost it when pressed over criticism he faced regarding his supposedly pro-hunting bona fides when he went pheasant shooting with an expensive semi-automatic shotgun. Some criticized the choice as unsporting, but most online hammered Walz for a video showing him struggling to unload the tube magazine. In the clip that emerged, Walz, hunched awkwardly over the firearm, says, “It never fits quite right.”
So, when he appeared on “The View” on Monday the 21st of October, shortly after the incident, co-host Joy Behar asked Walz if his pheasant hunting is enough to convince pro-gun Americans that there is a middle-ground on the firearm issue given how much criticism he has faced for the shotgun clip.
She asked, “Both you and Vice President [Kamala] Harris have leaned into your gun ownership. She’s got a Glock and she says she’s not afraid to use it on intruders. You’re out hunting pheasants. Is that enough to convince people there’s a middle ground on this issue? Because right now right-wingers are coming after you for how you handle your shotgun.”
Walz, evidently not finding the embarrassing clip of his struggling to perform basic functions with the firearm he claims to be so proficient with, snapped back that he has “trophies” to prove that he is better at shooting than those criticizing him. He said, “Well, I can shoot better than all of them. I got the trophies to prove it.”
Continuing, Walz insisted that he has long been a hunter and that it was a “simpler” time in which he grew up, saying, “I’m a veteran, I am a hunter. I grew up in a small town of 400 people and this was a simpler time, a different time, we took our shotguns in our cars and after football practice we went out hunting. I’ve been doing this my whole life.”
He then insisted that ownership of AR-15 style rifles is only “cosplay,” or dressing up and pretending, and that such weapons need to be taken off “our streets.” He said, “These are folks that cosplay with the guns — there is no reason we need assault weapons on our streets or in our schools. We are both gun owners — first time maybe on the Democratic ticket in modern times.”
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He added, rambling about guns and limitations, “We understand the Second Amendment and lawful gun owners, folks who have been doing this for 50 years like I have, we understand that there’s not a single thing that we’re proposing that takes away your right to be able to own that firearm, to be able to have it in your possession. But it does go a long ways to making sure that folks who shouldn’t have it, don’t have it.”
Watch him here:
And watch him struggle with the shotgun here: