‘I got sucked in’: Gov. Walz regrets focus on false claim of Springfield Haitians eating pets in campaign

FILE - Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz arrives to speak at a campaign rally, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

FILE - Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz arrives to speak at a campaign rally, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said on a podcast this week that one of his regrets from last year’s presidential campaign was getting “sucked into” the false claim that Haitians were eating pets in Springfield.

Walz was on the Fast Politics with Molly Jong-Fast podcast to talk about the 2024 election.

“I will kick myself that I got sucked in. I betcha spent three or four days, maybe longer, not clowning but just hammering them over the eating dogs and cats because it was so ridiculous and I took that hook, line and sinker,” he said.

“We were talking about immigration at a critical part of the campaign and it was hurtful and it pissed me off and I was standing there to defend people and it didn’t do a damn bit of good electorally.”

The nonprofit journalism fact-checking site Politifact.com would rate the false claim from President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were eating pets the “Lie of the Year.”

But Trump handily defeated Walz — the running mate of former Vice President Kamala Harris — in the election, especially in Ohio where Trump carried the state by the widest margin of any presidential candidate in 40 years.

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