Walls says he ‘misspoken’ following the discovery of newspaper reports claiming he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests.

CNN
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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walls said Tuesday he “misspoke” when he said he 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 reports that contradicted previous claims he had traveled to China during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, including that the Democratic vice presidential candidate was preparing for a teaching position in Hong Kong. – Democracy protests in which hundreds of protesters were killed by the Chinese government.

“My community knows who I am. They saw where I was,” Walls said during the debate. “Look, I’ll be the first to tell you, I’ve poured my heart into my community. I tried my best, but I’m not perfect, and sometimes I’m a jerk, but that’s always about it. The same people elected me to Congress for 12 years.

When pressed by CBS News moderators specifically about the discrepancy between his past comments and media reports about his trip, Walls initially said he “misspoke” about it.

“What I said about it was, I came over there that summer and talked about it badly, so I would — that’s what I said,” he said. Learned,” he said.

Walls regularly organized trips to China during his time as a teacher before entering politics.

He previously said he visited Hong Kong “in May of ’89” a few weeks before the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing. Once upon a time 2014 Congressional-Executive Committee hearing on China To mark the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, Walls, then a Minnesota congressman, recalled specific details of his trip to the area at the time.

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

“The opportunity to study in a Chinese high school seemed very important to me at that critical time. And it was a very interesting summer to say the least. Because even when we moved on that summer, and you remember the news blackout and the things that happened, you certainly can’t hide the news if people want to get it,” he continued.

Walls added June 2019 Radio Interview 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, and of course, Tiananmen Square happened. And then I was in China. It was very strange. ‘Of course, all outside communications were blocked – VOA – and, of course, there were no phones or e-mail or anything. So I was out of touch. “It took me a month to learn that the Berlin Wall had come down while I was living there,” he said.

Once upon a time 2009 Congressional-Executive Committee hearing on China Recalling the Tiananmen Square protests, Walls said he was in Hong Kong at the time and was willing to teach in China.

“Twenty years ago today, I was preparing to go to Foshan to teach at Foshan No. 1 Middle School in Hong Kong,” he said. “Seeing what ultimately happened on June 4th is something many of us will never forget, and we promise never to forget, and witnessing history and telling it accurately is absolutely critical to any nation moving forward.”

Walls’ claim that he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests has been repeated in media reports. But contemporaneous newspaper reports were first resurfaced by the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative news outlet, at the time Walls was in Nebraska. The May 16, 1989 issue of the Alliance Times-Herald featured a photograph of Walls touring a Nebraska National Guard storeroom. In the photo’s caption, the paper notes that Walls will “take over the job” of staffing the storeroom from the retiring janitor and move to “Alliance.” A separate newspaper article about Walls’ planned trip to China, published by a Nebraska-based outlet in April 1989, said he planned to travel to China in early August of that year.

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

A source close to Walls told CNN, “What Gov. Walls is referring to when he discusses this is that after Tiananmen Square, some people in the World Educating Program discussed leaving, but he went ahead with it because he believed it was important. The Chinese people wanted American democracy and the American Learn about history.

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

Walls seems to have exaggerated the number of times he traveled to China. In 2016 interviewHe said he had visited China “about 30 times”. In Another meeting of the Congressional-Executive Committee on China in 2016, Walls said he had visited Hong Kong “dozens and dozens and dozens of times.”

When asked about the number of trips to China, a Harris campaign spokesman told CNN that the number of trips that Walls has made to China is “closer to 15.”

China has long held a significant place in Walls’ life since he first visited the country in 1989. Walls and his wife, Gwen Walls, married on June 4, 1994—the fifth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre—and spent their honeymoon at the Student Front. An academic trip to China, something Walls did regularly during his tenure as a teacher before joining Congress. Before their wedding, Gwen Walls said The Star-Herald is a Nebraska-based newspaper They planned to marry on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre because “he wanted a date that he would always remember.”

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

In recent days, Republicans have targeted Walls’ ties to China for further scrutiny. Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Donald Trump’s campaign, noted on Monday that he expected Vance to attack Walls over his history of trips to China.

“Tiananmen Tim! Funny they’re changing this now – we were planning to call him out on this in tomorrow night’s debate! You want to do something else, Tim???,” Miller He said in a social media post In response to a clarification provided by the Harris campaign about Walls’ China trips.

Congressional Republicans have joined the Trump campaign in questioning Wallace’s ties to China. House Oversight Chairman James Comer asked Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Monday for documents on Walls that were part of allegations made by “whistleblower disclosures” provided to the committee about Walls’ ties to the Chinese Communist Party. The subpoena is the latest move by House Republicans to shed light on Walls’ ties to China through an investigation that began in August shortly after he joined the Democratic Party.

The inconsistencies in Walls’ travel to China and Hong Kong mark the latest instance of the governor’s past comments being revealed as inaccurate since he became the Democratic vice presidential nominee. In August, a Harris campaign spokeswoman said Walls had “misspoke” in a 2018 video in which he claimed to have wielded assault weapons “in battle.”

Later that month, Gwen Walls clarified that she had used fertility treatments other than in vitro fertilization to conceive after her husband suggested they used IVF.

Correction: This story and headline have been updated to accurately reflect Tim Walls’ past claims about his 1989 trip to Asia. He said he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests.

This story and headline were updated with Walls’ comments during Tuesday night’s debate.