Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has spoken out several times to remind Americans that he was once an assistant high school football coach since being selected as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate.
However, during this vice presidential debate Tuesday night, he gave everyone details about another game after practice while working at Mankato West High School.
during a section on gun control According to the policies, Walz claimed that when he worked as a football coach at Mankato West, he kept a shotgun in his car so he could hunt pheasants after practice.
“I’m of that age when I had my gun in my car so I could go pheasant hunting after football practice,” Walz said.
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Governor Tim Walz speaks to supporters at the Grand Rapids Public Museum on September 12. (Detroit Free Press/Adam Vander Kooy/via USA TODAY Network Images)
The statement came when Walz was asked if he would support a ban on assault weapons after previously opposing such a measure. Walz, a former NRA associate, said his stance on gun control changed after meeting the parents of Sandy Hook victims and befriending school shooters.
“Yeah, I sat in that office with those Sandy Hook parents. I’ve been friends with school shooters. I’ve seen it. Look, NRA, I was an NRA guy for a long time. They used to teach gun safety, Walz said.
Walz’s hobby of hunting pheasants is something he has talked about and bragged about in the past. In July, Walz bragged during an interview on “Anderson Cooper 360” that his pheasant-shooting skills were better than Vance’s.
Walz said, “J.D. Vance’s a stick talking about guns. I guarantee you he can’t shoot pheasants like I can.”
Walz is one of the main organizers of his state’s governor’s pheasant hunt opener. He celebrated the 2023 event last October, when he declared himself a lifelong pheasant hunter.
“As a lifelong hunter and Pheasants Forever member, the Pheasant Opener is one of my favorite times of year,” he said a statement,
Pheasant hunting is one of the most popular bird-hunting sports and is especially popular in south central South Dakota, which borders Walz’s state of Minnesota and is known as the “Pheasant Capital of the World”.
However, pheasant hunting has caused a severe decline in the bird’s population in the US over the past 50 years. Although pheasants are not considered an endangered species, they are considered threatened in many areas across the country.
According to NYS, the population of the species has declined by approximately 90% in New York State since 1970. Environmental Protection DepartmentHowever, Minnesota has seen a steady and less drastic decline in population.
Walz was forced to correct the record on whether he was in China for the Tiananmen Square protests
Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Walz’s habit of hunting birds after football practice means he contributed to this decline during his tenure as an assistant coach at Mankato West in the 1990s.
During Walz’s tenure as an assistant on the staff, the team won the state championship in 1999. Walz’s first job after college was as a teacher in China, before being hired by Mankato West in 1996, where he was a geography teacher.
He was also the faculty advisor to Mankato West High School’s first gay-straight alliance, and worked to organize summer educational trips to China for high school students.
Walz’s short tenure as an assistant football coach has been a topic of discussion for the Harris campaign since he was announced as the running mate for Harris on August 7.
Walz, despite never having coached beyond the high school level or as a head coach in high school, compared his background as a football coach to that of Alabama Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville, who coached four different NCAA power forwards. Served as head coach. 5 football programs from 1995 to 2016. Tuberville led Ole Miss, Auburn, Texas Tech and Cincinnati as a head coach and also won the SEC Championship with Auburn in 2004.
“I think one of my roles in this now is to be the antithesis of Tommy Tuberville, to show that football coaches aren’t the stupidest people,” Walz said during a fundraising event in Boston in early August.
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Minnesota Governor Tim Walz speaks during a campaign event in Detroit on August 7, 2024. (Andrew Harnik)
Walz even claimed that his experience as an assistant high school football coach meant that “football withdrawn“On behalf of the Republicans, during a campaign speech in Wisconsin on September 17.
However, football fans did not show much favoritism toward Walz during the governor’s visit to the game between Michigan and Wisconsin on Saturday. many people were present scolded him, Another fan shouted, “Get out of here.”
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