Tim Walz Commits One of the Biggest Debate Blunders in Recent Memory, Says 'I've Become Friends with School Shooters'

Democratic vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz faced every candidate's worst nightmare during a debate on Tuesday night—and in one of the most awkward ways possible: he made a gaffe that everyone will remember, and it was about school shootings, no less.

In the middle of a question about mass shootings and why he had flip-flopped on a ban on so-called “assault weapons,” Walz told the audience, “I’ve become friends with school shooters”—a sound bite that immediately ignited social media.

Walz made the comments while explaining that he changed his stance after speaking with parents of Sandy Hook school shooting victims.

“I’ve become friends with school shooters,” he said.

“I was an NRA guy for a long time,” Walz added. “They used to teach gun safety. I’m of an age where my shotgun was in my car, so I could pheasant hunt after football practice. That’s not where we live today.”

He went on to note that many firearm deaths in Minnesota “are rural suicides, and we have an epidemic of children getting guns and shooting themselves. And … we should look at all of the issues, making sure folks have healthcare and all that. But I want to be very careful, this idea of stigmatizing mental health, just because you have a mental health issue doesn’t mean you’re violent. And I think what we end up doing is, we start looking for a scapegoat.”

“Sometimes it just is the guns,” Walz added.

“It’s just the guns. And there are things that you can do about it, but I do think that this is a healthy conversation. I think there’s a capacity to find solutions on this that work. Protect the Second Amendment, protect our children. That’s our priority.”

While it’s clear from the context that Walz likely meant he had become friends with people who had lost loved ones in school shootings, it wasn't his only problematic moment during the debate.

When questioned about one of his questionable claims on the campaign trail—a statement that he was in China during the Tiananmen Square protests—Walz admitted that it was not true.

“I’m a knucklehead at times,” he confessed.