(Headline USA) CNN host Michael Smerconish admitted this week that vice presidential pick Tim Walz’s 1995 drunken driving arrest posed a serious problem for Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign.
Walz was arrested in 1995 after being pulled over for going 96 mph in a 55 mph-zone and subsequently failing a sobriety test. His license was suspended for 90 days, and he offered to resign his teaching job at Alliance High School in his home state of Nebraska.
This is Tim Walz after being arrested for DUI in the 1990's. He had a blood alcohol of .128% (.08 BAC is legally drunk). He was doing 96mph in a 55. What were you saying about criminals and high office again, Democrats? pic.twitter.com/lt1gkVpElt
— Military Arms (@MAC_Arms) August 6, 2024
In court, Walz was able to reduce the charge from a DUI to reckless driving, insisting that his inebriated driving was due to his “deafness.”
But a police report contradicts this claim.
“A strong odor of alcoholic beverage was detected emitting from Mr. Walz[‘s] breath and person,” the report said. “Walz spoke sloppily and should not have represented a role that he had as having been a permanent role when it wasn’t.”
Walz has since repeatedly tried to downplay the arrest, insisting during a congressional campaign in 2006 that he was “not drunk” and that he was arrested because of a “misunderstanding” with law enforcement.
But CNN’s Smerconish said it doesn’t matter how Walz tries to spin the arrest.
“The DUI story is indefensible,” he said, adding that he doesn’t “buy” the Walz team’s explanations.
“To me, the DUI is bigger than the stolen valor allegation, not because of the drinking but because of the lie,” Smerconish continued, referring to Walz’s misrepresentation of his military service.
Smerconish then questioned whether Harris’s campaign fully vetted Walz before tapping him.
“Maybe this is as a result of the expedited nature of her ascendancy as a candidate,” he said. “But it makes me wonder how much they really knew about it.”
Walz has also come under fire for making false claims about his time in the National Guard. For example, the Minnesota governor falsely suggested he saw combat in Iraq even though he retired from service as soon as his unit received deployment orders.
