Ask A Genius 1151: Walz to the Wall at the Time
Author(s): Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2024/11/09
*Interview conducted October/November, 2024.*
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Do you think Walz is doing a good job and a bad job at as the running mate?
Rick Rosner: Yes. He’s behind. He had little glitches that the Republicans tried to make hay off of, but they don’t seem persuasive. Walz claimed to have been in Hong Kong when the Tiananmen Square massacre happened.
Somebody looked at his travel itinerary, and it turns out he wasn’t even in the same city when the massacre happened. He was cornered with this at the VP debate, and he goes, “Sometimes I get too enthusiastic, and I misspeak. I misspoke.” Does it matter?
Shit, that’s gotten people in trouble. Hillary got in trouble for saying that she’d been in a helicopter that had come under fire. It turns out they looked at her itinerary from 10 years ago when she was going to Kosovo, and she’d never been in a helicopter that had been fired on.
Jacobsen: Did this cost her votes?
Rosner: It almost certainly did. There was a reporter who got in trouble for saying the same thing. The reporter who said he was under fire in a helicopter had lost his network job. But, anyway, it doesn’t seem like stolen honor to me. These people were intentionally making up shit to look cooler. They’ve been in helicopters. The helicopters take evasive maneuvers in some of the toughest cities in the world. They’ve seen movies. They’ve seen footage, so they get confused. They misremember. I assume that’s what happened with Walls, and that inaccuracy seems even less consequential than saying you were under fire in a helicopter.
Rosner: But he always claimed to have been in China, not even in the same city when the massacre happened. What does that say about anything?
Jacobsen: Yes. So that’s fine. He’s fine. His net approval is still the highest of the 4 candidates: the 2 VPs and the 2 presidential candidates. He’s at 10% positive net approval.
Rosner: No. He’s at 4% net approval. Harris is at 0.8%, and Trump and Vance are at negative 10%.
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