CNN Hits Walz for False Claims About DUI Arrest in 1995

CNN reported Thursday that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s 2006 congressional campaign lied about his arrest for driving under the influence (DUI) in 1995.

CNN reported:

When Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz first ran for Congress in 2006, his campaign repeatedly made false statements about the details of his 1995 arrest for drunk and reckless driving.

According to court and police records connected to the incident, Walz admitted in court that he had been drinking when he was pulled over for driving 96 mph in a 55 mph zone in Nebraska. Walz was then transported by a state trooper to a local hospital for a blood test, showing he had a blood alcohol level of .128, well above the state’s legal limit of 0.1 at the time.

But in 2006, his campaign repeatedly told the press that he had not been drinking that night, claiming that his failed field sobriety test was due to a misunderstanding related to hearing loss from his time in the National Guard. The campaign also claimed that Walz was allowed to drive himself to jail that night.

Breitbart News noted the same problem last week:

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), who emerged Tuesday as Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, will likely face new scrutiny over a 1995 DUI arrest after court records emerged to suggest he had misled the public about the case.

Walz, who was living in Nebraska at the time, was pulled over for drunk driving. He eventually reached a plea deal and admitted to reckless driving. The issue surfaced in later political campaigns, but Walz said he had not been drunk.

In 2006, when the issue emerged during Walz’s race for Congress, his campaign said that the arrest had been the result of a misunderstanding.

Subsequent reporting by Alpha News in 2022 turned up a court transcript that suggested Walz had, in fact, been drunk.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.