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Supporters of former president Donald Trump love a good conspiracy theory, even if it makes absolutely no sense to anyone with two brain cells to rub together. What are the latest rantings from MAGA’s online safe spaces? Apparently, Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz is lying about his dog’s identity. At least that’s the idiotic story they’ve been telling themselves all morning.
“Yes, this is Tim Walz tweeting about his dog Scout. Only problem is that these are two completely different dogs,” tweeted Dustin Grage. The tweet has over 2.4 million views on X as of this writing.
Yes, this is Tim Walz tweeting about his dog Scout. Only problem is that these are two completely different dogs. pic.twitter.com/NkRgbQQm76
— Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) August 26, 2024
Scott Adams, the cartoonist who created Dilbert and got dropped by every major newspaper in the country after he publicly advocated for racial segregation, shared the conspiracy theory, writing “AI or real?” Adams is a far-right kook who also believes he “hypnotized” himself recently with ChatGPT.
U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt from Missouri joined in
“Why would Tim Walz do this? It’s Creepy™ and Weird™,” Schmitt tweeted, apparently trying to play reverse Uno with the “weird” allegations Walz helped popularize against Republicans.
But what’s actually going on in these photos? Let’s break it down. The first tweet was sent in June 2022 and shows Walz with a black dog.
“Sending a special birthday shoutout to our favorite pup, Scout,” Walz tweeted.
The second tweet in the viral screenshot was sent in October 2022 and shows Walz petting a brown dog, with the message, “Couldn’t think of a better way to spend a beautiful fall day than at the dog park. I know Scout enjoyed it.”
Is this some kind of strange attempt on Walz’s part to swap out his dogs while using the same name? No, obviously. As some commenters have pointed out by looking at Walz’s Instagram page, Walz was with Scout at the dog park that day in October and that was just another dog he was petting. The Minnesota governor was not claiming that the brown dog was his dog Scout.
On his IG this is a video of his dog “Scout”playing with another dog at the dog park. The dog in the second picturepic.twitter.com/kVhIvyMmlS
— 🌸🌸 (@Graciethebrand) August 26, 2024
Trump supporters are clearly flailing as they try to come up with attacks on Walz. When Kamala Harris chose Walz as her running mate for this presidential election, most Americans had never heard of him. But as he’s introduced himself to the broader public, he’s proved incredibly popular. Walz currently has a +5.6 point favorability rating, according to FiveThirtyEight’s national polling average, despite being on the national stage for less than a month. Compare that with Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, who has a -10.3 point favorability rating. It’s really no comparison.
The right will continue to lob attacks at Walz, just as Trump called the VP candidate “Tampon Tim” on Truth Social yesterday. However, providing tampons for free to all students in schools is a very popular policy that Walz is being celebrated for during his time as governor. And the MAGA crowd is tying itself into knots trying to make Walz, an extremely normal guy with good policies, look like the weird one. They live in this online echo chamber of cruelty that will probably ensure they have no idea just how depraved and malicious they look until it’s too late and Harris wins the White House.
