During Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was asked about yet another scandal that emerged in the hours leading up to the event.

On August 16, 2024, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) opened a congressional investigation into alleged ties between Walz and Chinese government officials. Comer reported that Walz has visited China at least 30 times and operated Travel Adventures Inc., a for-profit enterprise that organized trips to China for American children from  1991 through 2003.

In addition, Walz was a fellow at the Macau Polytechnic University during his time in the U.S. House of Representatives, a Chinese institution that characterizes itself as having a “long held devotion to and love for the motherland.”

Walz was asked about his frequent trips to China during Tuesday night’s debate, including his claim that he was in the country during the crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. “I was in Hong Kong on June 4, 1989, when, of course, Tiananmen Square happened,” Walz previously said, according to a report from CNN released hours before the debate.

Walz at first attempted to sidestep the question by giving an answer about an unrelated topic. The moderators refused to let him off the hook, however, at which point Walz delivered an incoherent response.

“All I said on this was I got there that summer and misspoke on this. So I will just, that’s what I’ve said,” Walz replied with a stammer. “So I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protest went in,” he continued after an awkward moment of silence.

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In the days leading up to the pivotal debate — which will almost certainly be the last between the two major campaigns before Election Day — CNN had reported that Walz was struggling to get his nerves in check.

According to several of the governor’s senior aides, Walz had repeatedly stressed that he was worried about letting Vice President Harris down. Across close to a dozen conversations with senior members of the campaign’s staff, CNN reported that Walz was terrified that Harris would feel she made the wrong choice if he performed poorly.

“He feels genuine contempt for and confusion over what he views as Vance’s abandonment of their common roots, and for flipping so many of his positions to fit with Trump. The digs he takes at Vance by saying he didn’t know many Midwesterners who went to Yale are a glimpse into his anxiety that his opponent learned to be a sharp debater there,” the report continued, citing people who know Walz well,

Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) had previously conceded that Walz could run into trouble against a “lawyer type” like J.D. Vance. “He’s just not a lawyer-debater type. It’s not like he was dreaming of debates when he was in first grade.”

Vance’s debate skills played a large role in his victory over a crowded Republican primary field when he ran for U.S. Senate in 2022. Vance — who eventually secured Trump’s endorsement — fended off attacks over his past anti-Trump positions and was able to articulate why he changed his mind.

Vance also landed several memorable lines in his debate against U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) in the general election debate.

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