MSNBC’s Jen Psaki on Monday debunked a bizarre new line of attack from Republicans against Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who is also the Democratic candidate for vice president.
“They’ve now resorted to attacking the family dog,” she said. “I really wish I was joking. I am not joking.”
Right-wingers found a 2022 photo Walz posted on social media saying he went to a dog park with his pup Scout. Since the dog in the picture is not Scout, conservative trolls treated it as a gotcha moment.
“As crazy as it sounds, bad-faith right-wingers on social media said it was all evidence that Tim Walz was lying about something,” Psaki said.
But a video Walz posted at the same time shows him with Scout at the dog park, playing with other dogs, including the one in the picture the trolls seized on.
“Mystery solved,” Psaki said. “Of course, this is a particularly ironic attack coming from the party whose own rising star ― you know who I’m about to talk about here, Kristi Noem ― boasted about hating her own family dog so much she took it to a gravel pit and shot it.”
Noem, the governor of North Dakota, was on the shortlist for Donald Trump’s vice president until she released a book bragging about killing her pooch.
“Better luck next time, guys,” Psaki said, then offered some unsolicited advice going back to the days of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose own dog came under attack from political rivals.
“If you resort to attacking a candidate’s dog, you’re probably losing,” Psaki said. “And you deserve all the ridicule coming your way.”
See her full segment below:
