Tim Walz "I've Become Friends With School Shooters"

Submission 154

Part of a series on Tim Walz. [View Related Entries]

About

Tim Walz "I've Become Friends With School Shooters" refers to a flubbed quote from Democratic Vice Presidential candidate and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said during the October 2024 Vice Presidential Debate against Republican candidate and Ohio Senator J.D. Vance. Walz accidentally said that he'd "become friends with school shooters" when talking about befriending the parents of Sandy Hook Elementary School parents whose children were victims of the school's 2012 mass shooting. On social media platforms like Twitter / X, TikTok and Reddit, among others, meme creators made posts about Walz's bungle.

Origin

On October 1st, 2024, the 2024 Vice Presidential Debate was hosted on CBS. During one moment of the debate, Democratic candidate Tim Walz mistakenly said, "I've become friends with school shooters," when discussing the parents of Sandy Hook victims.^[7]

The debate clip was shared by X^[1] user @realonlineboy on October 1st (among many others within minutes of its utterance), who said, "'I've become friends with school shooters' is an all-time debate flub," receiving over 200,200 views and 1,600 likes in less than a day (shown below).

Spread

Also on October 1st, 2024, many conservative pundits on X shared the clip, like X^[2] user @EndWokeness, gaining over 27,000 likes in less than a day. Charlie Kirk also posted the clip to X,^[3] receiving over 15,000 likes over the same timeframe.

Also on October 1st, Elon Musk posted to X^[4] about Walz's flub, writing, "Mind-blowing that Tim Walz said he was 'friends with school shooters' 🤡," receiving over 45,000 likes in less than a day (shown below).

Donald Trump supporters online memed the quote in the following days. For instance, on October 1st, X^[5] user @_johnnymaga tweeted a photo of Trump and Logan Paul laughing, captioned, "'He said he became friends with school shooters,'" receiving over 31,000 likes in less than a day (shown below).

Later on October 1st, X^[6] user @WarClandestine tweeted a vide of Jim Halpert from The Office who represented J.D. Vance's reaction to Walz saying, "I'm friends with school shooters and learned how to govern in China!" receiving over 7,100 likes in less than a day (shown below).

Others defended Walz in posts, emphasizing that he misspoke. For instance, on October 1st, X^[8] user @JJETSFAN wrote, "Misspoke and now they gonna spam this clip for the next month 🕊️," gaining over 1,000 likes in less than a day (shown below).