During a brief visit to the Minnesota State Fair Sunday morning, Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz ignored a reporter’s question asking for his reaction to the news that the Israeli military had found six Hamas-held hostages dead in Gaza over the weekend.
Among those killed was Israeli-American citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose parents spoke at the Democratic National Convention the same night Walz made his acceptance speech. The Israel Defense Forces said the hostages “were murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before our soldiers were able to reach them inside the tunnel in Rafah.”
“What’s your reaction to the six hostages being found dead in Gaza?” a reporter asked the Minnesota governor while he and his press aide Teddy Tschann were fielding questions during a media scrum in the Dairy Building.
Walz was holding a vanilla soft-serve shake in his left hand and glanced at the reporter for a moment.
“Alright,” Walz said, appearing to briefly make eye contact with the unidentified reporter. He then turned away and waved to the crowd. “Thanks everybody!” Walz said as he walked away with Tschann.
At the Minnesota State Fair, Gov. Tim Walz walks away when asked about the 6 dead hostages found in Gaza pic.twitter.com/WmDxJZ7bUV
— Alpha News (@AlphaNewsMN) September 1, 2024
Video of the exchange was captured by a handful of media outlets. Moments earlier, he had toured the famed Princess Kay of the Milky Way butter sculptures exhibit inside the Dairy Building.
Whether Walz had been apprised of the situation in Gaza was not known at the time. But the news of the hostages’ deaths had been widely reported across the globe on Saturday and into Sunday morning. President Joe Biden offered condolences in the form of a press statement on Saturday night to the family of Goldberg-Polin.
Later in the evening Sunday, Walz acknowledged Goldberg-Polin’s death in a social media post.
“The anguish of losing a child is something no family should have to endure. Gwen and I send our deepest condolences to the Goldberg-Polin family, after Hamas’ murder of their son Hersh,” he wrote. “Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization—and we condemn their continued atrocities against both Americans and Israelis in the strongest possible terms.”
Walz’s state fair visit
Inside the state fair’s Dairy Building on Sunday morning, the reporter’s question asking Walz for his reaction came as Walz was holding court with a gaggle of local and national reporters who followed him around during his mid-morning visit to the fairgrounds that lasted less than an hour.
The Nebraska native explained to reporters his fondness for the annual, end-of-summer event held on the St. Paul side of Minnesota’s Twin Cities. He then answered two brief questions, one coming from a reporter who asked, “How much has this state fair changed from last year?”
Walz, who has traditionally visited the fair multiple days as governor and as a political candidate, explained he didn’t want the rise in his profile as he runs with Kamala Harris for the White House to be a distraction from the regular course of business at the fair.
A reporter then asked Walz, “How are you balancing managing the state of Minnesota and running for president, vice president?”
Walz answered that question in detail, explaining that he has a state team that provides him with briefings on gubernatorial issues he tends to, even when he’s on the road campaigning with Harris.
Walz also told reporters that earlier that morning during his visit he purchased and ate a pork chop on a stick. But when the question came up about the dead hostages in Gaza, Walz ended the media scrum.
Several local news outlets had roving reporters on the fairgrounds following Walz and his entourage, which included wife Gwen and daughter Hope, several staffers and security.
While Walz waited until the second to last day of the Great Minnesota Get-Together to visit the fairgrounds, media outlets, including Alpha News, chronicled the impact his rise has had on the political discussions at the fair. Less than four weeks ago Harris tapped the two-term governor and former southern Minnesota congressman to be her vice-presidential nominee.
Hank Long
Hank Long is a journalism and communications professional whose writing career includes coverage of the Minnesota legislature, city and county governments and the commercial real estate industry. Hank received his undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota, where he studied journalism, and his law degree at the University of St. Thomas. The Minnesota native lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and four children. His dream is to be around when the Vikings win the Super Bowl.
