Psychologists explain why Tim Walz – Kamala Harris’ VP pick – tells so many tall tales

Democrats have painted Kamala Harris’ vice presidential pick Tim Walz as a squeaky clean military veteran, small-town teacher and well-loved football coach.  

But as media scrutiny of the Democratic nominee ramps up, fact-checkers are increasingly poking holes in his public image. 

Mr Walz, governor of Minnesota and a less practiced politician on the national stage, has been accused of distorting the truth about his military record, his son’s birth, his time as a football coach, and a DUI arrest after doing 100mph in a 55mph zone.

Psychologists have suggested his string of mistruths represent a worrisome pattern of dishonesty. 

According to Linda Diaz-Murphy, a New Jersey-based licensed professional counselor: ‘These are lies and what’s more concerning is Walz has no remorse or sense of responsibility.’

Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Gov Tim Walz has been accused in recent weeks of repeatedly misstating the facts and lying about his record

Walz has come under fire recently for appearing to misrepresent his military career. 

While lobbying for restrictions on assault weapons in 2018, he said the guns were the same ones he had carried ‘in war.’

On a different occasion, when he was running for Congress in 2006 and expressing support for restricting assault weapons, he said he ‘carried a weapon of war in war.’ 

However, Mr Walz, who spent 24 years in the National Guard stateside, was never deployed in combat overseas when he would have carried weapons designed for warfare.

When asked whether Mr Walz’s fabulist claims were a sign of a problem with habitual lying or just a product of inexperience on a national stage, psychologist Craig Polsfuss told DailyMail.com: ‘It could be both and I suspect it is.’

Mr Polsfuss said in his experience, politicians tend to be a dystopian combination of ‘self-serving’ and ‘self-justifying.’

Walz has often alluded to the idea that he was involved in the US military’s Operation Enduring Freedom, the name for the combat mission in Afghanistan starting in October 2001 through 2014. 

He deployed in August 2003 to Vicenza, Italy, to assist in security missions and returned to Minnesota a year later. 

In early 2005, Walz’s unit – the 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery of the Minnesota Army National Guard – was slated to go to Iraq. 

But he retired that year shortly before his unit was informed of their imminent deployment, sparking ire among Republicans and some veterans led by Republican VP pick JD Vance. 

National Guard records show that his squad received an alert order regarding impending deployment two months after Walz retired from service. 

JD Vance, an Iraq war veteran and Donald Trump’s 2024 running mate, said recently: ‘When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did? He dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him — a fact that he’s been criticized for aggressively by a lot of the people he served with.’ 

Adam Luke, a licensed therapist based in Tennessee, told DailyMail.com he has seen firsthand how Mr Walz’s statements about his military career can be distressing for potential voters who have actually served in active combat. 

He said: ‘I think the military community would have been perfectly fine if he had said [more generally] I had this military career. 

‘But then when you start talking about deployments, you start talking about experiences that he didn’t have, there’s a lot of veterans that I serve every week who watch their friends die, they have lost limbs, and you no longer get to call yourself a membership of that club when you didn’t have that experience.’ 

Walz has been accused of skipping out on his National Guard unit in 2005 to begin his political career just before it deployed to Iraq. He served 24 years after enlisting at the age of 17

Walz, joined on stage by daughter Hope and son Gus, said that he and his wife used IVF to have their children when they actually used intrauterine insemination (IUI)

Another apparent fib occurred when Walz claimed he and his wife used IVF to have their children.

But this wasn’t exactly true.

The couple actually used a different method, intrauterine insemination, or IUI. The difference is substantial.

While IVF involves creating a human embryo in a lab, IUI involves inserting sperm directly into the uterus to increase the chances of pregnancy.

Mr Luke, who works closely with families and couples, said: ‘The IVF thing is frustrating for me, because I can go down that pathway with him as well, where me and my wife had difficulties conceiving. But I can’t say that we did IVF or we did IUI, I can’t say that. 

‘But I can definitely say we had to change our whole lifestyle so that we could have our 16 month old. And that would have resonated with voters just as well. 

‘He should have been honest. You just don’t say, “I had that treatment.”‘ 

Gov Walz has every motive to try as hard as possible to relate to the everyday voter; it’s a candidate’s main job. 

But in his pursuit of public approval, Gov Walz may have trapped himself in a cycle of insecurity that leads him to stretch the truth to appeal to a wider swathe of people. 

Mr Luke said: ‘If he doesn’t win us over, he potentially loses his job, right? And when you get stuck in the sort of reinforcing loop, all of a sudden, an innocent slip of the tongue starts to become more of a habitual act. 

‘It’s not about necessarily maintaining the relationship between he and I. He’s trying to maintain the narrative of who he is as an individual.’ 

Gov Walz is shown discussing his family’s journey of using fertility treatments to have their two children, Hope and Gus

Walz also came under fire for his campaign’s attempted coverup of a 1995 DUI arrest.

Walz was stopped while driving over 95 miles per hour in a 55 mph zone and had been drinking. 

But in 2006, when he was running for a congressional seat, staffers said he had never gotten a DUI nor was he booked in the county jail.

In fact, staffers said he experienced hearing loss during his time in the Army National Guard, which caused him to repeatedly misunderstand the police officer’s instructions—both when signaled to pull over and during the sobriety test.

Dr Drew Westen, a psychologist and political consultant at Emory University, said: ‘He does present as an honest, honest farm boy from Nebraska, a teacher, etc. And so lying would not fit that story well. 

‘A DUI would not fit that story well. It’s not something that you would expect from someone who’s got his squeaky clean background.’

Also in 2006, Walz got a letter from the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce shortly after he claimed that he was named Outstanding Young Nebraskan by the Chamber for his service as a teacher and a member of the military. 

‘We researched this matter and can confirm that you have not been the recipient of any award from the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce,’ the chamber said in a letter to Walz. 

The Walz campaign was quick to make a necessary correction, saying his award was granted by the Nebraska Junior Chamber of Commerce. 

And Republicans have targeted Walz for inflating his stint as a high school football coach. 

He has touted his record as a coach when it won a state championship in 1999 at Alliance High School in Nebraska. 

Social media exploded with skepticism, with several posts on X pointing out that Gov Walz was never ‘head coach’ of the football team.

Mr Walz, meanwhile, never claimed to be head coach but rather part of a team of coaches. 

He served in a paid position and resigned from his post following his DUI arrest. Critics claim though that he was fired, despite court documents saying that he voluntarily resigned from his post. 

He and his wife Gwen moved to Minnesota for a fresh start where Walz served as a defensive coordinator. 

Some have argued that Gov Walz allowed the embellishment to become a rallying cry for supporters, who have since begun referring to him as ‘Coach’ without correcting them.  

Mr Luke said: ‘He’s desiring to build rapport by bending the truth to get there and that is something that’s that starts the pathway of being malicious because I am presenting this information in a way that someone could feel, that I better align with them, or I’m a better representative for them, when in reality, I don’t have the experience or the awareness of what they’ve actually been through.’ 

Tim Walz’s 2006 congressional campaign falsely gave details about his 1995 arrest for drunk driving

Many political psychologists and scientists quickly added that Walz’s mistruths pale compared to those told by former President Trump, who they argue has set the latest blueprint for competing in national politics.

Dr Jon Krosnick, a psychologist who studies political behavior at Stanford University, told DailyMail.com that Trump’s tendency to spout mistruths has transformed how politicians communicate and try to woo voters. 

It signals to other politicians that stretching the truth is a viable way of currying favor with voters and, ultimately, winning the post as the most powerful person in the world.

He said: ‘His perspective is, as long as I say stuff that convinces people to continue to support me, that might move some undecided people in the direction of supporting me. It doesn’t matter whether it’s true or not, just if it’s effectively persuasive.

‘Tim Walz, that if you take that example of misstating just a couple words, “in war,” I don’t know what he thought he was accomplishing by that, if that was intentional or if it was an accident… That was an early utterance on that topic for him, and it may have been a slip because, frankly, I just don’t see a lot of benefits from claiming that he was in war when he wasn’t.’

Still, many of Walz’s critics say these fabrications are less innocuous than Democrats argue. 

Jordan Schachtel, a foreign policy analyst at the American Institute for Economic Research, said: ‘Governor Walz has felt a compulsion to lie when telling the truth would have benefited him just fine.

‘Tim Walz lies when there is no point in lying. He simply can’t help himself. I am no Jordan Peterson and make no claim of psychological expertise, but Tim Walz sure seems to fit the mold of a compulsive, pathological liar.’ 

At the same time, Ryan Waite, vice president of public affairs and political scientist at the corporate marketing firm Think Big, told DailyMail.com that the mistruths are likely a product of not having been fully vetted or tested before hitting the national stage. 

He said: ‘Typically at the upper levels of campaigns, there is a vetting process that helps to straighten all of this out ahead of time, but given the truncated timeline and rush to consolidate the ticket, they may not have had time to get all their ducks in a row and now it is spilling out into the public square.’ 

He added: ‘Since former President Trump makes outlandish statements and promises, other politicians feel it is only fair to fight fire with fire and fudge the truth a bit to even the scales.’

It’s no secret that politicians obfuscate the truth to preserve their political reputations: Richard Nixon denied his involvement in the Watergate break-in. Harry Truman lied to the public about Hiroshima, the target of one of the atomic bombs, when he said the city was an army base, not a home to 350,000 civilians. And Barack Obama falsely promised that under his healthcare plan, ‘If you like your doctor, you will keep your doctor.’

It’s not clear whether Gov Walz’s mistruths or opponents’ attacks against him will have a measurable effect on the electorate and his support. 

Political psychologists say they likely will not, given the stakes of this election and the looming threat of oppressive policies.

Dr Westen said: ‘I think people are people are tuning out a lot of stuff about their own side because they are hell-bent on voting for it, and they don’t want to know the blemishes.

‘I do think in this election, we’re seeing a lot more leeway for the Democratic ticket on things like that because the alternative is that we may not have another election.

‘And I think people are aware of that, and it’s making them much more forgiving because something like a DUI that you didn’t tell the truth about would have been, might have been pretty damaging in the past.’