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【Text/Guaguanzhe.com Zhang Jingjuan】After Ohio Senator Cyrus Vance accepted the Republican vice presidential nomination, his previous words and deeds were frequently "dug up" by netizens. Now, after Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was officially confirmed as the Democratic vice presidential candidate, his "dark history" has also begun to be frantically exposed.

Speeding, drunk driving, headshots exposed

On the 7th, Newsweek published a mug shot of Waltz after he was arrested for drunk driving in Nebraska. In the photo, he is wearing glasses and a hat.

According to reports, this photo was taken 29 years ago when Waltz was only 31 years old and taught at Union High School in Nebraska. He served as a football coach while serving in the Nebraska Army National Guard.

According to local police records, Waltz was stopped by the police for speeding on a road with a speed limit of 88 kilometers. When the police approached the car window for questioning, they smelled a strong odor of alcohol on him and conducted an alcohol test on him on the spot. The test showed that Waltz's blood alcohol content was far higher than the value stipulated by the state.

Waltz was initially charged with drunk driving and speeding, but later negotiated a plea agreement that reduced the charges to reckless driving, for which he paid a $200 fine and had his driver's license suspended for 90 days.

The New York Times reported that his wife told him at the time, "You have a responsibility to others. You can't make stupid choices."

Waltz has since stopped drinking, preferring the diet drink Mountain Dew Light, as does his Republican rival, Vance.

According to reports, Waltz himself did not shy away from this "black history". When he mentioned this incident during his campaign for Minnesota governor in 2018, he said: "I learned my lesson, which made me a better person and a better leader. This was a serious mistake, but it taught me a valuable lesson about responsibility and consequences."

Ignoring the large-scale "epidemic fraud case"

Waltz won the Minnesota governorship by more than 11 percentage points in 2018. However, his first term was overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

ABC News reported on the 7th that during the epidemic, Waltz used tough measures such as emergency powers, mandatory wearing of masks and closure of businesses, causing huge friction with Republicans.

Critics also accused him of failing to prevent a massive "epidemic fraud" that put the state government in trouble. According to the allegations, at least 70 people were involved in the case, defrauding more than $250 million (about 1.79 billion yuan). More than 20 people have pleaded guilty or been convicted, only two have been acquitted, and most are still awaiting trial.

An audit report released in June reportedly showed that this situation could have been avoided.

Auditors said the Minnesota Legislative Auditor’s Office not only “failed to act on warning signs known to the department before the pandemic began and before the alleged fraud began,” but its “practices and inaction created opportunities for fraud.”

The report, however, did not name the governor and did not find any specific fault on the part of Walz or his index office.

Waltz has also been criticized for delaying the deployment of the National Guard to quell violence in Minneapolis following the death of George Floyd.

According to CBS News and Axios, a U.S. political news website, Waltz deployed guards to respond only after the city had experienced three days of arson and looting.

"Deserter, America's shame"

Waltz, 60, was born in West Point, Nebraska. He joined the U.S. Army National Guard at the age of 17 and participated in the Middle East anti-terrorism "Operation Enduring Freedom". He retired as a command sergeant in 2005 and began to run for public office.

Recently, there have been constant controversies about his leaving the Army National Guard 20 years ago. According to a report by NBC on the 8th, Trump's campaign team believed that Waltz retired to avoid being deployed to Iraq and called him a "deserter."

Waltz officially retired in May 2005, and his unit received a deployment notice to Iraq in July. He submitted documents to run for Congress in January of that year and was certified by the Federal Election Commission the following month.

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Trump posted on his own social media platform on Wednesday (August 7) ​​calling Waltz "a disgrace to America."

On the same day, Trump's running mate Vance said at a press conference that Waltz retired and sent his troops to Iraq without him, "for which he was fiercely criticized by many of those who served with him."

"I think it's disgraceful to prepare your troops to go to Iraq, to ​​make a commitment that you're going to honor that commitment, and then to pull out before you actually go," Vance said.

Walz was reportedly attacked for this before when he was running for re-election as governor, and he responded with a letter signed by 50 veterans praising his contributions and leadership.

At present, the vice presidential candidates of both parties for the 2024 US presidential election have been determined, and many media have compared the two.

The New York Times said that in the highest echelon of American politics, Waltz's life is unique and he is very different from Vance, who graduated from Yale Law School and wrote a best-selling memoir. The Wall Street Journal pointed out that the two vice presidential candidates have little in common, both politically and financially. Tax lawyer and financial manager Megan Gorman said that their financial situations are two versions of the American dream, showing different ways of dealing with money and risk.

Waltz owns no property and has few investments beyond retirement and a college savings plan, according to past financial disclosures and tax returns, while Vance is a multimillionaire with multiple homes and investments in a range of assets, including gold and cryptocurrencies.

Recent polls show that Harris has tied Trump's approval rating and is even catching up. Although joint polls released by the National Public Broadcasting Corporation (NPR), the Public Broadcasting Society (PBS) and other media outlets show that Waltz is not well-known among the American people, with 71% of respondents having never heard of Waltz or not sure how to evaluate him, there is still great uncertainty as to whether Waltz can bring additional support to Harris.

This article is an exclusive article of Observer.com and may not be reproduced without authorization.