MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Now that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is Vice President Kamala Harris ' running mate, his drunken driving arrest from 1995 in Nebraska — long before he entered politics — is getting renewed scrutiny.
Walz was a 31-year-old teacher when he was stopped the night of Sept. 23, 1995, near Chadron, Nebraska. He pleaded guilty in March 1996 to a reduced charge of reckless driving.
Here's a look back at what happened, and the aftermath as Walz embarked on a political career a decade later, and last week joined the Democratic presidential ticket:
According to court records, a Nebraska state trooper clocked Walz going 96 mph in a 55-mph zone. The trooper wrote that he detected a strong smell of alcohol on his breath. Walz failed field sobriety and preliminary breath tests.
He was taken to a hospital for a blood test and was booked into the Dawes County Jail. A transcript of his plea hearing on March 13, 1996, quotes the prosecutor as saying his blood test showed an alcohol level of 0.128%, compared with a legal limit of 0.10%. Walz's attorney told the court Walz thought someone was chasing him because the trooper came up fast and didn't turn on his red lights right away.
The defense attorney acknowledged that Walz had been drinking but argued for a fine, saying his blood alcohol level was “relatively low.” He also noted that Walz was a teacher at a local high school and “felt terrible about this, was real disappointed, I guess, in himself.”
He said Walz reported the incident to his principal, resigned from his coaching position and offered to quit his teaching job “because he felt so bad.” He said the principal talked him into staying on as a teacher, and that Walz was now telling students about what happens if one gets caught for drinking and driving. Walz lost his license for 90 days and was fined $200.
Walz has said he quit drinking alcohol after his arrest. He now prefers Diet Mountain Dew.
A Republican blogger surfaced some court documents in 2006 when Walz made his first run for Congress, in which he ultimately upset incumbent Republican Rep. Gil Gutknecht. A few news outlets in the southern Minnesota district did stories, but it didn't become a big issue in that campaign. It went largely forgotten until Walz ran for governor in 2018, when it got a mention in a broader profile by the Star Tribune of Minneapolis. He told the newspaper it was a gut-check moment, and an impetus to change his ways. His wife, Gwen, recalled to the newspaper that she told him: “You have obligations to people. You can’t make dumb choices.”
The arrest resurfaced again after Harris picked Walz last week, and Republicans and media outside Minnesota started taking a closer look at his past. The main revelation was that Walz campaign staffers in 2006 gave misleading information to the few news outlets that wrote about it at the time.
His campaign manager told the Post-Bulletin of Rochester that he was not drunk. She said Walz couldn't understand what the trooper was saying to him because he had a hearing loss from his service in an artillery unit in the National Guard, and suggested that he might have had balance issues as a result. She also falsely claimed that the judge who dismissed the drunken driving charge chastised the officer for not realizing that Walz was deaf.
His campaign spokeswoman made similar statements to KEYC-TV and The Journal of New Ulm, saying, "The DUI charge was dropped for a reason: It wasn’t true.” She claimed he failed the field sobriety test because of his deafness, and that the trooper let Walz drive to a police station and leave on his own.
The court records don't mention any ear issues and make clear that the trooper took him to jail. The transcript showing that he acknowledged in court that he was drunk apparently didn't surface until 2022, when the conservative Minnesota site Alpha News reported on it.
The Harris-Walz campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why his former campaign staffers provided incorrect information.
Walz did have ear surgery in 2005 to remedy his hearing loss.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz reacts as he speaks at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Convention in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
WASHINGTON (AP) — United States President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are meeting Friday amid an intensified push by Ukraine to loosen restrictions on using weapons provided by the U.S. and Britain to strike Russia.
The talks come amid signs that the White House could be moving toward a shift in its policy, and as Russia’s President Vladimir Putin warned that Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons would put NATO at war with Moscow.
Ukrainian officials renewed their pleas to use Western-provided long-range missiles against targets deeper inside Russia during this week’s visit to Kyiv by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy. Blinken said he had “no doubt” that Biden and Starmer would discuss the matter during their visit, noting the U.S. has adapted and “will adjust as necessary” as Russia’s battlefield strategy has changed.
The language is similar to what Blinken said in May, shortly before the U.S. allowed Ukraine to use American-provided weapons just inside Russian territory. The distance has been largely limited to cross-border targets deemed a direct threat out of concerns about further escalating the conflict.
While the issue is expected to be at the top of the leaders’ agenda, it appeared unlikely that Biden and Starmer would announce any policy changes during this week’s visit, according to two U.S. officials familiar with planning for the leaders' talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the private deliberations.
In addition to Blinken, Biden also has hinted a change could be afoot. In an exchange with reporters earlier this week about whether he was ready to ease weapons restrictions on Ukraine, he responded, “We’re working that out now.”
Putin warned Thursday that allowing long-range strikes “would mean that NATO countries, the United States, and European countries are at war with Russia. … If this is so, then, bearing in mind the change in the very essence of this conflict, we will make appropriate decisions based on the threats that will be created for us.”
His remarks were in line with the narrative the Kremlin has actively promoted since early in the Ukraine war, accusing NATO countries of de-facto participation in the conflict and threatening a response.
Earlier in the year, Putin warned that Russia could provide long-range weapons to others to strike Western targets in response to NATO allies allowing Ukraine to use their arms to attack Russian territory, saying it “would mark their direct involvement in the war against the Russian Federation, and we reserve the right to act the same way.”
Starmer, in response to the Russian leader's Thursday comments, said on his way to the U.S. that Britain does not seek any conflict with Russia.
“Russia started this conflict. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine. Russia could end this conflict straight away,” Starmer told reporters. “Ukraine has the right to self-defense and we’ve obviously been absolutely fully supportive of Ukraine’s right to self-defense — we’re providing training capability, as you know."
“But we don’t seek any conflict with Russia — that’s not our intention in the slightest,” Starmer said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pressed U.S. and allied military leaders to go much further. He argues that the U.S. must allow Ukraine to target Russian air bases and launch sites far from the border as Russia has stepped up assaults on Ukraine’s electricity grid and utilities ahead of the coming winter.
Zelenskyy also wants more long-range weaponry from the United States, including the Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, for strikes in Russia.
ATACMS wouldn’t be the answer to the main threat Ukraine faces from long-range Russian glide bombs, which are being fired from more than 300 kilometers (185 miles) away, beyond the ATACMS' reach, said Lt. Col. Charlie Dietz, Pentagon spokesperson.
American officials also don’t believe they have enough of the weapon systems available to provide Ukraine with the number to make a substantive difference to conditions on the ground, one of the U.S. officials said.
During a meeting of allied defense ministers last week, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he did not believe providing Ukraine with long-range weapon systems would be a game-changer in the grueling war. He noted that Ukraine has already been able to strike inside Russia with its own internally produced systems, including drones.
“I don’t believe one capability is going to be decisive, and I stand by that comment,” Austin said.
“As of right now, the policy has not changed," Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, said Thursday.
Starmer said he was visiting Washington for “strategic meetings to discuss Ukraine and to discuss the Middle East.” It’s the prime minister’s second meeting with Biden since his center-left government was elected in July.
It comes after Britain last week diverged from the U.S. by suspending some arms exports to Israel because of the risk they could be used to break international law. Both countries have downplayed their differences over the issue.
Biden and Starmer’s meeting also comes ahead of this month’s annual meeting of global leaders at the United Nations General Assembly. The Oval Office meeting was scheduled in part to help the two leaders compare notes on the war in Ukraine, languishing efforts to get a cease-fire deal in Gaza and other issues ahead of the U.N. meeting.
The White House also has sought in recent days to put a greater emphasis on the nexus between the war in Ukraine and conflict in the Middle East sparked after Iranian-backed Hamas militants in Gaza launched attacks on Israel on Oct. 7.
The Biden administration said this week that Iran recently delivered short-range ballistic weapons to Russia to use against Ukraine, a transfer that White House officials worry will allow Russia to use more of its arsenal for targets far beyond the Ukrainian front line while employing Iranian warheads for closer-range targets.
In turn, the U.S. administration says Russia has been tightening its relationship with Iran, including by providing it with nuclear and space technology.
“This is obviously deeply concerning,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said of the missile transfer. “And it certainly speaks to the manner in which this partnership threatens European security and how it illustrates Iran’s destabilizing influence now reaches well beyond the Middle East.”
AP reporters Tara Copp in Washington, Jill Lawless in London, Matthew Lee in Warsaw, Poland, and Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed.
President Joe Biden speaks during the Violence Against Women Act 30th anniversary celebration on the South Lawn of the White House, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, center, talks to the media on board his plane as he flies to Washington DC., Thursday Sept. 12, 2024. (Stefan Rousseau/Pool via AP)
