NEW YORK — Minnesota Governor and Vice President nominee Tim Walz was asked about conflicting statements and timelines surrounding his claim that he attended that one Fugazi show where Guy Picciotto climbed into the basketball hoop.
“You know for those of you not familiar with who I am. I grew up in small rural Nebraska town of like 400. The type of town that didn’t really have a punk scene, just one band called The Fat Inmates and I’m proud that I served as their merch guy for 18 months,” said Walz nervously during the broadcast. “This band did some East Coast tours and they played in the same gym Fugazi played that summer. All I’m going to say on this is that I misspoke. So I will just… that’s what I said… I was in Philly in Pennsylvania when Fugazi was on tour, and from that I learned a lot of what needed to be of being part of a band.”
Ohio Senator J.D. Vance was quick to attack Walz’s record of having toured with a band following the debate.
“Mr. Walz likes to talk about being a merch guy for a band. Well, I actually played in a nu-metal band called Rederanged for years. My bandmates were my brothers and we went through it all together. Mr. Walz stopped working with his band just before they went on their first national tour and he left them high and dry. I played with my band for multiple tours, including two in Europe where I saw some of the most violent moshing that sticks with me to this day,” said Vance. “I’ve played my band’s CD for Mr. Trump and he loved it. I hope in November we get elected to office and I can share this music with the world.”
Political analyst Deborah Horrigan says what happened in the debate is not likely to sway the election either way.
“It doesn’t matter what either of these guys said. Walz could have claimed to be a founding member of Bad Brains and everyone would move on to something else by the weekend,” said Horrigan. “People forget that in the first presidential debate of the 1992 election cycle, Bill Clinton had claimed he played saxophone in Fishbone for years. That was quickly revealed to be a lie, but then he played saxophone on Arsenio Hall and the country forgave him.”
At press time, Walz released a statement walking back his claims he saw Ryan Gosling at an American Nightmare show in 2012.