Kamala Harris' running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, was arrested for driving drunk while speeding when he was a 31-year-old teacher in Nebraska.
Over the years, Walz has given different accounts of the Sept. 23, 1995, incident, which first became public during his 2006 run for Congress.
A state trooper caught Walz going 96 mph in a 55-mph zone. A police report at the time said Walz had "a strong odor of alcoholic beverage” emanating from his breath and person.
He failed a field sobriety test and a preliminary breath test. He then had his blood drawn before getting booked at a local jail.
A copy of the court transcript published by Alpha News in 2022 showed that Walz had a blood alcohol level of 0.128%, above the then-legal limit of .10%.
Walz, who was a teacher and a football coach in Alliance, Nebraska, pled down to a reckless driving charge.
When the incident was first publicized in 2006, Walz's campaign lied and said he was not drunk. The campaign blamed the arrest on a misunderstanding resulting from deafness that he developed during his time in the National Guard.
“He couldn’t understand what the officer was saying to him,” the campaign told the Rochester Post Bulletin.
But that was false. At the time of the incident, Walz and his lawyers actually admitted he had been drinking.
“It’s just a dangerous situation, Your Honor, not just to myself, but to others who are — who aren’t even involved with it,” Walz told the judge, according to the court transcript published by Alpha News.
His lawyer Russell Harford blamed Walz's speeding on a fear that "somebody was chasing him."
"So he sped up to try to get away, fearing that somebody was after him. Lo and behold, it was a state patrolman that was behind him, so the faster he went, the faster the state patrol officer went,” admitted.
The judge scolded Walz for his poor judgment, noting his role as a teacher.
"This is a real problem for me to see a teacher get picked up for this kind of offense because you do have [to be] a role model,” he said.
Walz offered to quit his teaching position at Alliance High school, but he was talked out of resigning, his lawyer said.
As he hits the campaign trail with Harris, Democrats have overlooked unsavory details about Walz's past to paint him as a fun, "folksy" Midwestern dad.
