Conservatives have circulated a bizarre claim that vice presidential candidate Tim Walz has been faking the identity of his family dog.
The conspiracy was quickly debunked, after a Republican strategist from Minnesota made the claim by posting two photos of the Minnesota governor with two different dogs. Both were posted on the 60-year-old’s social media sometime in 2022.
The photo on the left showed Walz with Scout, a Labrador retriever mix her family acquired in 2018. A caption read: “Sending a special birthday greeting to our favorite pup, Scout.”
Meanwhile, the photo on the right was taken a few months later and showed Walz with a different dog, with a caption that read: “I couldn’t think of a better way to spend a beautiful fall day than at the dog park. I know Scout enjoyed it.”
Several went on to accuse Walz of trying to pass the two dogs off as the same, even though the second one simply showed a different dog in the park while Scout remained off-screen.
Conservatives on Monday were seen circulating a bizarre claim that vice presidential candidate Tim Walz has been faking the identity of his family dog.
The conspiracy was quickly debunked after a Republican strategist from Minnesota made the claim while posting two photos of the Minnesota governor with two different dogs.
“Yes, this is Tim Walz tweeting about his dog Scout. The only problem is that they are two completely different dogs,” wrote Minnesota Republican strategist Dustin Grage, sparking the controversy.
Within moments, a community note was added to Grage’s tweet, specifying that “the photo on the right is of a dog park where Tim Walz was with Scout and many other dogs.”
Scout can be seen playing with these dogs, the note states, and commenters were quick to point out that Walz was simply stating in the photo that did not show Scout that her dog was also enjoying the park.
The person who posted the story was among those who commented pointing out the obvious, sharing the original video of Walz at the dog park on their post.
She wrote: ‘It took me exactly 45 seconds to go to @Tim_Walz’s Instagram page and see that this is a video of his dog Scout playing with another dog at the dog park.’
Others were quick to criticize Grage for stirring the waters, with misleading ammunition that seemingly demonstrated his inability to verify his claims.
Some even went so far as to criticize the Republican’s “critical thinking” skills, pointing out how Walz has several social media posts and press photos with Scout, the black Labrador.
“The dog in the tweet on the right is just a random dog they met at the dog park – they don’t identify the dog as Scout in the tweet on the right,” one such viewer wrote, adding to express their exasperation: “OMG.”
The photo on the left showed Walz with Scout, a Labrador retriever mix her family acquired in 2018. A caption read: “Sending a special birthday greeting to our favorite pup, Scout.”
Meanwhile, the photo on the right was taken months later and showed Walz with a different dog. The caption read: “I can’t think of a better way to spend a beautiful fall day than at the dog park. I know Scout enjoyed it.”
Several went on to attack the Republican strategist who made the false claims, with one person sharing the original video of Walz at the dog park that showed Scout off-screen.
Scout, seen here with the Democrat, has been in Walz’s family since 2019 and makes frequent appearances on his social media.
“These morons have such poor thinking that it didn’t occur to them that Walz was taking a picture with ANOTHER dog (pictured right) because they were at a DOG PARK and were referencing Scout enjoying it,” another added.
“He’s not saying that Scout is the one in the photo. Idiots.”
Another simply asked Grage: “What’s wrong?”, while others praised the presence of the community notes feature.
“Community notes win. Again,” one commenter joked, as the misinformation was easily debunked.
“These pathetic weirdos are so desperate to find a line of attack that will stick with @Tim_Walz that they are resorting to conspiracy theories about dog parks,” another person wrote after the claims were resolved.
“It’s really fun to watch them get more and more desperate as each line of attack bounces off their armor of authenticity.”
Meanwhile, Scout has been in the Walz family since 2019, along with his wife Gwen and their two children.
His 17-year-old son Gus recently made headlines after shedding tears during his father’s speech at the Democratic National Convention last week.
“That’s my dad,” she shouted as she stood up and proudly pointed to her father on the convention stage, sitting next to her sister Hope in the front row.
