‘Not that I spend much time thinking about this,’ Walz says
Minnesota governor Tim Walz (D.) accused Republicans of misogyny for questioning his masculinity during his 2024 vice presidential run.
“We buy their frame on these issues of sexuality, you know, but their whole thing was is that they spent all their time, these guys on Fox News, [saying] that ‘Walz is gay, he’s not masculine, you know, he doesn’t coach football the way he should,'” Walz told California governor Gavin Newsom (D.) Tuesday on Newsom’s podcast. “There’s misogyny in here that’s happening.”
“Not that I spend much time thinking about this, and it just baffled me how much time they spent trying to attack me, that I wasn’t, like, masculine enough in their vision,” Walz said before detailing criticisms of his masculinity.
“I saw Fox News did, like, a couple days because I used a straw, and I’m, like, ‘Hell, man, what am I—how else do you drink a milkshake?’ type of thing. But they focused on it obsessively, which I think again is their obsession, their weirdness,” Walz continued.
Fox News’s Jesse Watters questioned Walz’s masculinity over the Minnesota governor’s straw use.
“Women love masculinity, and women do not love Tim Walz, so that should just tell you about how masculine Tim Walz is,” Watters said on The Five. “The other day you saw him with a vanilla ice cream shake. Had a straw in it. Again, that tells you everything.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R., Ala.) in November criticized Walz, a former high school football coach, for calling the last days of the 2024 presidential race “the final quarter.”
“We call it the 4th Quarter, ‘Coach,'” said Tuberville, who received multiple Coach of the Year awards in 2004 after leading Auburn University to a 13-0 season, a Southeastern Conference title, and a Sugar Bowl victory.
Walz during his Tuesday appearance on This is Gavin Newsom also claimed he could take down his critics in a fight.
“I think I can kick most of their ass,” Walz said. “I don’t know if we’re going to fall into that place where we want to [say an] ‘Okay, we challenge you to a, to a, you know, WWE fight’ type of thing.”
Walz, who is in the midst of a town hall tour of GOP districts, has said he would “certainly consider” a 2028 presidential run.