The Trump and Harris Campaigns Race to React to Walz’s ‘Friends With School Shooters’ Gaffe

There was one moment from Tuesday’s vice presidential debate that Donald Trump couldn’t stop thinking about. The former President posted on Truth Social eight times about it, and his campaign and supporters have also latched on, in a sharp contrast from the notable cordiality shown on stage between Trump’s running mate Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance and his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Minn. Gov. Tim Walz.

Read More: Vance Outperformed Walz in Debate That’s Unlikely to Shift Race

“I’ve become friends with school shooters,” Walz said, seeming to mean parents of school shooting victims. (On Wednesday, he clarified to a reporter: “I was talking about meeting people where there are school shooters, and I need to be more specific on that, but I am passionate about this,” naming Parkland students and Sandy Hook parents as examples of people he’s befriended.)

“Is he insane?” Trump posted Tuesday night, calling it “a very big mistake.”

Trump’s campaign shared a video clip of the moment on X that racked up over 5 million views within hours.

“Yikes! Not ready for primetime,” said Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt. “Gaffe of the 2024 election,” said conservative social media influencer Andy Ngo, while longtime Republican pollster Frank Luntz said it “may be the worst line in any 2024 debate.”

“This is concerning,” said Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), one of several Trump-supporting members of Congress to also highlight the moment.

“My daughter was killed in the Parkland school shooting,” said Andrew Pollack, a pro-Trump school safety activist, in a widely-shared post on X. “It’s absolutely abhorrent that Tim Walz has befriended school shooters. Disqualifying.”

Elon Musk, who has endorsed Trump, called it “mind-blowing” and shared a clown emoji.

“Does anyone affiliated with Trump have the ability for truth?” asked Fred Guttenberg, another gun safety advocate and parent of a victim of the Parkland school shooting in 2018. “The @TrumpWarRoom knows @Tim_Walz misspoke & meant he became friends with families affected by school shooters, people like me. If this level of distortion is all they have from last night, then Tim kicked JD’s ass.”

Walz’s remark came during a discussion on school shootings just after Vance had been asked if he thinks parents of school shooters should be held criminally responsible. It depends on the circumstances, Vance said, before adding: “We know, unfortunately, that a lot of kids are gonna experience this terrible epidemic of gun violence … we do have to do better. And I think that Governor Walz and I actually probably agree that we need to do better on this. The question is just how do we actually do it?” Vance proposed greater border security to reduce the flow of illegal guns into the country as well as increasing school security. Then Walz was given his turn to respond.

“I sat in my office surrounded by dozens of the Sandy Hook parents, and they were looking at my 7-year-old picture on the wall. Their 7-year-old were dead,” Walz said. “This idea that we should just live with it,” he added, noting that he does believe Vance truly cares about the issue, “that’s not far enough.” Walz cited his own background as a hunter and firearm owner to say that he and Harris are not going to take away people’s guns. “You can still keep your firearms, and we can make a difference,” he said.

When asked about his change in position on an assault weapons ban, which he had opposed earlier in his career as a congressman but now publicly supports, Walz said: “I sat in that office with those Sandy Hook parents. I’ve become friends with school shooters. I’ve seen it.”

“This idea of stigmatizing mental health, just because you have a mental health issue doesn’t mean you’re violent. And I think what we end up doing is we start looking for a scapegoat. Sometimes it just is the guns. It’s just the guns, and there are things you can do about it. But I do think that this is one. And I think this [is] a healthy conversation. I think there’s a capacity to find solutions on this that work. Protect the Second Amendment, protect our children. That’s our priority.”

Conservative derision of Walz’s apparent misstatement continued to swell following the debate, especially after a clip circulated of reporters asking Walz to clarify his comment to which he didn’t respond.

“The guy is a total sociopath,” said far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, whom Trump has been criticized for associating with.

“That was probably only the third or fourth dumbest comment Tim Walz made that night,” Vance said at a rally in Michigan on Wednesday.

The after-debate pouncing on Walz’s flub marks a significant change in tone from how the two candidates interacted on stage. While Walz and Vance have lobbed insults at each other on the campaign trail, both took a friendlier approach to the debate—in contrast with the more combative presidential debate last month between Trump and Harris. The tone of the vice presidential debate was hailed by viewers as “respectful” and a sign of “hope” for American politics. 

A number of times Vance and Walz said they agreed with certain points the other made, while focusing most of their criticism on the top of their opponent’s ticket.

“I think you want to solve this problem,” Vance said during a discussion on immigration, after Walz made a similar comment, “but I don’t think that Kamala Harris does.”

When discussing abortion, Walz said: “I agree with a lot of what Senator Vance said about what’s happening. His running mate, though, does not. And that’s the problem.”

Read More: J.D. Vance Tries to Gaslight America Into Thinking He’s Moderate on Abortion 

At one point, Vance expressed concern and grace when Walz shared that his teenage son had witnessed a shooting at a community center. “I’m sorry about that,” Vance said. “Christ have mercy.”

Just before his closing remarks, Walz said: “I’ve enjoyed tonight’s debate, and I think there was a lot of commonality here. And I’m sympathetic to misspeaking on things.”

“Me too, man,” Vance responded.

Walz, who has previously come under fire for misstatements—including claiming that he carried a weapon “in war” when he hadn’t been to war and erroneously describing the type of fertility treatment he and his wife underwent, mistakes he’s chalked up to bad grammar and “speaking passionately”—admitted on Tuesday that he can be a “knucklehead.” He even made more slips of the tongue throughout the debate, including mixing up Israel and Iran, and he addressed misspeaking on his experience visiting China.

Some conservative commentators tried to maintain the vice presidential candidates’ spirit of civility and downplay the focus on Walz’s gaffe. “Walz obviously misspoke, he didn’t mean he’d become friends with school shooters. C’mon. This is a good, high minded debate as things go these days. Let’s not make sh-t up,” said Fox News contributor Andrew McCarthy. Guy Benson, also a Fox News contributor, called it an “innocent misstatement.” And Commentary editor John Podhoretz said: “Walz obviously meant he’s become friends with parents whose children were tragically shot. People will forgive his misstatement. As long as it’s true.”

The Harris campaign, meanwhile, appears to be countering the mockery of Walz’s slip-up by focusing on the substance of his wider remarks on guns. The Harris campaign posted on social media multiple clips of Walz’s comments from the same segment, including one with the gaffe, and also shared an MSNBC clip in which a college voter slammed Vance’s claim that school shootings should be addressed by beefing up school security. “The issue is guns, the issue is not better locks on doors,” the student said, echoing Walz’s preferred soundbite from the debate: “Sometimes it’s just the guns.”