Minnesota First Lady Gwen Waltz's campaign speech, in which she used wild hand gestures to say “goodbye” and “turn the page” about former President Trump, energized a Wisconsin audience but drew revulsion elsewhere.
Gwen Waltz was slammed as a “living embodiment of Trump Madness Syndrome” during a campaign speech in Wisconsin on Saturday for her husband, Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz, and Vice President Kamala Harris.
In her speech, Gwen Waltz cited Harris' performance at last week's debate, where she repeatedly said the election was a time to “change” the current political landscape.
“I'm sure you all watched the other debate. Oh, that was amazing. And what Kamala Harris told us is to turn the page, because yeah, we have some really exciting things heading our way,” Gwen Waltz said.
“But I kind of like the way she did this,” the Minnesota first lady continued, mimicking turning the pages of a book, “turning the pages.”
Gwen Waltz then asked the audience to join her in pantomiming turning a page, declaring that Democrats have “52 days to turn the page” on Trump's rise to the White House.
“You know what else that feels like?” Waltz asked, waving her arms. “Goodbye. Goodbye Donald Trump,” she yelled.
“We are turning a new page,” she added.
Critics were quick to slam Gwen Waltz and her speech, calling it “horrible” and “1,000 times worse than Hillary Clinton's.”
Gwen Waltz is a teacher in Minnesota who met her husband in the 1990s while they were both working as educators.
She has served as first lady of the Gopher State since 2019, when Tim Walz became governor.
Gwen Waltz previously made headlines on social media after a video was unearthed in which she spoke about her response to the 2020 Minnesota riots.
“We had another sleepless night during the riots,” Waltz's wife told KSTP in July 2020. “We could smell the burning tires. It was very real. And we had our windows down for as long as we could because we felt that was a touchstone of what was going on.”
Critics and conservatives on social media at the time denounced the remarks as “bizarre.”
“What do you call this? Bizarre? Unusual? Strange? Unconventional? Bizarre?” wrote Noah Rothman, a senior writer for National Review Online. “It must be a description of the cathartic delight one gets from burning down other people's property.”
