The doctor, who ran against Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz in the Minnesota gubernatorial race two years ago, warned voters that Walz, a gray-haired National Guard veteran, was a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” and even offered advice to J.D. Vance.
“He comes across as everybody’s favorite uncle and jolly guy, but he can actually be a pit bull when he needs to be,” Dr. Scott Jensen told The Post about Waltz, who was named this week as Kamala Harris’ running mate in November’s presidential election.
Jensen, a Republican and coronavirus skeptic, was endorsed by Donald Trump in his bid to unseat Walz in the tough 2022 race.
He described his former opponent as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” and said he had no problem breaking promises to further his own political agenda.
Waltz, 60, boasted that he “can’t wait” to debate Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, Donald Trump’s running mate, but Jensen warned that the showdown may never happen.
“My advice to JD Vance is don’t book a hotel and make sure it’s non-refundable,” Jensen joked.
“If it’s a political strategy, I think he’s going to do it regardless of what he tells people he’s going to do,” he added of the possibility that Walz ultimately decides not to debate his opponents.
“That’s the way he does politics.”
Jensen, 69, said he has detected a trend of Walz becoming complacent as the 2022 election approaches.
“Of course I’m going to have more debates,” Walz told reporters a few months before the election, Jensen recalled.
The two ultimately faced off in three debates, but Jensen lamented that neither candidate “had a single statewide televised debate.”
“We are a regional [debate]”…it was not permitted to be broadcast in Minnesota’s two largest cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul,” he claimed.
“He basically broke his promise.”
The October 18, 2022 televised debate was filmed by a television station in Rochester. According to MPR News.
The showdown was broadcast live from Gray Television Studios outside the Twin Cities and streamed exclusively online statewide, the station said.
The Republican also noted that Walz has a reputation in his adopted state of New Jersey of being able to emerge mysteriously unscathed from scandals and negative events.
“I think there are so many people in Minnesota who feel like if he does anything wrong, he’ll never be forgiven,” the doctor said.
“He’s dithering about calling up the National Guard to help the Twin Cities. At the end of the day, it’s either Mayor Frey’s fault for not filling out the correct paperwork or it’s the soldiers’ fault,” he said, referring to the controversy over when and how Gov. Walz called up the National Guard during protests following the 2020 killing of George Floyd.
“It’s not his fault that he closed schools in many areas for over a year during COVID and the schools performed poorly. It’s the students’ fault,” Jensen added.
“He has the ability to get himself out of sticky situations. He’s very good at that.”
Jensen is the latest to criticize Walz, who made his debut as Harris’ running mate.
In the past few days, the governor has come under fire over his record with the military — including allegations that he backed National Guard troops into a corner just before they were about to be deployed — and has also faced renewed criticism over his response to the destructive 2020 protests.
Marine Corps veteran J.D. Vance weighed in, calling some of Waltz’s comments about his military experience “defamatory.”
Harris was asked Thursday about the barrage of criticism.
“Look, I applaud anyone who steps up to serve our country, and I think we all should,” Harris told reporters.
Ms. Harris and Mr. Walz are expected to appear together at a rally Friday night at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, their latest stop on their tour of battleground states, following their ticketed debut in Philadelphia on Tuesday night.
Meanwhile, the Trump campaign dismissed Waltz’s viral comments that the Republican Party is “weird” as a “smokescreen.”
“Their obsession with destroying so many of our cultural norms is really bizarre. It’s just a smokescreen. They’re saying they’re trying to get away with really bad policies, like ‘David Copperfield,'” a Trump administration official told The Post in West Palm Beach on Wednesday.
