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stated on August 8, 2024 in a Facebook post:
Says Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz had his stomach pumped “after overingesting horse sem*n.”
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By Ciara O'RourkeAugust 9, 2024
If Your Time is short
This story was fabricated, features fake details and has a timeline that doesn’t track with reality.
See the sources for this fact-check
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz alluded to a lewd fake claim about Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance after Vice President Kamala Harris introduced Walz as her 2024 presidential running mate.
Now, Walz is the target of another crass allegation: that nearly 30 years ago his stomach was pumped after "an unusual overingestion incident."
"Local man’s stomach pumped after ‘neigh’-borhood dare goes wrong," reads what looks like a headline in a newspaper called the West Point Daily News.
Local man, in this case, is "Tim Walz, a local resident of West Point, Nebraska." The story says he was rushed to West Point General Hospital in August 1995 "after reportedly overingesting horse sem*n."
The purported article quotes "Dr. Amanda Thompson, the attending physician at West Point General" and a "close friend who wished to remain anonymous." It also features a photo of Walz when he was younger.
Facebook and Instagram posts sharing the image of the story were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
This is a fabricated story.
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Social Media
stated on July 14, 2024 in social media posts
Photos show former President Donald Trump golfing after being shot.
Although there is a West Point News in West Point, Nebraska, we didn’t find a West Point Daily News.
We also found no West Point General Hospital in West Point, Nebraska, or evidence of a Dr. Amanda Thompson who worked there. Searching on Nebraska’s Health and Human Services Department website for Amanda Thompson’s with medical licenses, we found six entries for medication aides, nurse aides, pharmacist interns and pharmacy technicians, but no doctors.
The timeline also doesn’t track with reality.
Walz was born in West Point, Nebraska, but moved several times during his childhood, The New York Times reported. He spent some of his childhood in Valentine, Nebraska, and moved to Butte, Nebraska, when he was in high school. After graduating in 1989 from Chadron State College in a Nebraska town with the same name, he spent a year teaching in China before returning to teach high school.
In 1995, when this story says he lived in West Point, he was actually a resident of Alliance, Nebraska, more than 300 miles away. In 1996, he moved to Mankato, Minnesota. The photo that appears in the purported stomach-pumping story has been used in connection with his time teaching there at Mankato West High School. It appears in an Aug. 6 KSTP-TV news story about "a look back on Tim Walz’s early life in Minnesota," for example. (The high school didn’t immediately respond to PolitiFact’s questions about the photo.)
The stomach-pumping story also shares space in the image with a story by "Bob O’Bobston" about an "international moose count underway." This story appears to have been created with a tool designed to make fake news clippings — the moose article appears in multiple other purported news clippings. Another, for example, featured a fake headline about former President Donald Trump: "Donald Trump states that he doesn’t even know Donald Trump."
We rate claims Walz had his stomach pumped for ingesting horse sem*n Pants on Fire!
PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. CORRECTION, Aug. 13, 2024: The distance between the Nebraska towns of West Pointand Alliance is more than 300 miles. An earlier version of this fact-check included the wrong distance.
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The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter
Our Sources
X post, Aug. 8, 2024
Instagram post, Aug. 9, 2024
Facebook post, Aug. 8, 2024
Instagram post, Aug. 8, 2024
Imgur, Fake news, Oct. 23, 2024
West Point News, About us, visited Aug. 9, 2024
USA Today, 'Get off the couch': Walz's JD Vance joke throws dirt. Some say it's about time, Aug. 7, 2024
The Washington Post, Tim Walz’s 1993 geography class correctly predicted the next genocide, Aug. 8, 2024
Nebraska Examiner, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has rural Nebraska roots, Aug. 6, 2024
The New York Times, Walz Grew Up in Rural Nebraska, Where Finding a Date ‘Was Kind of a Problem,’ Aug. 6, 2024
Time, What to Know About Tim Walz’ 1995 Drunk Driving Charge, Aug. 6, 2024
KSTP, A look back on Tim Walz’s early life in Minnesota, Aug. 6, 2024
PolitiFact, Pritzker repeats a baseless claim about J.D. Vance and couches. That’s Pants on Fire!, July 31, 2024
PolitiFact, Who is Tim Walz? What to know about Kamala Harris’ new running mate, Aug. 6, 2024
KEYC, Governor Walz started his political journey in Mankato, Aug. 6, 2024
Browse the Truth-O-Meter
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