Fury as Tim Walz shares two photos ‘of his dog Scout’… but all is not what it seems

Conservatives spread a bizarre claim that vice presidential candidate Tim Walz faked the identity of his family’s dog.

The conspiracy was quickly debunked — after a Minnesota GOP strategist made the claim while posting two photos of the Minnesota governor with two different dogs, both posted to the 60-year-old’s social media sometime in 2022.

In the photo on the left, Walz is pictured with Scout, a Labrador retriever mix his family got in 2018. The caption reads, “A special birthday hello to our favorite pup, Scout.”

Meanwhile, the photo on the right was taken just a few months later and showed Walz with another dog, with the caption, “Couldn’t think of a better way to spend a beautiful fall day than at the dog park. I know Scout enjoyed it.”

Several people accused Walz of trying to pass the two dogs off as one and the same dog, when in the second episode, a different dog was simply shown in the park, while Scout remained out of the picture.

The conspiracy was quickly debunked after a Minnesota GOP strategist made the claim while posting two photos of the Minnesota governor with two different dogs

“Yes, this is Tim Walz tweeting about his dog Scout. The only problem is, these are two completely different dogs,” wrote Minnesota GOP strategist Dustin Grage, the one who stirred up the controversy.

Within moments, a community note was added to Grage’s tweet, stating that “the photo on the right is from a dog park where Tim Walz was with Scout and many other dogs.”

According to the post, Scout is seen playing with the dogs. Commenters were quick to point out that Walz was simply saying in the photo, in which Scout is not visible, that his dog was also enjoying the park.

The commenter was one of the people who pointed out the obvious in a comment, sharing the original video of Walz at the dog park in her post.

She wrote: ‘It took me exactly 45 seconds to go to @Tim_Walz’s Instagram page and see this was a video of his dog Scout playing with another dog at the dog park.’

Others were quick to accuse Grage of stirring things up, giving him false ammunition that showed he had not fact-checked his claims.

Some even went so far as to criticize the Republican’s “critical thinking” skills, pointing out that Walz had posted on social media and taken press photos with Scout, the black Labrador.

“The dog in the tweet on the right is just a random dog they encountered at the dog park; he does not identify the dog in the tweet on the right as Scout,” wrote one bystander, who expressed their frustration by saying, “My god.”

In the photo on the left, Walz is pictured with Scout, a Labrador retriever mix his family got in 2018. The caption reads, “A special birthday hello to our favorite pup, Scout.”

Meanwhile, the photo on the right was taken months later and showed Walz with another dog. The caption read: ‘Couldn’t think of a better way to spend a beautiful fall day than at the dog park. I know Scout enjoyed it’

Several people then went on to criticize the GOP strategist who made the false claims. One person shared the original video of Walz at the dog park, which showed Scout out of frame.

Scout, pictured here with the Democrat, has been related to Walz since 2019 and appears regularly on his social media.

“These idiots have so little brain power that it didn’t occur to them that Walz took a picture with ANOTHER dog (pictured right) because they were at a DOG PARK and he said Scout liked it,” added another.

“He doesn’t say Scout is in the picture. Idiots.”

Another simply asked Grage, “What’s wrong with you?”, while others praised the presence of the community notes feature.

“Community notes, for the win. Again,” one commenter joked, as the disinformation was easily debunked.

“These pathetic weirdos are so desperate for an attack line that limits themselves to @Tim_Walz that they resort to conspiracy theories about dog parks,” someone else wrote after the allegations were resolved.

“It’s truly hilarious to watch them grow more and more desperate as each line of attack bounces off their authentic armor.”

Scout has been part of Walz’s family since 2019, along with his wife Gwen and their two children.

Son Gus, 17, recently made headlines after breaking down in tears during his father’s speech at the DNC last week.

“That’s my dad,” he shouted as he stood up and pointed proudly at his father on the convention stage, who was sitting in the front row next to his sister Hope.