Tim Walz appeared to escape quickly on Saturday when asked about the discovery of six hostages killed in the Gaza Strip.
The Minnesota governor was asked the question at his home state’s state fair in St. Paul, hours after bodies were found in an underground tunnel in the city’s Rafah neighborhood.
The footage did not show whether the potential vice president heard the question, but once he finished it, he waved goodbye to the bystanders.
The prisoners – identified on Saturday as Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Master Sgt Ori Danino – were among more than 200 captives taken by militants on October 7.
Five were taken from the targeted Israeli music festival and another from a nearby farming community. The IDF said all were “brutally” killed “a short time” before troops could locate them.
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Tim Walz appeared to make a quick getaway on Saturday when asked about the discovery of six dead hostages in the Gaza Strip
The six hostages (clockwise from top left): Alex Lobanov, Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Master Sgt Ori Danino, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat
“What is your reaction to the six hostages found in Gaza?” the unseen journalist asks in the clip, which shows Walz holding a milkshake as he makes his rounds during his brief visit to the 12-day event.
At that moment, an aide to the politician appears and tells him it is time to leave, whereupon Walz announces his departure.
“Okay, thanks everyone!” he says to the audience, then walks away to loud applause.
Along with his wife Gwen and their daughter Hope, the politician was quickly surrounded by a security team and then taken away.
At another point during his visit, the 60-year-old ate a pork chop on a stick, a local delicacy.
“For those of you who aren’t from Minnesota, there are a lot of great state fairs in the country, this is the best,” Walz told reporters in another lighthearted conversation.
“I can say I’ve tried pork chops in Iowa,” he joked further,
“I’m so glad I got to spend a day here.”
The footage did not show whether the potential vice president heard the request, but as soon as it was spoken, he waved goodbye to the bystanders
Walz is seen eating some street food at the event, along with his daughter Hope (left) and wife Gwen (right). He did not answer questions about the policy during their brief visit.
He shared a video of himself eating street food at the festival, which features many local farmers, and posted the following on Twitter: “Breakfast of champions: pork chop on a stick.”
During the visit, Walz repeatedly emphasized his state’s agricultural sector, with local ranchers and landowners touting their products.
In all, he spent about an hour there before leaving for a scheduled meeting with union leaders in Milwaukee on Monday.
He stayed away from topics such as policy, he told the local newspaper mprnews on how he’s balanced his role as governor amid his and Harris’s whirlwind campaigns. “I have a good team that can manage my schedule,” he told an audience.
Meanwhile, the bodies of the long-missing hostages were found overseas.
A senior Hamas official, Izzat al-Rishq, insisted that Israel is responsible for their deaths as it refuses to sign a ceasefire.
On Saturday, this view was shared by a group representing the hostages’ families, who demanded that Netanyahu “address the nation and take responsibility for abandoning the hostages.”
“The delay in signing the agreement led to their deaths and those of many other hostages,” they wrote.
Late last week, Walz and running mate Kamala Harris both stopped short of saying they would change Biden’s policy on arms sales to Israel — a sore point for some voters. Neither has commented on the recent discovery abroad
They further claimed that all six prisoners “were killed in recent days after surviving nearly 11 months of abuse, torture and starvation in Hamas captivity.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that Israel will not rest until those responsible are brought to justice.
“Those who kill hostages don’t want a deal,” he exclaimed.
According to the Israeli military, the bodies were discovered less than a kilometer from a tunnel where another hostage was rescued alive a few days earlier, two days after Walz was interviewed on CNN along with his running mate Kamala Harris.
During the meeting, neither said they would change Biden’s policy on arms sales to Israel, a sore point for some voters.
Although Harris announced that she would like to make policy changes, she said her policy on arming Israel will not change if she is elected president.
Since then, neither has commented on the recent discovery.