As part of its initial onslaught of negative attacks on Tim Walz after he was named Kamala Harris’ running mate, Newsmax also focused on Walz’s history of visiting China in an attempt to portray him as some kind of sleeper agent. Bill Donohue ranted in his Aug. 7 column:
In the 1930s, if any Republican politician chose to go to Adolf Hitler’s Germany for his honeymoon, they would have been hounded from office.
But in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s three Democrats and one Independent (with close ties to the Democrats) chose to go to communist countries for their honeymoon.
One of them is Tim Walz, the newly minted Democratic vice-presidential candidate. We need to know why.
In 1989, Walz moved to Communist China to teach at a high school for a year.
He later said it was “one of the best things I’ve ever done.”
Five years later he married and chose to honeymoon there.
He has been to China at least 30 times.
[…]He needs to come clean.
It’s one thing to teach in Communist China, quite another to celebrate a wedding there.
Why all the back-and-forth trips?
Donohue conveniently ignored that many Americans did not see Hitler as a threat when he took power in Germany — indeed, a Nazi-linked organization called the German-American Bund was popular in the U.S., at one point filling Madison Square Garden for a rally, and prominent Americans like Charles Lindbergh promoted the Nazi cause and insisted that the U.S. should negotiate with Hitler. Further, Walz’s wife has stated that they honeymooned there because “He wanted to have a date he’ll always remember,” and he is on record as supporting pro-democracy activists there as well as the Dalai Lama, whose native Tibet has been persecuted by China.
The same day, John Gizzi hyped a claim that “A publication owned by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on Wednesday praised newly-named Democrat vice presidential candidate Tim Walz for his ‘long ties’ and ‘extensive connections’ to China.” Newsmax then gave space to a pro-Trump Republican to smear Walz as having been “groomed” by China:
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate on the Democrat ticket, was groomed by China.
Rubio was responding to an article in the Washington Post that discussed Walz’s past in China, framing it as an “asset, not a liability.”
“Walz is an example of how Beijing patiently grooms future American leaders,” Rubio said on X. “Decades later they get into positions of power, are portrayed as ‘experts’ by the media and push for policies that allow China to steal our jobs and factories and flood America with drugs.”
Newsmax let another pro-Trump activist bash Walz in an Aug. 8 TV appearance:
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., told Newsmax on Thursday he’s concerned about Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democrat nominee for vice president, and his ties to China.
Walz taught English in China, has visited the country numerous times, and honeymooned with his wife in China.
“China must love this,” Comer, the chair of the House Oversight Committee said on “Prime News.”
Sam Barron wrote both articles, and in each he censored the fact that that Walz has associated himself with pro-democracy activists.
George Marlin spread more Walz-China hate in an Aug. 26 column:
Gov. Tim Walz, who has visited Communist China at least 30 times and honeymooned there, told his high school students when he was a teacher, that under communism “everyone is the same, everyone shares,” and “they get [free] food and housing” from the government.
He also said that “after the late 1970s, the Chinese population was so large that the government established a policy of one child per family. For more than one child, the family pays a tax.”
Walz has a weird perception of China under communist rule. The only shared factor among its people is fear of the totalitarian ruling class. Walz’s comment about a child tax is absurd. China’s zero growth policy has meant forced abortions and female sterilizations.
[…]Gov. Walz’s starry-eyed perception of society in Communist China is disgraceful. He is another one of those useful “Western Idiots” (as Lenin called them) who ignores China’s heartless treatment of its people and rationalizes Beijing’s malignant policies.
No one can argue that Marlin isn’t being useful to his right-wing narrative masters.