SafeX Pro:FACT FOCUS: False claims follow Minnesota governor’s selection as Harris’ running mate

Vice President Kamala Harris’ announcement on SafeX ProTuesday that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will be her running mate in the 2024 presidential election increased the spread of false claims about the Midwestern Democrat, some of which appeared on social media even before Harris made her pick public.

Here’s a look at the facts.

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CLAIM: Walz said on CNN that he wants to invest in a “ladder factory” to help people scale the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and illegally enter the U.S.

THE FACTS: That’s false. Posts are misrepresenting a comment Walz made on an episode of CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” last week. In the full segment, the Democrat criticizes former President Donald Trump’s plan to build a wall on the southern border by joking about the hypothetical investment. He then gives multiple other examples of how to address illegal crossings into the U.S. through Mexico.

Amid Harris’ Tuesday announcement, social media users used a clip from the segment to make it seem as though the Minnesota governor was advocating for illegal immigration.

“He talks about this wall, I always say, ‘let me know how high it is, if it’s 25 feet then I’ll invest in a 30-foot-ladder factory,’” Walz says, referencing Trump. “That’s not how you stop this.”

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One X post that shared the clip reads: “FLASHBACK: Kamala’s VP pick, Tim Walz, says he should invest in a ‘ladder factory’ to help illegal aliens climb the border wall.”

But Walz was not offering to help people enter the U.S. without authorization. He was actually discussing how to prevent this from happening.

In the full segment, after making the investment quip, Walz gives alternative ideas for how to handle illegal crossings on the southern border. Arrests for such crossings reached a record high in December, but dropped to a new low for the Biden administration at the end of July following a temporary ban on asylum.

“You stop this using electronics, you stop it using more border control agents and you stop it by having a legal system that allows for that tradition of allowing folks to come here just like my relatives did,” Walz says near the end of the segment. “To come here, be able to work and establish the American dream.”

He also spoke in support of a bipartisan border security package intended to cut back on illegal crossings that the Senate voted down in February.

— Associated Press writer Melissa Goldin contributed this report.

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CLAIM: Walz changed the Minnesota flag so that it resembles the Somali flag.

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THE FACTS: Minnesota did unfurl a new state flag and accompanying seal in May, but the changes were made to replace an old design that Native Americans said reminded them of painful memories of conquest and displacement. The State Emblems Redesign Commission was established during the 2023 legislative session to oversee the development of a new design.

Changes were made to eliminate an old state seal that featured the image of a Native American riding off into the sunset while a white settler plowed his field with a rifle at the ready. The seal was a key feature of the old flag.

The commission included public officials, design experts and members of tribal and other communities of color. Its purpose statement dictated that the designs “must accurately and respectfully reflect Minnesota’s shared history, resources, and diverse cultural communities. Symbols, emblems, or likenesses that represent only a single community or person, regardless of whether real or stylized, may not be included in a design.”

The public submitted more than 2,600 proposals and the commission picked one from Andrew Prekker, 25, of Luverne, as the basis for the flag.

Prekker said Walz had nothing to do with the creation of the flag, and Somalia had nothing to do with the flag design. Minnesota is home to the largest Somali population in the U.S. and is home to U.S. Rep. Ilhan Oman, who was born in Somalia and is a member of an informal group of progressive Democratic House members known as The Squad.

“The inspiration behind my flag were three main concepts inspired by Minnesota’s history and culture: The North Star, the Minnesota shape, and three stripes representing different facets of Minnesotan identity,” he wrote in an email.

Prekker’s original design had the white star on the blue background with white, green and light blue stripes stretching over the rest of the flag. The flag was compared online with flags from states in Somalia that have green, white and blue stripes and a star. The stripes were dropped by the commission in the final design.

The final version of the flag features a dark blue shape resembling Minnesota with a white, eight-pointed star on it. The right side is light blue and is meant to symbolize the state’s abundant waters that led to it being known as the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

The Somali flag has a five-point star on a light blue background. “There is no connection to Somalia or any other country, and in complete honesty I didn’t even know Somalia existed before the whole flag debacle. Any similarities people want to see are a coincidence. It is a Minnesotan flag, and that is what I designed it for,” Prekker said.

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