Managing Expectations Before Facing Vance: Walz Now Says He Was Only in China ‘Closer to 15 Times’—Not 30

Back in the mid-’90s, the people who put out MAD magazine dipped their toes into television with a program called “MAD TV.” One of the more memorable bits from that distinctly non-memorable show was a series of skits presenting a fake ad from a dating service called “Lowered Expectations,” in which a series of hideously unattractive to downright repulsive people presented themselves in video profiles for the dating game. It was, well, mildly amusing. 

Now the Democrat vice presidential candidate, the flannel-wearing Tim Walz, seems to be producing such a “Lowered Expectations” profile with every public statement. But his latest attempt is a head-scratcher; the campaign is now “correcting” earlier statements by Governor Walz, claiming he was only the guest of the Chinese Communist Party 15 times, instead of 30. 

As if that makes it somehow… better?

Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, said he traveled to China much less than he had initially highlighted in congressional hearings and media interviews. 

“I have been to China dozens of times,” Walz said during a 2016 congressional hearing. “I’ve been there about 30 times,” Walz told an agriculture-focused publication the same year.

However, a Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson recently acknowledged to Minnesota Public Radio that the number was “closer to 15 times.” 

The revision comes amid growing scrutiny from GOP critics over Walz’s potential ties to the People’s Republic of China and its ruling Communist Party. Earlier this month, House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., sent a letter renewing pressure on the FBI to produce documents related to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) entities or officials that Walz has purportedly engaged with in the past.

For the vice presidential debate on Tuesday, if I were allowed to submit a question (fat chance) it would be this:

“Governor Walz, in 2016 you said you had been to Communist China ‘dozens of times.’ Later you said you had been there ‘about 30 times.’ Now your campaign is saying you had been there ‘closer to 15 times.’ Which is it? Do you not remember? Have you not been keeping track of how many times you were in China as a guest of the Chinese Communist Party? Were you lying in 2016, or are you lying now?”

Of course, the debate “moderators” won’t call Tim Walz out on this, although some voters are doing just that – and so are some members of Congress. And we can look for Republican VP candidate JD Vance to get in a shot on Walz’s mysterious relationship with the Chinese Communist Party.

See Related: On Eve of Crucial VP Debate, More Questions – and Subpoenas – Arise Over Tim Walz’s Ties to CCP

WATCH: Walz Gets Booed at Michigan Game, Called ‘Tampon Tim’—and What Was That He Did With His Finger?

Is this a memory lapse on the part of Tim Walz? I’ve done a fair amount of business in Japan, and while I haven’t been there as much as 30 times, my visits to the Land of the Rising Sun are certainly in double digits, and it would take only a few moments of my counting on my fingers to come up with an exact number; in fact, I make it 12 times, not counting regular commutes back and forth during the course of one project that lasted several months. And, of course, Japan isn’t a Communist country. I have been to China once – for three days – and felt like I was behind enemy lines the entire time, and it says a lot, frankly, that Tim Walz seems to feel so comfortable there.

So why is this number of visits so hard for Tim Walz to keep straight? Is his memory that bad? Or is this the sign of some deeper condition?

We’ve had one national political figure dealing with dementia already. We don’t need another, even in the second chair.