Sleepy Eye, Minnesota — Carrying a Beretta shotgun, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz trekked via tall straw-like grass for 3 hours on Saturday for opening day of the state’s pheasant searching season, however didn’t get one shot off regardless of his efforts.
“There’s good days and there’s great days pheasant hunting,” Walz mentioned when the day wrapped up.
Scott Rall, a good friend of the governor who he usually hunts with, made the only kill on Saturday. Recovering the physique of the birds was a high precedence within the directions given to the searching celebration, however nobody was capable of finding the carcass within the thick brush that at some factors grew as tall as Walz himself.
Lots of the pheasants and animals that did come up out of the tall grass and straw flew backward towards the press. At one level, that prompted Walz to seemingly allude to the 2006 searching accident involving former Vice President Dick Cheney, wherein Cheney unintentionally shot a fellow hunter within the face.
“Every vice president joke ever made was about to be made right there. And I was just like this,” Walz mentioned as he motioned to taking his gun off of security.
“Too far,” Walz mentioned of 1 hen that was in his line of sight.
The governor wore Carhartt searching chaps and an orange vest that commemorated the annual season opener, collaborating within the hunt in his official capability as governor. Nonetheless, it was adopted up with a marketing campaign engagement and got here on the heels of a latest marketing campaign announcement revealing a brand new voting coalition of hunters, anglers, and gun homeowners.
CBS Information
The brand new coalition will search to underscore Harris’ help for “traditional activities.”
Each Vice President Kamala Harris and Walz have leaned into the truth that they’re gun homeowners lately — all of the whereas persevering with to advocate for laws like common background checks. In an interview with “60 Minutes,” Harris revealed she owns a Glock, and throughout an occasion with Oprah Winfrey, the previous prosecutor declared, “If somebody breaks into my house, they’re getting shot.”
Walz informed CBS Information that the Beretta A400 he carried on the hunt was one he bought when he was capturing lots of entice. He famous that the function of the gun had a “kickoff.”
“So, when you get old it doesn’t hurt your shoulder as much,” he mentioned.
On a break to modify out the searching canines, Walz had domestically sourced venison and a Food regimen Mountain Dew. He referenced Sarge, one of many three black labradors that led the vast majority of the hunt.
“Sarge is over here saying I just worked for two damn hours and these guys couldn’t even shoot one,” he joked.
Walz, who grew up in rural Nebraska and frequents farms and soccer video games on the marketing campaign path, is searching for to enchantment to male and rural voters. A CBS Information ballot carried out in August reveals a gender hole amongst doubtless voters approaching 2020 ranges.
Within the ballot, 45% of doubtless male voters mentioned they might select Harris, in comparison with 54% who mentioned they might help former President Donald Trump.
Within the ballot, girls had been additionally extra doubtless than males to see Harris as somebody who “fights for people like you a lot.”
Walz has beforehand bragged about being the most effective shot in Congress when he served within the Home.
Reminiscing Saturday about occurring earlier shoots along with his fellow Minnesota congressional delegation, Walz mentioned, “I used to love that congressional shoot, but it was kind of dangerous because it was all Second Amendment guys that didn’t really know” how you can shoot.
When somebody within the searching celebration talked about Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, the Republican vice presidential candidate, Walz requested, “Do those guys shoot?”
Trump doesn’t hunt. CBS Information has reached out to Vance’s crew.
In a press release, the Trump marketing campaign known as the Saturday hunt “staged,” and Trump marketing campaign co-chair Chris LaCivita mentioned Walz was “bumbling around trying to load his shotgun.”
