Did Tim Walz respond to conservative commentator Ann Coulter on X after she described his son's behavior at the Democratic National Convention as "weird"? No, that's not true: A screenshot of this supposed response shows signs of digital manipulation. Lead Stories found no evidence confirming that Walz ever responded to Coulter on X.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X, formerly known as Twitter, on August 22, 2024. It said:
Tim Walz coming for Ann Coulter.
🆘 Don't mess with Gus.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Fri Aug 23 15:52:43 2024 UTC)
The entry on X shared what looked like a screenshot of Democratic vice presidential nominee Walz's reply to Coulter. Its text read:
Talk about why your fiancés keep leavingyou ...
Personal lifeCoulter has been engaged several times, butshe has never married and has no children.
The post on X that is the focus of this fact check referred to an August 22, 2024, tweet by Coulter in which she commented "Talk about weird ..." after sharing a story from Daily Express US, a tabloid site, about Walz's son, Gus, crying during his father's August 21, 2024, speech at the Democratic National Convention.
As of August 23, 2024, Coulter's tweet was no longer available.
Politico (archived here), The Daily Beast (archived here), The New Republic (archived here) and The Independent (archived here) all covered the removal of Coulter's tweet about Gus Walz. But those articles did not say anything about Tim Walz responding to the tweet.
Though the supposed screenshot of his response to Coulter displayed Walz's correct X handle, a manual review of his X account (archived here and here) did not show that he had ever responded to Coulter's tweet. An advanced Google search of Walz's tweets for the exact phrase attributed to him did not produce any results (archived here).
A broad Google search for keywords from the claim, as seen here (archived here), did not show any credible media coverage confirming that Walz had ever commented below Coulter's tweet.
The supposed screenshot of Walz's response contained signs of digital manipulation. The composite image below shows a side-by-side comparison between Walz's supposed reply and Coulter's authentic post (archived here) on August 22, 2024, about her decision to delete her earlier tweet about Gus Walz (click to view larger):
#1: The white vertical line seen in the supposed screenshot (#1) normally does not connect profile pictures on X.
#2: The supposed screenshot did not show the option for sorting comments; seen above with "Most relevant." That pulldown menu is normally seen between an original post and replies.
#3: The supposed screenshot of Walz's reply also did not show "Post your reply," which would normally appear above already posted comments.
#4: The supposed screenshot also missed a thin, white horizontal line that should have separated Coulter's post from the purported reply.
The supposed screenshot of Walz's reply showed the first sentence from the Personal Life section of a Wikipedia article about Coulter (archived here). But it also contained a hint suggesting digital manipulation: A huge space after the end of the sentence.
In reality, that sentence on Wikipedia is followed (archived here) by a linked footnote and additional details, contrary to how it appeared on X.
Lead Stories contacted Walz's press office and the Harris campaign for additional comments but did not receive an immediate response. If we hear back from them, this fact check will be updated as appropriate.
Other Lead Stories fact checks mentioning Tim Walz can be found here. Fact checks of claims about the 2024 U.S. presidential election can be read here.
