Hot Air readers knew about this nine days ago. Minnesotans knew about it two years ago, at least, and voters in Minnesota's first congressional district knew about it eighteen years ago.

The question now is: why didn't Kamala Harris and her team know about it? CNN's Andrew Kaczynski just made that awkward question relevant by reporting not just on Tim Walz' 1995 DUI arrest in Nebraska, but the fact that Walz has consistently lied about it:

According to court and police records connected to the incident, Walz admitted in court that he had been drinking when he was pulled over for driving 96 mph in a 55 mph zone in Nebraska. Walz was then transported by a state trooper to a local hospital for a blood test, showing he had a blood alcohol level of .128, well above the state’s legal limit of 0.1 at the time.

But in 2006, his campaign repeatedly told the press that he had not been drinking that night, claiming that his failed field sobriety test was due to a misunderstanding related to hearing loss from his time in the National Guard. The campaign also claimed that Walz was allowed to drive himself to jail that night.

None of that was true.

Not at all, as Alpha News' Anthony Gockowski reported in 2022 during the gubernatorial campaign. The Walz campaign tried passing it off as related to alleged "deafness" in 2006, and Walz has never corrected the record since. The state trooper pulled Walz over for speeding and smelled "a strong odor of alcoholic beverage" from Walz.  That led to the field sobriety test and the subsequent blood draw at a hospital.

Put simply, Walz BS'd his way out of the issue in 2006:

In one of the few available articles on the incident, Walz’s campaign manager told the Rochester Post Bulletin he was “not drunk” and “attributed the misunderstanding to Walz’s deafness,” an issue Walz said was caused by his time in the National Guard that has since been “surgically corrected.”

“He couldn’t understand what the officer was saying to him,” Walz’s campaign manager said at the time, noting his deafness caused “balance issues.” Neither the trooper’s report nor the court transcript reference the governor’s hearing issues.

The results of the blood test were later suppressed, seemingly as a result of the trooper’s failure to realize Walz was deaf, according to the Post Bulletin article. This means the results wouldn’t have been used as evidence against Walz had the case gone to trial, but they were still referenced during a March 13, 1996 hearing on the plea agreement.

During that hearing, former Dawes County Attorney Rex Nowlan said that Walz had a blood alcohol concentration of .128 at the time of the incident.

Kaczynski credits and links Alpha News while noting that Walz ended up taking a plea deal. That forced Walz to allocute to the crime, including drunk driving, which Walz' attorney spun in the hearing as an educational opportunity:

Walz took a plea deal, court records show, pleading guilty to reckless driving. In a court hearing in March 1996, Walz admitted that he had been drinking and driving.
His lawyer said Walz intended to use the incident as a way to educate his students on the perils of drinking and driving.

“It’s just a dangerous situation,” Walz said in a court transcript, which Alpha News, a conservative Minnesota outlet uncovered in 2022. “Not just to myself, but to others who aren’t even involved with it.”

Walz' representation of this incident did eventually evolve, so to speak, likely because the stakes got higher in his political career:

As Walz’s political career progressed, so did his explanation for his 1995 arrest.

In 2018, when running for governor, Walz offered a markedly different version of events.

According to Walz, the arrest was a life-changing moment, motivating him to change his behavior. He said he has since given up alcohol and his go-to drink is now Diet Mountain Dew.

So he left a lie on the record for 12 years while running and winning House races in MN-01. Only when the risk of more enthusiastic oppo research emerged in his first gubernatorial race did Walz 'fess up to his DUI. That doesn't make him a hero; it makes Walz an opportunist willing to say anything to get elected. In that sense, he's teamed up with a fitting running mate. 

Just how much of this did Walz disclose to Kamala Harris before she selected him as a running mate? Did Eric Holder even turn it up in the vetting process? If he did, why would she choose a running mate who's lied about a DUI for political purposes over an alternative? Perhaps one in Pennsylvania or Michigan, states Democrats really have to win to recapture the White House?

Perhaps we'll get an answer to that question, if CNN and other media outlets demand one. CNN at least is covering the question now.