Fact Check: Is the conspiracy theory behind Tim Walz's dog tweet true? GOP strategist Dustin Grage's post about Scout debunked

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz's vice-presidential campaign has become linked to a rumor. This rumor included Walz and his family dog, Scout, who is a black Labrador mix. The rumor started on August 26, when the Honeyhive Strategies president, Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) uploaded a post on X, which included two different photos of Tim Walz with two different dogs.

The caption of the tweet read:

"Yes, this is Tim Walz tweeting about his dog Scout. Only problem is that these are two completely different dogs."

The post basically suggested that as per the photos, Walz had claimed that two separate dogs represented Scout. After Grage tweeted the photos of Walz with two dogs, Charlie Kirk also fueled the situation by posting a now-removed tweet, as reported by Snopes, that read:

"Tim Walz is an all-time legendary liar."

This made X users believe that along with Grage, Kirk also promoted the rumor. However, it has further been debunked, since it was discovered that Walz was just petting someone else's dog in the park. A video was posted on Tim Walz's Instagram account, in which he could be seen playing with many dogs.

In the Instagram video, he could also be seen petting Scout, his family dog, and the other dog with a blue harness. Several netizens also debunked the rumor. One X user tweeted:

"It took me exactly 45 seconds to go to @Tim_Walz Instagram page and see this is a video of his dog Scout playing with another dog at the dog park."

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Dustin Grage's claims about Tim Walz representing two different dogs as Scout were untrue

One of the photos that Grage had initially shared while causing the confusion, included Walz with his family dog Scout. The photo was originally posted by the Governor on June 15, 2024. The second photo where Walz could be seen petting someone else's dog was a part of a video that he posted on his Instagram feed back in October 2022.

While several netizens accused him of lying about his pet, many highlighted the fact that it was quite natural for people to pet others' dogs in a dog park. Hence, the rumors about Walz lying about his dog were quickly debunked. While Walz had posted a photo of petting the other dog on his account, it soon got removed after the rumor spread.

Snopes had reached out to the Harris-Walz campaign to get an explanation about why the post was deleted. However, no update has been revealed as of now.

Meanwhile, The Daily Beast reported a statement by MSNBC anchor Jen Psaki, according to which, the Republicans had become desperate and thus, ended up targetting Tim Walz's dog. Psaki even took a dig at South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, and said,

"[It’s] coming from the party whose own rising star… Kristi Noem, talked about hating her own family dog so much that she took it to a gravel pit and shot it."

Coming back to the much-talked-about rumors about Walz's dogs, they were debunked quite smoothly.