Family members of three people who will appear near the top of voters\u2019 2024 ballots have spoken out against their own kin. If you\u2019re looking for something that epitomizes our polarized political age, that\u2019s surely it.<\/p>\n
But as Donald Trump and his allies seek to play up supposed political discord in Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz\u2019s family, they might want to slow their roll a bit.<\/p>\n
If family members are any gauge of a politician\u2019s character, Trump fares much worse than Walz. The familial attacks lodged at Trump and his new ally Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are simply on a different level \u2014 both compared to Walz and historically.<\/p>\n
To recap: This weekend we learned that Walz\u2019s brother Jeff Walz wrote on Facebook that he was \u201c100% opposed\u201d to his brother\u2019s ideology. He said Tim Walz is not the \u201ctype of character\u201d who should be making major decisions for the country. \u201cThe stories I could tell,\u201d Jeff Walz added.<\/p>\n
Then a photo emerged purporting to be other members of Walz\u2019s family wearing \u201cNebraska Walz\u2019s for Trump\u201d T-shirts.<\/p>\n
Tim Walz\u2019s family members in Nebraska are voting for Trump. pic.twitter.com\/CmBrx1APMm<\/p>\n
\u2014 Matt Wolking (@MattWolking) September 4, 2024<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cHis brother endorsed me, and the whole family endorsed me,\u201d Trump claimed Wednesday night on Fox News. Fox hosts and right-wing media have played up the stories.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s claim is characteristically false, though; Jeff Walz hasn\u2019t endorsed Trump, and neither has anything even close to Walz\u2019s \u201cwhole family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even as Trump and his allies were highlighting the Walz family, the likelihood of true familial discord fizzled. Jeff Walz appeared on NewsNation and downplayed the supposed dirt he had on his brother, while saying he wouldn\u2019t get involved in the campaign. We also learned Wednesday night that the \u201cNebraska Walz\u2019s for Trump\u201d were apparently distant cousins \u2014 so distant that Walz\u2019s sister didn\u2019t recognize them. (The AP reported they are descendants of Walz\u2019s great-uncle.)<\/p>\n
The resulting picture is of a politically opposed, estranged brother briefly stumbling into the national spotlight and just as quickly begging for the exits, and effective strangers who share a bloodline opting to be photographed opposing Walz. That\u2019s not nothing, but it\u2019s not close to what Trump claimed.<\/p>\n
As notably, nor is it close to what Trump\u2019s own family has said about him \u2014 or what Kennedy\u2019s family has said about their estranged relative.<\/p>\n
Both Trump\u2019s niece, Mary Trump, and his nephew, Fred Trump III, have now written critical books about Trump and spoken out against his character in no uncertain terms.<\/p>\n
Mary Trump in 2020 said Trump demonstrates \u201csociopathic tendencies,\u201d while adding that the then-president is \u201cutterly incapable of leading this country, and it\u2019s dangerous to allow him to do so.\u201d She not only opposed him but called for him to resign.<\/p>\n
Fred Trump III more recently said Trump last year suggested that his nephew\u2019s mentally and physically disabled son should be left to die to avoid further medical expenses: \u201cHe said, he doesn\u2019t recognize you, let him die and move down to Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n
The siblings had visited Trump at the White House, but they ultimately decided to blow the whistle on him.<\/p>\n
Mary Trump also recorded Trump\u2019s sister, former federal judge Maryanne Trump Barry, saying that Trump had \u201cno principles\u201d and that \u201cyou can\u2019t trust him.\u201d Fred Trump III now says he witnessed Maryanne Trump Barry writing an op-ed opposing her brother in 2016, but that it was never published. (Maryanne Trump Barry, who died last year, never publicly came out against her brother.)<\/p>\n
The other big example this election cycle is Kennedy, who suspended his campaign recently and endorsed Trump but will remain on many states\u2019 ballots.<\/p>\n
Numerous members of Kennedy\u2019s famous Democratic family, including no fewer than six siblings, denounced his independent campaign and backed the Democratic ticket. They cited his \u201cdeplorable and untruthful remarks\u201d about covid, his vaccine conspiracy theories and \u201chis poor judgment and tenuous relationship with the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s difficult to find comparable historical examples of the kinds of things family members have said about Trump and Kennedy.<\/p>\n
There was a spate of this kind of thing during the 2018 campaign, but at a much lower level. Six siblings of Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.) appeared in a campaign ad against him. Another candidate\u2019s brother appeared in an ad against him. A candidate in Missouri was denounced by two of his children as a bigot. And the parents of the GOP Wisconsin Senate candidate quickly donated the maximum amounts to the Democrat he sought to unseat, shortly after the Republican entered the race.<\/p>\n
One of the earliest female members of Congress, Rep. Coya Knutson (D-Minn.), lost reelection after her husband signed a public letter titled, \u201cCoya, Come Home.\u201d (The letter is believed by many to have been the work of political operatives.)<\/p>\n
And back in 1920 \u2014 in my favorite example \u2014 presidential son Theodore Roosevelt Jr. campaigned for Republican Warren G. Harding even as Roosevelt\u2019s cousin, Franklin, was the Democratic vice-presidential nominee. By 1924, both FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt responded during Theodore Jr.\u2019s run for New York governor by campaigning against him. Eleanor Roosevelt even traveled the state in a teapot-themed car in an attempt to tie Theodore Roosevelt Jr., whom Harding had appointed assistant secretary of the Navy, to the Harding administration\u2019s Teapot Dome scandal.<\/p>\n
A century later, candidates\u2019 family members are making an increasing number of political splashes. It\u2019s just that some ripples are a lot bigger than others.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Family members of three people who will appear near the top of voters\u2019 2024 ballots have spoken out against their own kin. If you\u2019re looking for something that epitomizes our polarized political age, that\u2019s surely it. But as Donald Trump and his allies seek to play up supposed political discord in Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9110,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}