False information follows VP nominee onto the campaign trail
Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, this past week announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, which brought out a new batch of false information.
One social media claim says Walz changed the Minnesota state flag to resemble the Somali flag.
The Minnesota flag was redesigned during Walz’s tenure, according to The Associated Press, but it had nothing to do with Somalia, and Walz had nothing to do with the design.
The flag was updated to replace a seal on the previous flag that was considered offensive to Native Americans. The design showed a Native American riding a horse into the sunset as a settler plows a field, while a rifle and powder horn rest nearby on a tree stump.
In 2023, Minnesota established the State Emblems Redesign Commission to replace that image and to “accurately and respectfully reflect Minnesota’s shared history, resources and diverse cultural communities,” according to a statement from the commission.
The design for the flag, by Andrew Prekker, 25, of Luverne, Minnesota, was chosen from more than 2,600 submissions from the public. His original design included a dark blue shape on the left and a light blue field covering the rest of the banner, with green, white and blue stripes. There is also a white, eight-point star on the dark field. In the final design, the stripes were eliminated.
“The inspiration behind my flag were three main concepts inspired by Minnesota’s history and culture: The North Star, the Minnesota shape, and three stripes representing different facets of Minnesotan identity,” Prekker told the AP.
“There is no connection to Somalia or any other country, and in complete honesty I didn’t even know Somalia existed before the whole flag debacle. Any similarities people want to see are a coincidence. It is a Minnesotan flag, and that is what I designed it for.”
Walz remains governor
As Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz accepted the opportunity to run for vice president alongside presidential candidate Kamala Harris, there were social media claims the governor was no longer governor. And that Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan was taking that position.
“Tim Walz's nomination for Kamala Harris running mate, means that Peggy Flanagan became Minnesota's new governor, the first Native American governor in US history,” read a Facebook post on the same day Harris made the announcement.
But this is false and there are no credible news reports that Walz has stepped down, according to USA Today. He is not required to resign his position as governor in order to run as the vice presidential nominee.
Attorney Devin Driscoll, who teaches state constitutional law at the University of Minnesota Law School, told USA Today that the Minnesota constitution states the lieutenant governor will become governor in the case of a vacancy that includes an incumbent’s resignation.
“So, unless/until Gov. Walz resigns, there is no vacancy, and if there is no vacancy Lt. Gov. Flanagan does not become governor,” Driscoll said.
First lady wasn’t cloned
A recent social media post suggests that there is an impostor posing as the first lady.
“THEY ARE GETTING SLOPPY. Jill Biden in Paris … ALONE (more than an 8 hour trip away) AND at the White House with ‘Joe Biden’ AT THE SAME TIME,” read a July 25 Instagram post that included the text, “AI GENERATED CLONE.”
But that was no clone, according to Reuters. Jill Biden was in both places, at different times.
On July 24, Jill Biden attended a speech by her husband, President Joe Biden, as he announced he was no longer going to seek a second term as president. The speech began at about 8 p.m. EST, and at 9:17, a White House staffer posted a video of the president and the first lady walking out to the Rose Garden.
“Moments” after the speech, the first lady took a plane to Paris, flying nearly 4,000 miles, to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, CNN reported.
At 5:22 a.m. EST on July 25, Jill Biden’s press secretary Vanessa Valdivia posted a photo to her X account with the caption, “Wheels down in Paris, where @FLOTUS has just arrived. She’s leading the U.S. delegation for the opening of the 2024 Paris Olympics.”
Clark not endorsing X
WNBA basketball star Caitlin Clark will be doing endorsements for the social media platform X, a recent social media post said.
“Elon Musk backs Caitlin Clark, offers $10 million endorsement: ‘I support you, Caitlin Clark,’” the July 23 Facebook post read.
The Indiana Fever guard is signed on to do endorsements for Wilson, Nike and Gatorade, according to PolitiFact, but not X.
The post, which originated on a satire site and the corresponding Facebook account SpaceX Fanclub, has been shared as true.
Both the site and account are marked as fake content.
“We post SATIRE, nothing on this page is real,” the Facebook account states.
• Bob Oswald is a veteran Chicago-area journalist and former news editor of the Elgin Courier-News. Contact him at boboswald33@gmail.com.