Tim Walz Touted Endorsement From Kremlin Propagandist Who Called 9/11 a ‘False Flag’

Former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura also endorsed the Harris-Walz ticket

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, in his last campaign for Minnesota governor, touted an endorsement from a pro-Kremlin conspiracy theorist who called 9/11 a “false flag operation” and allegedly said the Navy SEALs “deserve to lose a few guys” in Iraq.

In October 2022, Walz said he was “thrilled” to receive an endorsement from Jesse Ventura, the former pro wrestler, ex-Minnesota governor, and former host for Moscow’s propaganda outfit, RT America. “Since leaving office, I’ve rarely endorsed a candidate for office in Minnesota of any political persuasion,” Ventura said in a video released by the Walz campaign.

Ventura, who won a third-party bid for Minnesota governor in 1998, endorsed the Kamala Harris-Walz ticket in a CNN interview Friday, saying he wanted to “see a woman president.” And he lauded Walz on his podcast Sunday.

“Tim Walz is very much a Jesse Ventura,” Ventura said.

Support from the likes of Ventura, known for espousing anti-America conspiracy theories, could undercut the Harris campaign’s portrayal of Walz as a folksy Midwesterner who can appeal to moderate voters in battleground states.

In 2012, Ventura said the United States government had prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks and may even have used it to justify going to war in the Middle East. “It was almost like they ignored it because they wanted it to happen,” Ventura told CNN’s Piers Morgan.

“Every war fought starts with a false flag operation,” he added.

Former Navy SEALs, including “American Sniper” author Chris Kyle, have accused Ventura of disparaging members of the elite fighting unit during the Iraq War. Kyle claimed he punched Ventura in a bar in 2006 after the former governor said the SEALs “deserved to lose a few guys” because of U.S. actions in Iraq. Ventura, a former SEAL himself, has denied the claim and sued Kyle’s book publisher after Kyle was murdered in 2013.

Ventura won a judgment in the case against Kyle’s estate, but other SEALs have said they witnessed Ventura make the statement before Kyle struck him. Former SEAL Jeremiah Dinnell testified at the defamation trial in the case in 2014 that he heard Ventura say, “You guys deserve to lose some guys over there,” before Kyle hit him.

Ventura has delivered other anti-America screeds. He has called the United States “a fascist nation” and in 2011 said he would “never stand for the national anthem again.” Those views are in line with other left wingers who pushed for Walz to be Harris’s running mate.

Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) urged Harris to select Walz as her running mate, as did anti-Israel Squad members, the Democratic Socialists of America, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a group that praised Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel.

Ventura’s views about the United States are perhaps what prompted Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to personally hire the ex-wrestler in 2015 to host a talk show on RT America, a subsidiary of the Moscow-based Russia Today network that the Department of Justice considers a foreign agent of Russia. Ventura said Putin “assured me he would never interfere in anything I talk about” on the show, which aired until 2022.

Ventura used that perch to criticize American foreign policy and push conspiratorial views about the United States. In the lead up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ventura echoed Kremlin talking points, and said he saw “no purpose for NATO.”

He urged the United States to push Ukraine to accept agreements not to join the alliance. “Go along with what Russia wants and that will defuse the situation,” Ventura said.

Ventura suggested the United States aimed to fan the flames of war by accusing China of leaking coronavirus from a lab in Wuhan. “But let’s remember the United States isn’t clean on this either,” said Ventura, who then floated the unfounded conspiracy theory that Lyme disease was a biological weapon that escaped from a New Jersey lab.

In an interview Friday backing the Harris-Walz ticket, Ventura criticized Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance for calling out Walz over inconsistencies in his military background. Walz has repeatedly embellished his rank in the National Guard and claimed in 2018 to have served “in war.” He referred to himself as a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2004 and 2006, though he never deployed to the Middle East, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Ventura defended Walz and said it was “despicable” for Vance, a former Marine, to “attack a fellow veteran.” It is unclear if the Harris-Walz campaign sanctioned Ventura’s endorsement on CNN. Neither the ex-wrestler nor the campaign responded to requests for comment.