Tim Walz slams JD Vance comment that school shootings are a 'fact of life'

WASHINGTON — Amid highlighting his record on protecting and advocating for LGBTQ+ rights, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Saturday slammed JD Vance’s recent comments that school shootings are a “fact of life.”

“It’s a fact of life that some people are gay,” Walz said during remarks at the 2024 Human Rights Campaign National Dinner in Washington, D.C. “But you know what's not a fact of life? Our children being shot dead in schools.”

Four people were killed Wednesday during a school shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, and eight students and one teacher were injured.

Vance, one day after the shooting, called school shootings a “fact of life” and advocated for more security in schools.

“I don’t like that this is a fact of life,” Vance said during a rally in Phoenix, Arizona on Thursday. “But if you are a psycho and you want to make headlines, you realize that our schools are soft targets. And we have got to bolster security at our schools.”

Walz, speaking to roughly 3,500 people at the dinner on Saturday, highlighted his and Vice President Kamala Harris’ record in advocating for LGBTQ+ rights. He noted Harris was among the first to officiate same-sex marriages in the country.

During his time as a high school teacher at Mankato West in Minnesota, Walz was the faculty advisor for the school’s first gay-straight alliance club in 1999. He noted that one of the students who helped start the alliance, Jacob Reitan, was at the HRC dinner on Saturday.

“It's easy to be an ally, what really matters is knowing who's going to be at your side to stand up when it's hard,” Walz said.

Throughout Saturday’s dinner, Walz repeatedly punched back at Vance, and the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Walz said Trump during his presidency “didn’t do anything” to help end childhood poverty.

“They didn't do anything on lowering childcare costs,” Walz said, before referencing a rambling response Trump gave recently to use tariffs to pay for child care. “Did you hear? He's got a plan on childcare costs that no one in the world understood a damn word about.”

While Walz slammed the Republican ticket, he also said that Democrats have to run on a plan and not just “hope” that they win.

Walz laid out what he and Harris would do if they are elected to serve as the next administration – from lowering taxes for working families to enacting family and medical leave. He added that Harris and him would make sure to help pass and sign into law the Equality Act, which would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in health care, housing, education and the law.

“You look around this room, you can feel hope... We hope we win this election. We hope we pass these laws. We hope we lift people out of poverty,” Walz said. “But my wife always reminds me of this, it's not a damn plan.”

“It's not a plan to hope we win this election. We've got to have a plan. We've got to work for it,” Walz said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Walz says children being 'shot dead' in school is not a 'fact of life'