Tim Walz’s brother, Jeff Walz, has tried to temper a wild attack he made about the Democratic vice presidential pick on Facebook, saying he didn’t want to interfere in the election— but he doesn’t back his brother.
Jeff Walz, a 67-year-old grandfather who lives in Florida, had excited Trump supporters when his private messages appearing to attack his brother as unfit to serve were first revealed by the New York Post, with some suggesting he could endorse the Republican candidate.
In the messages, he called his brother “not the type of character you want making decisions about your future,” and said “I’m 100% opposed to all his ideology.”
Now the Minnesota Governor’s older sibling is backpedaling, telling NewsNation, “I don’t agree with his policies, but in no way am I trying to influence the general public and come out and make a stance on that,” on Tuesday.
“There is going to be no further statements to anybody, and we’re not campaigning or anything for him or against him or anything like that,” Jeff added.
The elder Walz brother also alluded to “stories [he] could tell,” on Facebook, but told NewsNation that these tales were in the same vein as one where none of the three Walz siblings wanted to sit next to Tim during road trips because “he had car sickness,” continuing “there’s really nothing else hidden behind there.”
Facebook comments left by Jeff Walz.
Jeff Walz/Facebook
“I was getting a lot of feedback from my friends, old acquaintances, thinking that I was feeling the same way that my brother did on the issues,” Jeff said. “And I was trying to clarify that just to friends…I used Facebook, which wasn’t the right platform to do that.”
However, he claimed, “the only thing I took exception to, and I will stand behind this 100%, was that we felt bad that we found out about his being picked as the [Democratic] vice presidential candidate from radio.” The older brother of Kamala Harris’ running mate said “we felt like we probably should have been given a heads-up and some type of security, at least for a short time, because I guess that is a big thing.”
In 2016, Jeff, who is a registered Republican, donated to Donald Trump’s campaign. But, the political rift between the Walz brothers only emerged after far-right activist Laura Loomer discovered a post made by Jeff, the day the former president was indicted over hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels.
“We’ve just become a third world banana republic,” he wrote on the social platform. He has made his entire Facebook profile—which other than the “banana republic” reference was largely apolitical—entirely private, or may have deleted it entirely.
A 2023 Facebook post by Tim Walz’s brother.
Jeff Walz/Facebook
The brothers, according to Jeff, have not spoken in eight years for reasons unknown, other than his wife texting Tim “happy birthday and stuff like that.” But, he added “Three weeks ago my mother was visiting here, and he called on her cellphone, and she gave me the cellphone. I talked to him briefly.”
“It’s too bad I guess it worked out that way because he is my brother and everything. You can disagree and still, still be civil brothers,” Jeff said.
He and Tim, 60, have a sister, Sandy Dietrich. Their late brother, Craig Walz, died after being struck by a falling tree in 2016.
A Florida resident, Jeff lives in a humble subdivision of single-story homes tucked behind a Publix supermarket in Freeport—a city of 6,500 in the state’s ultra-conservative panhandle that’s about 15 miles from the coast. The small community is represented by Congressman Matt Gaetz.
A Daily Beast reporter traveled to his home on Tuesday and attempted to speak with him. Two-and-a-half hours later, the Walton County Sheriff’s office called the Beast to warn that a return to Jeff’s property would lead to a trespassing arrest.
