An heartfelt exchange between Tim Walz and his 17-year-old son, Gus, has sparked a flood of praise and support, but it has at the same time led to nasty bullying attacks online.
An heartfelt exchange between Tim Walz and his 17-year-old son, Gus, has sparked a flood of praise and support, but it has at the same time led to nasty bullying attacks online.
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The heartfelt moment between Tim Walz and his teenage son, Gus, has sparked a wave of praise and approval, but it has at the same time provoked ugly incidents of bullying online.
Gus Walz, who suffers from a nonverbal learning disability, along with anxiety and ADHD, watched excitedly from the front seat of Chicago’s United Center and cried openly on Wednesday night as his father, the Democratic candidate for vice president, gave his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.
The Minnesota governor was recounting the difficult fertility treatment he and his wife, Gwen, underwent to conceive their daughter, Hope.
Walz followed up by expressing his love for his family from the stage, saying, "Hope, Gus, and Gwen, you mean everything to me. And I love you."
Gus Walz rose from his seat, with teardrops running down his cheeks, pointed his index finger and exclaimed, “I love you, Dad.”
The heartwarming exchange between father and son, captured on live TV by TV cameras, quickly spread online and was mostly received positively on the web and across media outlets.
Fox News posted a video of the touching moment on its TikTok account, stating "Gus Walz steals the spotlight during dad's acceptance speech." The comments were mostly positive.
“I hope to inspire my children so much that when they see me give a speech about the dreams and passion I have for my country, they are moved to tears like Gus Walz did,” wrote Chasten Buttigieg, husband of Transportation Secretary on X.
“@Tim_Walz has dedicated his life to service and has clearly succeeded in being an outstanding, supportive, and loving father every step of the way, ” he wrote. “We should all be so lucky to know a love like that.”
U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who addressed the audience before Walz on Wednesday night, commended the love between Walz and his children.
More: Who is Gus Walz and what does having a non-verbal learning disorder mean?
“You know you’ve done well as a parent when your kids are as proud of you as Gus and Hope are of Tim Walz,” she wrote on X. “'That's my dad.' No three other words better describe our next Vice President. ”
Actress Mia Farrow added: “Gosh! When sweet Gus Walz, cherished son of Gwen and Tim Walz, his face streaming with tears of pride, shouted 'That’s my dad!' he stole my heart. ”
Critics dismiss Gus Walz as a 'puffy beta male'
But the show of affection provoked a series of snarky and cruel comments from online trolls, many of them MAGA supporters of former president Donald Trump, who faces Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and Walz in November.
Right-wing columnist and provocateur Ann Coulter mocked the teenager’s tears. “Now that's weird, ” she wrote on X. The message has since been deleted.
Mike Crispi, a Trump backer and podcaster from New Jersey, criticized Walz’s “crybaby son” on X and added, “Congratulations on raising your kid to be a blubbering beta male. Congrats.”
Alec Lace, a Trump follower who hosts a show about fatherhood, took his own shot at the teenager: “Get that kid a tampon already,” he wrote, in an apparent jab to a Minnesota state law that Walz passed as governor requiring schools to offer free menstrual products to students.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel mentioned that Jay Weber, a conservative radio host in Milwaukee, made a post on X criticizing the Walz family, now deleted.
"If the Walz(sic) represent today's American man,
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