Tim Walz 'dancing cowboy' clip is manipulated

As Tim Walz rises to national prominence as the Democratic nominee for US vice president, online posts claim a video shows him dancing in a cowboy hat with his midriff exposed and dollar bills in his waistband. But the clip has been altered; the original shows a different person without glasses who has shared other clips of his particular dance style.

"Is that Tampon Tim? If so, all of the sudden things make A LOT more sense!" says an August 18, 2024 X post sharing the video.

The post, which accumulated thousands of interactions, references a meme criticizing the Minnesota governor for signing a law providing free menstrual products to school students.

"This newly discovered video is from a few years ago, and it confirms what I already suspected," says a Facebook post with the same footage of a man shaking his hips and blowing kisses.

Walz has been the target of much disinformation since Vice President Kamala Harris selected him as her running mate to challenge Republicans Donald Trump and J.D. Vance in the November presidential election. He officially accepted the Democratic nomination in a speech on the third night of the party's convention in Chicago, during which he told the story of his middle-class upbringing in Nebraska, where he worked on the family farm.

But the video circulating online does not show Walz.

Using a keyword search, AFP found the unedited video was posted on TikTok in February 2024 (archived here). The clip, credited to the account @thrivingoutcast, shows a person with a different face who is not wearing glasses. 

AFP found other examples of the same man -- whom Reuters identified as Alejandro Casas -- dancing at a flea market in Alamo, Texas. Casas, who goes by El Divo 956, has shared similar videos on Facebook.

Another keyword search surfaced a blog post indicating Casas was banned from the Alamo venue for allowing people to place dollars in his waistband (archived here).

AFP has previously fact-checked other false claims about the 2024 US presidential election.