Tim Walz seemed to refer to Elon Musk as a "gay guy" during a campaign speech, prompting a quick response from the Tesla CEO. The Minnesota Governor made the comment while opposing tax cuts for the wealthy in Michigan, implying that billionaires like Musk have profited from such policies.
"If you're a billionaire – take Elon Musk, for instance," Walz remarked in viral snippets of the speech, before making the apparent gaffe. "That guy, that gay guy got—." He pauses, then laughs it off, with Harris's team now clarifying that it was an unintentional slip. The Harris-Walz campaign later claimed that Walz "stuttered" while trying to say "that guy got."
Walz's Major Gaffe
"Michigan knows that word," continued the 60-year-old candidate running alongside Kamala Harris, following the comment. The crowd joined in with laughter as Walz completed his thought.
"That dude got a tax cut," he added, while the clip quickly gained traction on social media.
Musk soon took notice and responded on his platform, X. As a supporter of Donald Trump, he wrote, "I have no problem being called gay," using a familiar acronym to underscore his point.
The reaction came within minutes, with the X CEO appearing to brush off any potential controversy. Shortly after, the creator of Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency Musk often supports, chimed in as well.
Shibetoshi Nakamoto, the man behind Dogecoin, posted a tongue-in-cheek message referencing a past joke from Musk about being willing to "sleep with" him—prompting yet another response from the SpaceX CEO.
"I guess Tim Walz read this post," Nakamoto wrote, ending the joke with a laughing emoji.
Musk, who recently voiced support for Republican candidate Trump, replied by reposting Nakamoto's tweet, sparking further reactions to the viral footage.
This led to hashtags like "gays4trump" trending, as people speculated whether Walz's comments were indeed intentional.
Hilarious but Outrageous
In an attempt to dipel any speculation, the Harris-Walz campaign released a statement clarifying that Walz merely "stuttered" during his speech, intending to say "that guy got," a spokesperson explained to the New York Post.
The spokesperson claimed that a heckler in the crowd shouted "dips**t!" as Walz said Musk, causing the candidate to stumble. "The governor laughed and stuttered as he tried to say 'that guy got'—he did not call Elon a gay guy," the representative said.
They added that Walz's later comment to the Detroit audience about "knowing that word" referred to the crowd's familiarity with the insult.
Musk has previously been a target of Walz's jabs, with the Democratic vice-presidential candidate recently using the same term his team now attributes to a crowd member.
Speaking from the college town of Madison, Wisconsin, on October 22, the Minnesota politician accused Musk as dancing "like a dips***" during a raucous rally alongside Trump. Walz recounted how Musk, who endorsed former President Trump shortly after a July 13 assassination attempt, joined Trump's second rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, following his close brush with death there this past summer.
"Elon was on that stage jumping around, skipping like a dips***," Walz said at the time, while joined by former President Barack Obama.
"That guy is literally the richest man in the world, spending millions of dollars to help Donald Trump buy an election."
With the election just days away, several key states — including Michigan and Pennsylvania — are still in play.
