‘Pathological’: Vance says Walz habitually embellishes after IVF claim controversy

KENOSHA, Wisconsin — Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) blasted Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) and accused him of lying about how his children were conceived, saying that he has engaged in a pattern of misrepresentations.

Vance made the remarks Tuesday to reporters traveling with him on his campaign jet, dubbed Trump Force Two. Earlier in the day, Gwen Walz, the Minnesota governor’s wife, told CNN that she and her husband used intrauterine insemination, or IUI, to conceive, not in vitro fertilization.

“There’s nothing wrong with having a baby through IVF or not having a baby through IVF, like, why lie about it?” Vance told a handful of reporters. “I just don’t understand that.”

The two procedures are different. While IUI involves the insertion of sperm into a woman’s uterus, IVF involves the insertion of at least one embryo that was created in a laboratory environment.

Walz previously claimed to have used IVF, even discussing it on the campaign trail.

“This one’s personal for me about IVF and reproductive care,” Walz said earlier this month at a rally in Arizona. “When we wanted to have children, we went through years of fertility treatment.”

Vance said he has had friends who tried to conceive a child through IUI, which worked, and other friends who tried IUI and later used IVF. He said anyone who has been through the fertility treatment process, or has known someone who has, knows the difference between the two procedures.

Walz has also come under fire for details about his military service. He has faced questions surrounding whether he misrepresented his rank after his retirement and suggestions that he had retired early to avoid deployment to Afghanistan. Vance connected the revelation about IUI to the drama surrounding Walz’s military service.

Vance said Walz is someone who habitually embellishes stories and then just barely crosses the line into lying.

“If you look at his military record, the lies about the rank, the lies about serving in combat, the lies now about IVF, even lying about his food preferences — my read on him is that he’s a guy who likes to just barely cross the line, right?” Vance said of Walz.

The Ohio senator said he would not be surprised if, over the coming months of the campaign, more “random, bizarre things that he lied about” come to light.

“He just clearly likes to do it,” Vance said. “I don’t understand why, but it seems to be a little pathological.”