Why did Gov. Scott Walker lie about voting for Reagan? (UPDATED)

Correction: The right-wing blogger who originally quoted Scott Walker as saying he voted for Ronald Reagan has since corrected his original report, blaming the misquote on a transcription error.

As noted by James Rowen at The Political Environment, Gov. Scott Walker has once again demonstrated his tenuous relationship with the truth. In an interview with a right-wing blog Gov. Walker noted how he voted for Ronald Reagan for president (emphasis added).

I remember, I was a teenager, had just become a teenager and voted for Ronald Reagan — limited government, you know, smaller government, lower taxes, strong national defense. You knew what you were getting. You knew how a Reagan administration, a Reagan presidency was going to be better for you.

According to his official biography, Scott Walker was born on November 2, 1967, so he would have been 13 years old on election day in 1980 and just 17 years old on election day in 1984.

Given the fact that Scott Walker was not ever old enough to vote for Ronald Reagan for president, he’s either lying about having voted for Ronald Reagan or he voted illegally.

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39 thoughts on “Why did Gov. Scott Walker lie about voting for Reagan? (UPDATED)

    1. More than likely, if he had “just become a teenager.” I don’ why he wouldn’t be more specific, though. I mean, I think Reagan was a disaster but clearly the base he’s pandering to doesn’t, so I’d think it’d be a better story to say “even as a teenager, I knew Reagan was the schnizzle, I even voted for him in a junior high election day poll! I only wished I HAD been able to vote for him for realsies!”

      But no, he’s decided it’s better to obscure the issue and hope his base is stupid enough to think he actually voted for Reagan. Knowing his base, they won’t disappoint him by employing logic this late in the game.

  1. I agree with Independent guy; we are overworking this one. Walker has many more blatant and significant lies.

  2. He lied to get a few kudos from Republicans and others that even at an early age he was for the GOP icon Regan. He did that because of his reelection run and possible run for the Whote House.

    1. Former Governor Doyle is the liar.
      He promised to return the DNR Secretary appointment back to the Natural Resources Board. He reneged 3 times though presented the opportunities.
      So what did we just prove? ALL politicians “lie”. Sorry SOB’s… 🙂

      1. IG,

        You’ve cited a broken promise by Doyle, not a lie. Many politicians break campaign promises, Doyle among them. Walker told a flat out lie, and he must have known it was a lie while he was telling it. That makes him a liar.

        Wanna try again?

          1. IG,

            It’s not semantics. I’ll assume Doyle meant what he said when he said it. That’s a broken promise. Walker stated something he knew was false. That’s a lie.

            Wanna try again?

              1. IG,

                I take it you’ve abandoned your ” Doyle is a liar too ” example? You’ve conceded defeat? (This is not a trap, just a straightforward question).

                1. Nope. You assume? I assume Doyle knew he was going to renege when he said he would return DNR sect. to NRB. Three times! Therefore, a lie. Give up?

              2. IG:

                A failure to accomplish a goal stated while campaigning is a sign that a politician was not able to deliver on what he promised. Failure to deliver could be due to a variety of reasons, from “I never intended to do what I said I’d do” to “I was blocked by the legislature [or the courts, or any number of other factors] from accomplishing what I still believe to be a good idea.”

                A lie is an indication you cannot believe what he tells you, whether it’s a promise or a statement of alleged fact or anything else. Unlike a failure to accomplish a campaign promise, there’s only two possibilities with a lie: either he knew he was lying, which renders him dishonest and untrustworthy; or he didn’t know he was lying, which renders him incompetent. In this particular case, as noted, there’s also the possibility that he’s not lying – that he violated the law by voting illegally.

                I’d say a lie is much worse.

        1. That’s true. But my point is one Governor’s lie is no worse than the previous Governor’s lie. The only difference is that Walker’s is ridiculous due to the fact that he was in Jr. High at the time and did not and does not affect the health of WI. Doyle’s lie was damaging to WI. Move’in on….

  3. Why do republicans always leave out the part how Reagan went on the trail complaining bus drivers paid more taxes than the wealthy and the crowd cheered him on for it? Why do they leave out that he raised taxes on the wealthy tremendously in his TERFA? Why do they leave out the fact he dropped millions of lower income workers off the tax rolls to ,in his words, “make it more fair”?

  4. Talking Points Memo has also picked this up, this morning crediting Blogging Blue and this afternoon adding James Rowen.

  5. If you read the article it states ” I was a teenager, I had just become a teenager” which would mean 13 which is when we officially consider a kid a teenager so there is no there there, Look, squirrel. You progressives will grasp at just about anything but once again……….FAIL !!

  6. Hawkins, a truly charmless twit whose speciality is writing moronic blog posts like “10 reasons liberals hate America”, didn’t even have the grace to own the mistake. He blamed his “transcriptionist”. So hard to get good help these days; Obama’s fault no doubt.

    Surely one reason conservatives have trouble getting popular support beyond their base is the sheer repulsiveness of many of their self-appointed internet champions.

  7. or a journalist screwed up. which is, indeed, what happened. audio of the interview is online if, you know, you fact check and correct your stories?

    even the NYT screws up, see their Benghazi series, shredded by Republicans and Democrats in the days following. Senator Feinstein, call your office.

  8. This kind of thing drives me crazy. He wasn’t lying, he made a mistake. We are about the same age, and I vividly remember voting against Reagan (ok, it was in school, not at the polls, since I too wasn’t old enough to vote at the time). If we harp about small things like this though then “they’re just up to their complaining about silly things” will be used to distract the public when it matters. Can we please drop it and get on to something important? There are lots of items to choose from…

  9. The story here isn’t about who Scott Walker supported in a school election as a teen (though his recollection of what Reagan did in office shows him to be quite clueless)

    The real story is how he so easily slips in lies and intends to create a false impression. Just like when he claimed he quit Marquette to spend more time with his kids…..4 years before they were born.

    A real media would call this guy out for such low-class behavior.

  10. … And everyone turns out to be wrong. James Rowen made a transcription mistake. What Walker actually said is :

    “A vote for Ronald Reagan meant limited government, you know, smaller government, lower taxes, strong national defense. You knew what you were getting. You knew how a Reagan administration, a Reagan presidency was going to be better for you.”

    Most reputable sites have already updated with the correct info. Sorry, he didn’t lie at all, but I’m sure you all will get over that fact soon

  11. So the LIBS lied again, not Walker…big surprise, thats all they have. Will they apologize for slander? Not a chance.

    1. If anyone “lied”, it is most likely to be Hawkins. The sound-bite he posted online is mysteriously truncated and could easily have come from another part of the interview. In any event it is a strange conception of lying, taking at face value an interview transcript published by a conservative blogger.

    2. Who lied? I reported on information provided by a right-wing blogger. If anyone’s to blame for posting the wrong information, it’s the right-wing blogger who actually did the interview and then misquoted Gov. Walker.

      As a sidenote, you really should learn the difference between slander and libel.

  12. Gee, I wonder how many “transcription errors” were made in the editing of the Walker epic “Unintimidated”?

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