Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and his wife, first lady Gwen Walz, have clarified that they conceived their children not through IVF, as the governor had previously said or implied in interviews, but through another fertility treatment. 

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, took to social media platform X, formerly Twitter, to seize on the revelation and ask, ‘Who lies about something like that?’ after asserting that Walz had deceived the public about having children via IVF, adding to his earlier attack that Walz had ‘lied’ about his service in the National Guard. 

But the Harris-Walz campaign hit back at Vance:

‘The Trump campaign’s attacks on Mrs. Walz are just another example of how cruel and out of touch Donald Trump and JD Vance are when it comes to women’s healthcare,’ Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg told Fox News Digital. ‘Infertility is a deeply personal journey, but the Governor and Mrs. Walz came forward to share their story because they know that MAGA attacks on reproductive rights are putting all fertility treatments at risk.’

Harris campaign spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg argued to CNN that Tim Walz ‘talks how normal people talk. He was using commonly understood shorthand for fertility treatments.’ The couple did not receive in vitro fertilization (IVF) but instead intrauterine insemination (IUI). 

In a statement shared with media, Gwen Walz said that the journey through fertility treatments is riddled with anxiety, agony and ‘desperation that can eat away at your soul.’ 

‘I cannot fathom the cruelty of politicians who want to take away the freedom for couples to access the care they need,’ she said. ‘After seeing the extreme attacks on reproductive health care across the country — particularly, the efforts in Alabama that jeopardized access to fertility treatments — Tim and I agreed that it was time to formally speak out about our experience.’

‘Like so many who have experienced these challenges, we kept it largely to ourselves at the time — not even sharing the details with our wonderful and close family,’ Gwen Walz explained. ‘The only person who knew in detail what we were going through was our next-door neighbor.’

‘She was a nurse and helped me with the shots I needed as part of the IUI process. I’d rush home from school, and she would give me the shots to ensure we stayed on track.’

Tim Walz stated during an interview with MSNBC in July that he had IVF to thank for their children, saying, ‘Thank God for IVF, my wife and I have two beautiful children.’ In other instances, Walz referred to ‘fertility treatments’ and stressed that the issue of IVF rights remained ‘personal’ for him due to the struggles he and his wife went through to have their children. 

Tim Walz has made his support of IVF a central cause after the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that embryos created by IVF treatments should be considered children, which would lay the groundwork for further legislation on treatments. Embryos that have been fertilized but go unused are often discarded, according to the National Institutes of Health.

The ’embryo disposal decision’ deals with the question of storage after successful childbearing. Many couples end up donating good-quality embryos to a research program, but discarding fertilized embryos remains a common practice. 

IVF requires the removal of several eggs and fertilization outside the body before transfer into the uterus, while IUI directly injects the sperm into the uterus. IUI also involved ‘washing’ sperm to separate them from seminal fluid to increase the number of sperm transferred and increase chances of successful fertilization, according to Cleveland Clinic Health Essentials.

Former President Donald Trump shortly after the Alabama ruling stressed, ‘We want to make it easier for mothers and fathers to have babies, not harder! That includes supporting the availability of fertility treatments like IVF in every state in America.’ 

‘Today, I am calling on the Alabama Legislature to act quickly to find an immediate solution to preserve the availability of IVF in Alabama,’ Trump said in a post on Truth Social following the decision. ‘The Republican Party should always be on the side of the Miracle of Life – and the side of Mothers, Fathers, and their Beautiful Babies.’

The correction issued by the Harris-Walz campaign is another they have had to make regarding previous statements Tim Walz has made, including clarification on his National Guard service. 

The team altered its biography of Tim Walz on the campaign website amid ongoing scrutiny of Walz’s service, changing it from saying he was a ‘retired Command Sergeant Major’ to ‘served as a command sergeant major.’

Tim Walz retired from the Guard after nearly 25 years of service, but his rank was reduced months later, leaving him as a master sergeant. 

National Guard officials have said that he retired before fulfilling requirements for the position, including coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy. The subsequent lower rank was due to benefit requirements and a technicality.

The Trump-Vance campaign did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment by the time of publication. 

Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw contributed to this report. 

The House GOP is setting its sights on a handful of Democratic candidates who have been bankrolled by left-wing billionaires whose money has also gone toward promoting what Republicans call ‘soft-on-crime’ policies.

At least eight Democratic House candidates who have positioned themselves as left-of-center or moderate have received donations from the same wealthy liberals who poured thousands into promoting progressive crime policies in states like California and Florida, campaign finance records show.

All eight are also running in competitive districts, making them prime targets for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the House Republicans’ campaign arm.

‘Defund the police donors backed up the Brink’s truck to bankroll the campaigns of extreme House Democrats,’ NRCC spokesman Will Reinert told Fox News Digital. ‘If elected, these far-left Democrats will work hand in hand with San Francisco liberal Kamala Harris to send violent crime rates soaring, reward felons and punish cops for trying to keep communities safe.’

Among the eight is Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kan., one of the most vulnerable Democrats this election cycle — the most recently available campaign finance data shows Davids received $3,300 in April from Quinn Delaney, a California billionaire who runs the nonprofit Akonadi Foundation.

The Akonadi Foundation committed $12.5 million to an Oakland-based initiative whose goals include closing youth prisons and taking police officers out of schools, according to its website.

Delaney also spent hundreds of thousands to help elect progressive Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, whose progressive reforms have been accused of making residents feel less safe during his tenure.

Delaney along with California megadonor Patty Quillin were named as two of four billionaires who ‘channeled $22 million toward criminal justice ballot measures and allied candidates the previous two years,’ Politico wrote in 2021.

Quillin and her husband, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, also donated $1 million to support a California measure to end the cash bail system and replace it with a risk-based assessment.

Recent campaign finance records show Quillin donated $3,300 to Will Rollins, a former prosecutor running against Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif.

Delaney and Quillin also both gave $3,300 to Adam Gray, who is running to unseat Rep. John Duarte, R-Calif.

Gray, a former state lawmaker, has also received two $6,600 checks from Django Bonderman and Cale Bonderman respectively, both of whom donated significantly to support a 2018 Florida ballot initiative to grant most felons the right to vote.

Django Bonderman is also linked to Mountain Philanthropies, which Influence Watch has classified as a left-wing dark money group that has supported causes promoting leniency in criminal justice.

Campaign finance records show the Bondermans have also donated similar amounts to George Whitesides, who is running against Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif.; Laura Gillen, who is challenging Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y.; Monica Tranel, who is challenging Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont.; and former House Rep. Mondaire Jones, who is running to unseat Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y.

The Bondermans have also donated $3,300 each to Oregon state Rep. Janelle Bynum, who is challenging Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, R-Ore.

Django Bonderman has given small amounts to more moderate members of the House GOP as well, giving $1,000 each to Reps. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, and Steve Womack, R-Ark., in late June. 

A spokesperson for Womack said he returned the donation.

‘Voters have to remember what happened when George Soros funded all of those left-wing DAs,’ John Feehery, a former aide to ex-Speaker Dennis Hastert and current partner at EFB Advocacy told Fox News Digital.

‘Crime spiraled out of control. The same principle applies to these candidates. They will do what the billionaires want and the results won’t be pretty.’

Feehery argued there was a dissonance between such Democrats running more moderate campaigns while accepting funds from progressive sources. ‘They can try, but voters know where their bread is buttered,’ he said.

Crime and perceptions of public safety are likely to play a critical role in suburban districts where Republicans have hammered big-city Democrats as soft on crime. 

Democrats, particularly in competitive districts, have sought to dispel those arguments during this election cycle.

Both Gray and Rollins have touted campaign endorsements from local law enforcement in their areas. Gray has support from both the district attorney and the sheriff of Merced County, while Rollins is endorsed by the Palm Springs Police Association.

‘As a former federal prosecutor with the support of local law enforcement, I understand more than most that defendants should be detained if they’re a danger to our communities, that Prop 47 needs to be repealed so that cops aren’t put in the position of rearresting the same people for theft crimes again and again, and that our police officers need all of the support they can get to keep our families safe,’ Rollins told Fox News Digital. ‘I believe no one is above the law and that we should fund both local police and federal law enforcement.’

He also knocked rival Calvert for once claiming the FBI was ‘infiltrated’ by ‘rot’ and for House GOP proposals, not led by him, that would have seen funding cut to various law enforcement offices.

Tranel, meanwhile, told Fox News Digital, ‘Over half of my donors are from Montana, while only 7% of Zinke’s contributions came from Montanans. If we’re going to talk about donors, let’s look at Ryan Zinke, who took money from a company controlled by the Chinese Communist Party that has bought up US farmland and voted to make it harder for Montana ranchers to compete with China and drive up the cost of living. Montanans deserve a representative who stands up for them, not one who continues to exploit Montana for their own personal profit.’

Zinke’s campaign pointed out that Tranel also received donations from Jonathan Soros and his wife, adding, ‘Ryan Zinke continues to outperform perennial failed candidate Monica Tranel in every aspect of this campaign. Talk about a liberal afraid to be truthful to voters, she refuses to acknowledge that her top client wants to defund the police, she refuses to answer questions about her support for her VP nominee who let criminals burn Minneapolis to the ground, and her presidential nominee who tried to bail them out of jail.’

‘And on the point of Tranel’s statement — Congressman Zinke is the only person in this race who has actually taken action against the Chinese buying farmland, whereas Monica Tranel is pushing American’s reliance on Chinese-made solar, wind and EVs,’ the campaign added.

In Oregon, Bynum previously touted her support for recriminalizing fentanyl possession after the state’s controversial decision to ease drug penalties, which has since been reversed.

‘Voters can see right through the NRCC’s weak falsehoods for what they are: a lame attempt to hide the fact that it’s only been House Republicans who’ve voted for cuts to cripple local law enforcement and make our communities less safe, all while rewarding their convicted felon presidential nominee,’ Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) spokesperson Viet Shelton told Fox News Digital.

The remaining candidates did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., is urging House GOP leaders to hold a chamber-wide vote on impeaching President Biden days after a highly anticipated report accused the commander in chief of committing impeachable offenses.

‘I’ve felt that way for a long time. I’m on the Oversight Committee, I’ve seen all of the evidence up close and personal. It is without a doubt that he used his office when he was vice president to enrich his family as pay for play,’ Donalds told Fox News Digital. ‘That’s public corruption.’

Referencing the phone call with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy that precipitated the first impeachment of former President Trump, Donalds added, ‘Listen, if a phone call is quote-unquote, an impeachable offense, then public corruption absolutely is. I think the House should hold that vote.’

House Republicans released a 292-page report on Monday, a joint effort by the House Oversight Committee, House Judiciary Committee and House Ways and Means Committee, arguing Biden engaged in ‘impeachable conduct.’

Those committees have been working on a monthslong investigation into whether Biden helped enrich himself and his family through foreign business deals while he was vice president.

Donalds’ public pressure is significant; while a majority of House Republicans have publicly accused Biden of at least acting improperly, it’s not clear that House leaders would risk forcing their most vulnerable GOP members to take such a weighty vote with just a razor-thin majority in the chamber.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., indicated in March that criminal referrals could be the end of the road for the probe. He told Newsmax the House ‘would vote to impeach Joe Biden right now,’ but ‘the best path to accountability is criminal referrals.’

In his statement on the impeachment report on Monday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., praised the investigation as ‘thorough, diligent and thoughtful’ but made no mention of a House-wide vote. Johnson himself has previously said he believes Biden is guilty of wrongdoing.

Donalds appeared to reference his colleagues’ hesitation when he told Fox News Digital he would make the case for an impeachment vote to Johnson the next time he spoke with the GOP leader.

‘It’ll definitely probably come up, and we’ll see where it is,’ Donalds said. ‘And look, I know members, they all are trying to figure out what they’re going to do in their re-elections, but we have a responsibility to hold the executive branch accountable. That is the job of Congress.’

‘I think one of the reasons why a lot of people are losing faith in our institutions is because it appears that people at the top of our politics just get away with everything and are never held accountable. And that’s wrong.’

In their report, Republicans said there is ‘overwhelming evidence’ that Biden participated in a ‘conspiracy to monetize his office of public trust to enrich his family.’ They alleged that the Biden family and their business associates received tens of millions of dollars from foreign interests by ‘leading those interests to believe that such payments would provide them access to and influence with President Biden.’ 

The committees said the Biden family and its associates received more than $27 million from foreign individuals or entities since 2014.

They also alleged that the Biden family leveraged Biden’s position as vice president to obtain more than $8 million in loans from Democratic benefactors. The loans ‘have not been repaid and the paperwork supporting many of the loans does not exist and has not been produced to the committees.’

The White House said in response to the report, ‘This failed stunt will only be remembered for how it became an embarrassment that their own members distanced themselves from as they only managed to turn up evidence that refuted their false and baseless conspiracy theories. The American people deserve more from House Republicans, and perhaps now they will finally join President Biden in focusing on the real issues that American families actually care about.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on Donalds’ remarks.