Correction: Scott Walker Didn’t Say He Voted For Reagan

10 Feb, 2014 by John Hawkins

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Last month, I did an interview with Scott Walker. Here’s an excerpt from that interview which seemed insignificant at the time that has gotten a lot of attention from liberal blogs today.

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.

It turns out Scott Walker wasn’t old enough to vote for Reagan. So, did he lie? Did he misremember it?

Actually, it was neither.

I went back and listened to the audio. It’s a little hard to hear at that point and unfortunately, my transcriptionist made an error. What Scott Walker actually said was,

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.

Here’s the relevant portion of the audio. You can clearly hear Walker saying “a vote for” as opposed to “I voted for.”

All I can do at this point is apologize for the error. This was our mistake and it was very unfair to Scott Walker who is catching flack because of an honest error on our part.

Update #1: Some people have requested a longer clip. So, here’s Scott Walker’s entire response to that question, which includes the excerpt in question.

John Hawkins

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