Vice President Kamala Harris revealed this week that she has picked Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate in November's presidential election, and it didn't take long for critics to raise several controversial issues about the progressive leftist politician.

One of those controversies is a 1995 arrest for drunk driving in Nebraska when he was pulled over for speeding and found to have a blood-alcohol level well in excess of the legal limit, according to Fox News.

As bad enough as the driving under the influence incident is, the controversy is compounded by the fact that Walz's prior congressional campaign lied about what occurred before he eventually admitted the truth years later.

Busted for drunk driving and speeding

In 2022, Alpha News reported that it had obtained official records of Gov. Walz's DUI arrest, including the police report and a court transcript, that fully revealed the facts of the governor's violation of the law more than 25 years earlier.

In 1995, while working as a teacher and coach in Nebraska, Walz was pulled over for driving 96 mph in a 55 mph zone, at which point the state trooper detected the "strong odor of alcoholic beverage" emanating from him and his breath.

Walz failed both a field sobriety test as well as a preliminary breath test, after which he was transported to a local hospital for a blood test, which he also failed with a .128 blood alcohol level, which was higher than Nebraska's .10 limit at the time and is certainly higher than the current .08 limit.

He was eventually booked at the county jail on charges of driving under the influence and speeding, which were later pled down in a deal with prosecutors to a single count of reckless driving.

Campaign lied about what happened

According to Alpha News, Gov. Walz's DUI arrest came up during his 2006 run for Congress, but rather than be honest with voters about his prior transgression his campaign team chose instead to lie about it and falsely claimed to local media that he was "not drunk" during his run-in with law enforcement.

The campaign further claimed that the entire ordeal was a big "misunderstanding" caused by the "deafness" Walz suffered because of his National Guard military service -- which had since been "surgically corrected" -- that resulted in "balance issues" and not being able to understand what the state trooper was saying to him during the field sobriety test.

However, there is no mention of any hearing issues in the police report, and though the results of the blood test were later suppressed as evidence, ostensibly because of the deafness, his poor hearing was also not mentioned in the court transcript.

What the transcript from a 1996 hearing did reveal was that Walz's attorney at the time acknowledged that his client "had been drinking" and that he had sped away from the pursuing trooper because he thought "somebody was chasing him" and didn't realize it was law enforcement until the vehicle's lights and siren were turned on.

The plea deal, resignation offer, and eventual admission of truth

According to The Independent, as part of the plea deal that dropped the DUI and speeding counts in favor of reckless driving, Walz received a stern admonishment from the judge and was ordered to pay a $200 fine plus court costs.

Walz also reportedly tendered his resignation from the school he was working at in Nebraska at the time but that offer was rejected by the school's principal and he remained on the job.

During his 2018 campaign, Walz eventually admitted the truth of what had occurred in a local media interview and described the incident as a "gut-check moment" that compelled him to give up drinking alcohol for good.