Tim Walz admitted to millions of Americans that he "misspoke" about being in Hong Kong during the historic Tiananmen Square massacre - a stunning confession that led to one of the most awkward moments of Tuesday night's VP debate.

The Minnesota governor stammered in reply when moderators asked him to explain his misleading claims, which surfaced hours before Walz took the debate stage in CBS's studio in New York.

Walz lied about Tiananmen Square

Minnesota Public Radio initially flagged Walz's claims in an article on his extensive travels to China as a teacher, which he has recently downplayed as he presents himself as an affable, folksy guy from the Midwest.

The article resurfaced comments from 2014 hearing commemorating 25 years since the student protests. Walz, then a congressman, claimed to be in Hong Kong as the historic protests were underway.

“As a young man, I was just going to teach high school in Foshan in Guangdong, and was in Hong Kong in May of ’89,” he said. “And as the events were unfolding, several of us went in. And I still remember the train station in Hong Kong.”

As recently as June 2019, while serving as governor, Walz shared a similar dramatic narrative about being in Hong Kong on the day of the massacre, CNN reported.

“I was in Hong Kong on June 4, 1989, when, of course, Tiananmen Square happened. And I was in China after that. It was very strange ‘cause, of course, all outside transmissions were, were blocked – Voice of America – and, of course, there was no, no phones or email or anything. So I was kind of out of touch. It took me a month to know the Berlin Wall had fallen when I was living there,” he said.

CNN also reported that Walz recounted the story in 2009, calling the experience something he would "never forget."

Walz implodes on TV

Despite the dramatic story, contemporary news articles show that Walz was in Nebraska at the time, and he did not travel to China until August of that year.

When asked to address his past claims at Tuesday night's debate, Walz responded by rambling about his life, beginning with his childhood in Nebraska.

“All I said on this was, I got there that summer and misspoke on this, so I will just – that’s what I’ve said,” he said. "I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protests went in. And from that, I learned a lot of what needed to be in, in governance,” he said.

Walz's answer was one of the most uncomfortable moments of the debate, which saw Walz deliver a shaky performance against a comparatively polished J.D. Vance.

The "misspeaking" fits a pattern from Walz, who also lied in the past about a drunk driving arrest and carrying "weapons of war" during his time in the National Guard.