Dan Le Batard Admits Tim Walz 'Used' Him During Softball Interview

Former ESPN host Dan Le Batard recently booked Tim Walz and Doug Emhoff on his digital show in what he admitted was an attempt to normalize Kamala Harris' respective running mate and husband.

On Wednesday, Le Batard's guest, David Samson, criticized him for how he conducted his interview with Walz.

"I think you wasted quite an opportunity to sit with the potential vice president. The election was a week from your interview and you did not get to any questions," Samson told Le Batard. 

"I guess you were interested in what his football acumen was. Maybe you were under a set of rules and guidelines of what you could do. But you’re a journalist. And you have a show. Yes, you’re jocular and it’s funny. And people can say, ‘Don’t mix politics and sports.’ Well, guess what? We have an election in seven days and you just sat there and you allowed it to turn into a circus. I thought that it was a very poor performance, Dan, if I can say that to you."

Le Batard called the criticism "fair."

"[Walz] used us as his agenda to appear incredibly likable, at least because 10 minutes of the questions were silliness," Le Batard responded. He said in his "meager defense" that Walz had talking points, and if they were to discuss a topic like abortion, he "would have lost 10 minutes."

He's right. 

Asking about policy often leads to meandering, rehearsed lines that limit the time to ask other unique questions. We don't fault Le Batard for not getting into the weeds with Walz or Emhoff.

However, that's not a valid excuse to avoid asking any tough questions. Which Le Batard did.

Specifically, he interviewed Emhoff on Oct. 16 in one of Harris' husband's first interviews since a Daily Mail report stated that he "forcefully slapped" his former girlfriend in the face in 2012. 

Le Batard claims to have "zero tolerance" for domestic violence (which, based on his employment of Howard Bryant, who was arrested for beating his wife, is a lie). He called for the UFC to punish Dana White severely for an incident in 2023 during which he slapped his wife in public.

Yet Le Batard didn't even cite the Daily Mail report about Emhof during his interview with him. Rather, he pressed Emhoff on what "love" means.

"Tell me what you've learned about love from your wife," Le Batard said, beginning the interview.

Likewise, he could have asked Walz about his lengthy list of lies and exaggerations, including putting tampons in boys' bathrooms, deserting his soldiers, and letting cities in Minnesota burn in the name of George Floyd—all of which would've interested Le Batard's listeners.

Unfortunately, none of those topics came up during the chat.

The only semi-serious topic Le Batard broached with Walz was asking him to condemn insult-comedian Tony Hinchcliffe making a joke about Puerto Rico at a Trump rally in Madison Square Garden.

"Using vulnerable people as the punchline for your joke is weak. That is not humor... The guy's delivery was terrible. It was mean-spirited. That wasn't a joke, that was a dog-whistle. Not even a dog whistle," stated Walz. "That was a scream."

They later discussed porn:

"I’m straddling a very difficult line between a sports audience that doesn’t want me to do any politics at all and trying to keep them entertained with range on content… plenty of people hate me because I’m putting it in a sports show to begin with," Le Batard concluded of his interview with Walz.

Oh, really?

What makes Le Batard look particularly shallow, weak, and stooge-ish is that while he lobs Walz and Emhoff softballs, he and his minions had previously ambushed Michele Tafoya for the mere fact that she has conservative views.

Le Batard had no problem agitating his "sports audience" when questioning Tafoya.

"The second I got on, I was ambushed with ‘You’re anti-CRT. You’re a racist. You can’t read the Florida law without it being homophobic,’" Tafoya told Fox News about the interview. "I was absolutely ambushed."

How dare Tafoya reject the sexual indoctrination and anti-white training of young children? Damn her.

Ultimately, the press teams of Walz and Emhoff knew what they were getting by booking their clients on Le Batard's YouTube show.

While the list of far-left sports media pundits is lengthy, most of them have minuscule audiences  – like Jemele Hill, Bomani Jones, Sarah Spain, and Kenny Mayne. Le Batard provides a decently-sized audience size and a built-in promise to never challenge the woke way.

Of course, Walz and Emhoff, as Le Batard admits, "used" him. If we were in their shoes, we would have too.