A rumor that circulated online in June 2025 claimed Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz deleted posts praising Vance Luther Boelter, 57, who faced charges in a pair of shootings involving Democratic state lawmakers and their spouses. The shootings, which killed two people, occurred early June 14.
For example, on June 16, the X account The Patriot Oasis (@ThePatriotOasis) posted (archived), "BREAKING: Governor Tim Walz has DELETED every post he made praising Minnesota a*sassin Vance Boelter." The post received more than 7.6 million views.
(@ThePatriotOasis/X)
Other users also shared posts promoting this rumor on Bluesky (archived), Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), LinkedIn (archived), Threads (archived), Truth Social (archived) and X (archived). Some commenters under these posts remarked that Walz's alleged deletion of posts praising Boelter wouldn't amount to much, sharing sentiments similar to "the internet is forever" — a popular phrase claiming no one can completely remove incriminating content users share online. For example, some users claimed (archived) screenshots existed of Walz's posts, while others made light of those promoting the rumor.
(@cgwood62/Threads)
However, users who alleged Walz deleted posts praising Boelter did not share any credible evidence to support their claim, as of this writing. Had Walz deleted any such messages following the shootings, remnants of the posts, and their former links, might still exist in results pages of popular search engines. Searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo found no records of Walz's posts mentioning Boelter on his @GovTimWalz gubernatorial account, or on his @Tim_Walz personal feed. Further searches found no other records of posts praising Boelter on other social media platforms, either.
Snopes emailed Walz's office to ask about the rumor, and also messaged X user @ThePatriotOasis inquiring if they could share any evidence to support their claim. We will update this story if we receive more information.
On June 16, the U.S. Department of Justice charged Boelter, of Green Isle, Minnesota, with stalking and murdering Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, in addition to stalking and shooting Minnesota State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman. The Hennepin County Attorney's Office in Minnesota announced Boelter also faces state charges on two counts of second-degree intentional murder and two counts of second-degree attempted intentional murder. The state said it intended to seek first-degree murder charges, and that the reason authorities filed second-degree charges was "to secure a warrant as quickly as possible."
Boelter's connection to Minnesota government
Users shared the unsubstantiated rumor about Walz deleting posts in relation to Boelter's former role on a Minnesota board. In 2019, Walz reappointed Boelter as a member of the governor's workforce development board, after then-Gov. Mark Dayton first appointed him in 2016. A news release (archived) from Walz's office listed Boelter's reappointment end date as Jan. 2, 2023. Another release (archived) from March 2023 said another person had replaced Boelter.
The Minnesota Star Tribune reported that Walz, who was then-Vice President Kamala Harris' vice-presidential running mate in the 2024 presidential election, did not know Boelter, citing an unnamed source in the governor's office. Snopes did not yet independently verify this claim. The newspaper also reported that the board consists of around 60 members and that at least hundreds of people apply each year to serve on the state boards, task forces, advisory councils and commissions.
In a separate article, the Star Tribune (archived) published information about Boelter's purported political affiliation:
Friends and associates say Boelter, 57, was mild-mannered. His social media footprint is small. He appears to have leaned toward conservative views, at least once registering to vote as a Republican and identifying as an evangelical Christian. One of his closest friends said Boelter voted for President Donald Trump last fall.
The friend, David Carlson, also said Boelter did not strike him as a zealot fixated on politics. And he never talked about violence.
[…]
Boelter was a devout Christian who opposed abortion and went to church "every Sunday" — first at an Assembly of God church and later at non-denominational churches, Carlson said.
For further reading, a previous fact check reported additional details of Boelter's involvement with the board.