Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate Tim Walz is being accused of misrepresenting his military service. Walz served for 24 years in the Minnesota National Guard, but his opponent, Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, contends he inflated his record.
“Walz did say on camera that ‘I carried a gun in a war.’ Well, which war did you carry a gun in? Because you apparently never went to a war zone,” Vance told reporters. “That is a totally reasonable question to ask, and I think the evidence at this point is overwhelming that he lied about serving in a combat zone. By the way, I served in a combat zone.”
Walz was deployed in 2003 and 2004 during Operation Enduring Freedom, but never went to Iraq or Afghanistan. He took part in support missions in Europe, including Italy.
Vance’s criticism is referring to a video clip released by the Harris campaign, in which Walz is discussing the Second Amendment.
“We can do background checks, we can do CDC research, we can make sure we don’t have reciprocal carry among states, and we can make sure that those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is the only place where those weapons are at,” Walz said in the clip.
When Walz was running for governor, however, he admitted in an interview with Minnesota Public Radio that he never served in combat. At the time, fellow veterans criticized the fact that he said he served “overseas” without clarifying where.
Walz said in response, “there are certainly folks that did far more than I did.”
“I willingly say that I got far more out of the military than they got out of me, from the GI Bill to leadership opportunities to everything else,” Walz added.
Walz was also accused of leaving the National Guard to run for Congress, just as his unit was about to be deployed to Iraq. However, reporting from Politico indicates he made decisions about his campaign before the deployment was made official.
“In fact, Walz filed paperwork for his congressional run in February 2005, about a month before reports emerged that the Minnesota National Guard might be deployed,” Politico reported. “Walz then announced his run in May of that year, two months before the Minnesota National Guard’s directive was officially issued.”
“I think Walz played fast & loose with his military bio to stay above water as his congressional district drifted right,” Republican Congressman Peter Meijer said on X. “He let audiences paint in their minds a deceptive picture. It was shady but not stolen valor.”
Democrats who are military veterans are coming to Walz’s defense.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg who deployed to Afghanistan as an intelligence officer in the Navy Reserve posted on X, “Come to think of it, denigrating the worth of a soldier’s service based on whether he deployed to a war zone is… kind of like denigrating the worth of a woman’s citizenship based on whether she happens to have children.”
“Hey @JDVance, did you forget what the USMC taught you about respect?” Sen. Mark Kelly, R-Ariz., posted. “Don’t become Donald Trump. He calls veterans suckers and losers and that is beneath those of us who have actually served.”
