CV NEWS FEED // In a Friday statement, the Harris-Walz campaign acknowledged that Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz “misspoke” during a now-viral 2018 video clip in which he claimed to have served “in war.”
“In making the case for why weapons of war should never be on our streets or in our classrooms, the Governor misspoke,” the campaign stated. “He did handle weapons of war.”
During a 2018 speech in support of gun control, then- Congressman and gubernatorial candidate Walz said “we can make sure that those weapons of war that I carried in war is the only place where those weapons are at.”
During his 24 years in the Army National Guard, Walz never served in combat.
>> NATIONAL GUARD OFFICERS SAY WALZ FAKED PARTS OF MILITARY RECORD <<
Critics immediately blasted the campaign’s new statement, noting that it came from a campaign official rather than from Walz himself.
“Interesting that Walz himself is not the one who came out and admitted that he ‘misspoke’ or apologized for claiming he went to war when he never did,” wrote State Freedom Caucus Communications Director Greg Price on X (formerly Twitter). “He just had some unnamed campaign spox do his dirty work for him.”
Price also noted that an X account affiliated with the Harris campaign last week had posted the clip of Walz claiming he carried weapons “in war.”
The Harris-Walz campaign’s statement came during several days of heightened public scrutiny of Walz’s controversial military record.
Several critics, including Walz’s opponent, Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance, have even accused the Minnesota governor of “stolen valor.”
On Wednesday, Vance, a Marine Corps veteran, reacted to Walz’s “in war” comments while answering questions from reporters in Michigan: “I wonder, Tim Walz, when were you ever in war?”
The Republican noted that his opponent “has not spent a day in a combat zone,” and slammed Walz’s remarks as “stolen valor garbage.”
“Do not pretend to be something that you’re not,” Vance said. “I’d be ashamed if I was him and I lied about my military service like he did.”
“You know what really bothers me about Tim Walz?” Vance said:
When the United States of America asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did it. I did what they asked me to do and I did it honorably, and I’m very proud of that service.
When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq you know what he did? He dropped out of the Army and he allowed his unit to go without him, a fact that he’s been criticized for aggressively by a lot of the people that he served with.
The Republican candidate called this behavior “shameful” and “dishonest.”
Furthermore, the pastor who had served as the chaplain for Walz’s battalion called the Democratic vice presidential candidate’s decision to abandon the regiment “cowardly.”
The chaplain, Ret. Cap. Corey Bjertness, told The New York Post: “In our world, to drop out after a WARNORD [warning order] is issued is cowardly, especially for a senior enlisted guy.”
“Running for Congress is not an excuse,” Bjertness added. “I stopped everything and went to war. I left my wife with three teenagers and a 6-year-old and I was gone for 19 months.”
The Post indicated that Walz retired “in 2005, two months before the unit deployed to Iraq.” He was elected to Congress to following year, defeating a Republican incumbent having run on a platform opposing the Iraq War.
Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-WI, wrote on X last week that “[t]here is no ‘other side’” to the story about Walz’s military service.
“[Walz] abandoned his Soldiers, sent them to Iraq and hid under his couch,” added Van Orden, a retired Navy SEAL. “As the longest serving enlisted member of congress, I am disgusted by his cowardice.”
The congressman went on to call Walz a “blue falcon” – a pejorative term used by military service members and veterans to refer to a soldier who betrays his squadmates.
