There are plenty of reasons to criticize Kamala Harris’s choice of running mate, but his lack of honesty and integrity is certainly one of the biggest red flags. It didn’t take long for the fact that Gov. Tim Walz is exaggerating his military record to come to light, but now even more evidence is emerging that he is intentionally trying to deceive the public about his service to his country.
Now, a video of him from C-SPAN in 2007 in which he falsely claimed that he deployed as part of Operation Enduring Freedom has come to light, showing just how easily he lies about his credentials.
In the video, he claimed: “I spent 24 years in the National Guard, some of that full-time. I was an artilleryman. I deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. My battalion provided base security throughout the European theater from Turkey to England in the early stages of the war in Afghanistan. And that same battalion is now in Iraq at this time."
He falsely claimed that he served in combat in Iraq, which never happened. In fact, he dropped out of the Army shortly after his unit received notice that it was being deployed to Iraq.
He repeated this claim on another occasion, saying in a speech about gun control in 2018: “We can make sure those weapons of war, that I carried in war, are only carried in war.”
A group of retired National Guard command sergeants major set the record straight in a letter to the West Central Tribune, highlighting omissions and outright lies in Walz’s claims about his time in the military. Of particular note is how he retired not long after learning they were being sent to Iraq and left his battalion without their senior non-commissioned officer while they got ready for deployment.
That same year, his rank was reduced to master sergeant because he did not meet the conditions of his previous promotion to command sergeant major.
An Iraq war veteran, Tom Hagen, also criticized him for abandoning his unit, writing in a letter to the editor for the Winona Daily News: “But even more disturbing is the fact that Walz quickly retired after learning that his unit -southern Minnesota’s 1-125 FA Battalion – would be sent to Iraq. For Tim Walz to abandon his fellow soldiers and quit when they needed experienced leadership most is disheartening.”
CNN calls out Walz on his lies
At first, some his comments might have seemed like the typical embellishments one might make about their accomplishments while on the campaign trail, but it has become so blatant and obvious that even CNN had to point it out.
CNN’s Jake Foreman said: “Walz did make a comment, he’s done it a couple times, where he has used language that suggested that he carried weapons in a fighting situation.”
“I know from coming from a military family there is a difference between being in a combat area, being involved at a time of war, and actually being in a position where people are shooting at you. There is no evidence that any time that he was in the position of being shot at and some of his language could easily be seen to suggest that he was,” he added.
Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance has not been shy about calling Walz out on his false claims and accusing him of “stolen valor garbage.” (Related: VP pick Tim Walz accused of "stolen valor" by J.D. Vance – and a group of retired MN National Guardsmen.)
Vance did serve in Iraq, and he is not the only war veteran who is upset by Walz’s fabrications. A retired National Guard soldier who worked with Walz, Doug Julin, said that “The big frustration was that he let his troops down.”
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