Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), Vice President Kamala Harris’ pick for vice president, is facing harsh criticism from JD Vance over his military record. Vance, a former Marine and vice presidential candidate, accused Walz of abandoning his National Guard battalion just before they were deployed to Iraq, calling it “absolutely shameful.”
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Vance said, “Your job as a senior enlisted guy in a unit is to keep your people safe. That’s not a job you can switch out of on a moment’s notice. If he abandoned his troops before they went to Iraq or wherever, it’s absolutely shameful.”
Reports indicate that Walz retired from the Army National Guard in 2005, four years into a six-year reenlistment, as his battalion was preparing for deployment. In a campaign video, Walz claimed to have carried guns “in war,” which has led to questions about his combat experience.
“There was a clip the Kamala campaign posted about him where he’s making a gun control argument. He said, ‘Look, you should not be able to carry the weapons that I carried in war.’ And I’m thinking to myself, well, when did you go to war? What weapon did you carry in the war, Tim, because apparently you skipped out on your unit before they went to Iraq,” Vance added.
Walz’s overseas deployments included Italy in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Norway for NATO training exercises. Despite these assignments, accusations of embellishing his military career have persisted. Retired Command Sergeants Major Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr alleged in a letter that Walz “embellished and selectively omitted facts and circumstances of his military career for years.”
The letter claimed that Walz reenlisted for six years in 2001 and was promoted to Command Sergeant Major in 2004. However, when the battalion received orders to prepare for deployment to Iraq, Walz retired, leaving his unit without its senior Non-Commissioned Officer.
As the 2024 election approaches, this controversy over Walz’s military service has added to the scrutiny of the Harris-Walz ticket. Vance’s comments have heightened the debate over Walz’s record and his qualifications for the vice presidency.
