The presidential campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said Walz “misspoke” when he falsely claimed he carried a gun “into combat” while serving in the military.
A 2018 videos that the Harris-Walz campaign shared on social media earlier this week showed the governor, who served 24 years in the Army National Guard, calling for stricter laws on assault weapons while arguing that “weapons of war, that I carry into war,” must “only (be) carried in battle.”
Republican Senator J.D. Vance, a Marine Corps veteran and former partner of President Donald Trump, accused Walz of “stolen courage” regarding his weapons comments and for allegedly “abandoning” the battalion by retiring and starting a political career before the unit. sent to Iraq.
“Governor Walz will not insult or undermine America’s service to this country—in fact, he thanked Senator Vance for giving his life for our country. That’s the American way,” said Harris-Walz campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa. Washington Post on Friday.
“In making the case why weapons of war should not be on our streets or in our classrooms, the governor is wrong,” Moussa said. “They handle weapons of war and strongly believe that only members of the military who are trained to carry weapons can be lethal, unlike Donald Trump and JD Vance who put the gun lobby first over our children.”
ROBYN BECK / AFP
Walz never spent his military career in combat, although he did spend nine months in Italy supporting US forces during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Vance, who spent four years in the Marines, was deployed as a press officer in Iraq for six months but also never saw combat.
Other popular Republican criticism of Walz’s service record includes accusations that he misrepresented his rank by saying he retired as a command sergeant major. Walz was the command sergeant major before retiring but his rank was later reverted to sergeant major because he did not complete the coursework required to maintain his command distinction.
Retired Sergeant Major Doug Julin, who served as commanding officer for Walz, has accused the governor of committing a “misservice” and letting “his troops down” by going over Julin’s head to secure his retirement after a decade of service in May 2005, a month before the battalion was ordered to mobilize for spread to Iraq.
While some former soldiers have criticized Walz’s military record, others have defended the governor’s service. When contacted by NewsweekThe Harris-Walz campaign pointed to several comments from soldiers who served with Walz, including from retired Command Sergeant Major Joseph Eustice, who led the future governor’s battalion.
“Allegations about him dereliction of duty, or leaving the battalion, I don’t believe,” Eustice told CNN’s Brianna Keilar on Friday. “All we knew at the time was that there were rumors that we were going to spread … When the Iraq War came, rumors started that every battalion was going to be deployed … But you don’t spread rumors.”
“I don’t see eye-to-eye on any politics,” he said. “(But) to say he was a traitor or dereliction of duty, in my opinion, is an unfair assessment of what happened … he didn’t serve honorably or do something he shouldn’t have done.”
Retired Staff Sergeant Ryan Marti, who deployed with the unit to Italy with Walz and Iraq without him, said during a CNN interview Thursday night that the governor was “probably one of the most honorable people I know” and that he “didn’t have it.” hurt feelings” about retiring from the military.
