In something of a shocker, Vice President Kamala Harris chose not a swing-state governor like Gov. Shapiro of Pennsylvania, but rather the far-left governor of deep blue Minnesota, Gov. Walz. Either because of a lack of checking or a lack of caring, Kamala chose him despite the stolen valor accusations regarding his military service. Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, just used those accusations to skewer Walz and Harris.
As background, Walz, who formerly served as a sergeant major in the Army National Guard, retired and dropped out despite having two years left on his contract when the unit was to be deployed to Iraq, with many saying that he left his men in the lurch by doing so. He has also lied about his military service, saying he carried weapons “in war” when he never served in combat or during a war. Many argue that those exaggerations of his service and his leaving service when it would have meant war show that he has engaged in “stolen valor.”
Sen. JD Vance skewered Walz, first pushing back on Walz’s weird accusations that his working for Peter Thiel meant he was part of “the elite.” Vance said, “The fact that Tim Walz wants to turn it into a bad thing, that I actually worked myself through college, through law school, and made something myself — to me, that’s the American dream — and if Tim Walz wants to insult it, I think that’s frankly pretty bizarre.”
Continuing, Sen. Vance said that what bothers him about Walz isn’t so much that he is a radical, though he certainly is, but rather that Walz left his unit behind when it was to be deployed. Beginning on that point, Vance said, “What really bothers me about Tim Walz — it’s not even the positions that he’s taken, though certainly he has been a far-left radical.”
Sen. Vance then got to the dropping out of the National Guard unit part of Walz’s story, saying, “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 allowed his unit to go without him.”
He then argued that Walz’s record is “shameful,” saying that Walz’s dropping out of his unit is “a fact that he’s been criticized for aggressively by a lot of the people that he served with. I think it’s shameful to prepare your unit to go to Iraq, to make a promise that you’re going to follow through and then to drop out right before you actually have to go.”
Sen. Vance also spoke about Gov. Walz saying during a speech that because he used weapons in war, they shouldn’t be weapons that Americans can own. Walz, for reference, said, “I spent 25 years in the Army and I hunt. I’ve been voting for common sense legislation that protects the Second Amendment, but we can do background checks. We can research the impacts of gun violence. We can make sure those weapons of war, that I carried in war, are only carried in war.”
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Vance, skewering him for that, said, “He was making a point about gun control. He said we shouldn’t allow weapons ‘that I used in war’ to be on America’s streets. Well, I wonder, Tim Walz, when were you ever in war? When was this? What was this weapon that you carried into war, given that you abandoned your unit right before they went to Iraq? And he has not spent a day in a combat zone.”
Then, returning to the stolen valor matter, Vance said, “What bothers me about Tim Walz is the stolen valor garbage. Do not pretend to be something that you’re not. And if he wants to criticize me for getting an Ivy League education, I’m proud of the of the fact that my Mamaw supported me, that I was able to make something of myself. I’d be ashamed if I was him and I lied about my military service like he did.”
Watch Sen. Vance here:
And watch Walz here:
Featured image credit: By Office of Governor Tim Walz & Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan – _GOV2769, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=151249336