This post is really a footnote to Scott’s post immediately below. Two issues have been raised regarding Tim Walz’s military service: 1) He has consistently represented himself as a Command Sergeant Major, when in fact he was demoted from that rank as of his retirement because he had not completed the requirements for it. 2) After collecting National Guard paychecks for 24 years and after assuring his fellow Guardsmen that he was going with them to Iraq in 2005, he skedaddled and quit the Guard rather than go to war. In my view, the second charge is more serious.
But now we also have this:
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz falsely claimed that he carried weapons “in war” in a resurfaced clip that JD Vance blasted this week as another example of the Democratic vice presidential candidate using “stolen valor.”
Kamala Harris’ running mate made the remarks in a resurfaced 2018 clip shared by his gubernatorial campaign on social media, as he counseled a crowded room about gun violence.
“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,” Walz, 60, can be heard saying.
Walz spent some time in Norway and Italy when he was in the Minnesota National Guard, but he was never in a war zone, let alone carrying “weapons of war” “in war.” In fact, when his National Guard unit was going to be deployed to Iraq in 2005, he ducked out, after having assured his fellow Guardsmen that he would be going with them. Putting it all together, it seems clear that Walz has long had a practice of exaggerating and misrepresenting his military experience.
I think that Trump and Vance need to focus relentlessly on the record of the Biden/Harris administration, and to contrast it with Trump’s more successful tenure. For that reason, I am reluctant to spend time on side issues, especially those relating to the vice presidential nominee. But I don’t know: maybe the stolen valor issue has legs and is worth hanging around Walz’s neck.
UPDATE: The Daily Mail is on the case, interviewing the mother of a young Guardsman who died in Iraq after Tim Walz chose to stay home:
In an emotional interview with DailyMail.com, nearly two decades after 19-year-old Kyle’s death, Kathy Miller said: ‘I don’t think it’s fair that (Walz) takes credit when he didn’t step up to the plate.
‘Walz claims a rank he never earned. When he was called to serve, and protect our country he didn’t.
‘To publicly present false prestige of his unearned rank an inaccurate representation, is a falsehood of who he truly is.
‘My son stepped up to the plate. All our sons stepped up.
‘My son wasn’t even 21 years old. He couldn’t even buy alcohol. Yet he took the step to serve our country while Walz found the best way to run away.’
‘It was the coward’s way out.’
Remember when the press made a heroine out of Cindy Sheehan, who criticized President George Bush because her son, like Kathy Miller’s, died in Iraq? What do you think the chances are that Miller will get equal attention, let alone the virtual deification that Sheehan enjoyed as long as she was useful?
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.