The presidential campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz says Walz “misspoke” when he falsely claimed he carried a gun “into war” while serving in the military.
A 2018 video that the Harris-Walz campaign shared on social media earlier this week shows the governor, who served 24 years in the National Guard, calling for stricter assault weapons laws while saying that “these weapons of war, that I carried into war,” should “only [be] “brought to war.”
Republican Sen. J.D. Vance, a Marine Corps veteran and former President Donald Trump’s running mate, accused Walz of “stolen courage” over his comments about guns and of allegedly “abandoning” his battalion by retiring and launching his political career before the unit deployed to Iraq.
“Governor Walz will never insult or undermine an American’s service to his country. In fact, he thanks Senator Vance for putting his life on the line for our country. That’s the American way,” said Ammar Moussa, a spokesman for the Harris-Walz campaign. The Washington Post Friday.
“In explaining why weapons of war should never be on our streets or in our classrooms, the governor was wrong,” Moussa added. “He has handled weapons of war and firmly believes that only military personnel trained to carry these deadly weapons should have access to them, unlike Donald Trump and JD Vance who prioritize the gun lobby over our children.”
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Walz never spent any part of his military career in combat, although he did spend nine months in Italy supporting U.S. 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 criticisms of Walz’s military service include accusations that he misrepresented his rank by claiming he retired as a command sergeant major. Walz did indeed become a command sergeant major before retiring, but his rank was later reverted to sergeant major because he did not complete the courses required to retain the command distinction.
Retired Command Sergeant Major Doug Julin, who served as Walz’s commander, accused the governor of doing “something wrong in the service” and failing “his troops” by passing over Julin to retire after decades of service in May 2005, just months before the battalion was ordered to deploy to Iraq.
While some of Walz’s former comrades have criticized his military background, others have defended the governor’s service. Contacted by NewsweekThe Harris-Walz campaign highlighted several remarks from soldiers who served with Walz, including retired Command Sergeant Major Joseph Eustice, who led the future governor’s battalion.
“The accusation that he neglected his duty or that he abandoned his battalion, I don’t find that credible,” Eustice told CNN’s Brianna Keilar on Friday. “All we knew at the time was that there was a rumor that we were going to deploy… When the Iraq War started, a rumor started circulating that every battalion was going to deploy… But you don’t deploy based on rumors.”
“I don’t agree with any of his political views,” he added.[But] “To say he’s a traitor or that he derelict in his duty, in my opinion, is an unfair assessment of what happened… I don’t think it’s fair to take the 24 years that he served and try to decide that he didn’t serve honorably or that he did something he shouldn’t have done.”
Retired Master Sgt. Ryan Marti, who deployed with the unit to Italy with Walz and to Iraq without him, said in a CNN interview Thursday night that the governor “is probably one of the most honorable men I know” and that he has “no hurt feelings” about his retirement from the military.
