SAVANNAH, Ga. — In their first televised interview as Democratic presidential running mates, Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz faced more questions about Walz's military service.
CNN anchor Dana Bash pressed Walz about a statement he made in a 2018 video following the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Walz refers to "weapons of war that I carried in war," while telling a crowd at a campaign stop in Minnesota why he stopped taking NRA donations.
"You said that you carried weapons in war, but you have never deployed actually in a war zone. A campaign official said that you misspoke. Did you?" Bash said.
In response, Walz reiterated how he served in the National Guard with pride for 24 years, adding his record speaks for itself. Bash then asked again if he did indeed misspeak.
"I said, we were talking about in this case, it was after a school shooting, the ideas of carrying these weapons of war. And my wife, the English teacher, told me my grammar's not always correct. But again, if it's not this it's an attack on my children for showing love for me, or it's an attack on my dog," Walz said. "I'm not going to do that, and the one thing I'll never do is I'll never demean another member's service in any way. I never have and I never will."
The topic of Walz's military record has become a talking point for his ticket's Republican challengers, former President Donald Trump and Ohio Sen. JD Vance, with the latter — an Iraq War veteran — specifically questioning and criticizing the governor's service.
Walz has been accused of strategically retiring from the guard before his unit was called up to deploy to Iraq in 2005, but records show his retirement paperwork was filed months before he would've heard anything about deployment.
Critics also pointed to Walz being referred to as a "retired Command Sergeant Major" in biographies posted to both his state government website and on Harris' campaign site. Although Walz did attain that rank before retiring, he never submitted the paperwork to retire as such, causing his rank to be reverted to master sergeant.
Vance has attacked Walz on both angles.
"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 — a fact that he's been criticized for aggressively by a lot of the people he served with," Vance said in a campaign appearance.
Walz has countered Vance's statements by highlighting how they violate an unwritten code of servicemembers, an avenue the governor took in 2018 after a former military reservist told a Minnesota newspaper he misled people about the extent of his service.
"I am damn proud of my service to this country, and I firmly believe you should never denigrate another person's service record," Walz said.
He then made a point to thank Vance for his "service and sacrifice."
Joseph Eustice, who once led Walz's battalion, told WCCO earlier this month that he may differ with the governor when it comes to politics, but believes his military record is solid.
"Tim Walz as a soldier, he was a good soldier. I don't think anyone can honestly say that he wasn't," Eustice said. "He was a good leader in those 24 years that he served."
Walz and Vance will meet face-to-face in a debate on Oct. 1 on CBS. Harris and Trump square off on Sept. 10 in their first debate.
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