WASHINGTON — Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz served in the National Guard for 24 years, rising through the enlisted ranks and receiving an honorable discharge. It is a record seen as one of his political strengths. Republicans are trying to turn it into a weakness.
They have seized on criticism from former National Guard members denouncing Walz, the Minnesota governor, for retiring from the military in 2005 to run for Congress shortly before his unit was deployed to Iraq and for overstating the rank he held after he left the service. They also have pointed to a comment Walz made that implied he had seen combat, when he had not.
It is a risky strategy for Republicans that invites comparison between Walz, with decades of military service, and former President Donald Trump, who received a series of deferments to avoid serving in Vietnam, including one attained with a physician’s letter stating he suffered from bone spurs in his feet.
Walz’s supporters reject such criticism as politically motivated and denigrating the sacrifices he and other troops have made. The Kamala Harris-Walz campaign has defended his record and says he is “a tireless advocate for our men and women in uniform.”
The criticism stems not so much from Walz’s service record but from how he has characterized his time in uniform and how he ended his tenure.
An Associated Press review of Walz’s statements as a congressional candidate, congressman and governor shows Walz has toggled between being precise and careless about key details.
A look at the findings
“I’m a retired command sergeant major,” Walz said in 2006 as he campaigned to unseat the six-term Republican in Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District.
That declaration was not true.
Walz served briefly as a command sergeant major, but that was not the rank he held at retirement. That distinction -– serving as a command sergeant major, but not retiring in that position –- may seem minor to civilians. To those in uniform, it is not.
Rank is revered in the Army. Known as an E-9 in military parlance, a command sergeant major is the pinnacle of achievement in the Army’s enlisted corps.
“There’s a reason why there’s so much angst about this among military members that maybe is lost on the rest of the population,” said former Minnesota Army National Guard Col. John Kolb. “The rank of command sergeant major, that E-9 rank, is sacred. It’s rare.”
By military standards, Walz’s 24 years of service is substantial. He could have retired almost three years earlier. But it is the circumstances surrounding the retirement and how it overlapped with his political ambitions that have drawn scrutiny.
In January 2005, Walz attended a boot camp of sorts in Minnesota for people interested in careers in progressive politics. A month later, Walz announced that he was considering a run for Congress. Walz’s battalion was notified of a possible deployment to Iraq.
In a campaign news release, Walz said he would stay in the congressional race “whether I am in Minnesota or Iraq.” Less than two months later, on May 16, 2005, Walz retired from the National Guard.
Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, seized on a comment that Walz made in a 2018 video posted on social media that recorded Walz as saying “weapons of war that I carried in war.” Vance, who served as a Marine Corps corporal, accused Walz of lying about being in a combat zone when he never was.
The Harris campaign said Walz “misspoke” in the video and was “making the case for why weapons of war should never be on our streets or in our classrooms.”
Walz and other Guard troops were sent to Italy in 2003 to provide base security in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, the Pentagon’s name for the war in Afghanistan.
For many Democrats, the GOP salvos against Walz are an eerie reprise of the tactics used to sully their 2004 presidential candidate, John Kerry, by questioning Kerry’s leadership as a swift boat commander in Vietnam.
But attempting to turn Walz’s National Guard credentials into a political liability may remind voters that Trump never joined the military and has previously expressed disdain for those who did serve, according to a 2020 report. Trump has denied the claim.
Vance deployed to Iraq as a military journalist. After four years, he left the military for college and later a career in venture capital and as a best-selling author.
Walz’s supporters reject the criticism as politically motivated attacks that denigrate the sacrifices he and other troops have made.
The Harris campaign said in a statement that Walz has been “a tireless advocate for our men and women in uniform — and as vice president of the United States he will continue to be a relentless champion for our veterans and military families.”