Tim Walz, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ running mate, did not correct a comment made in 2007 by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, when she thanked the freshman congresswoman for her service on the “battlefield.”
Walz, 60, never deployed to a combat zone during his 24 years as a member of the Minnesota National Guard, and since emerging as a potential 2024 Democratic presidential candidate, has faced accusations from Republicans of “defamation” and exaggerating his military service.
“He will speak for himself, but I want him to know how much we appreciate his service to our country, whether it be in the classroom or on the battlefield,” Pelosi said of Walz during a news conference on Capitol Hill on Monday. The video, obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, shows.
Despite his lack of combat experience, Walz expressed gratitude for Pelosi’s praise.
“So, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank you and the leaders here,” the then-representative of Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District said as he took the podium.
C-SPAN, the network that recorded the press conference, introduced Walz in its subtitles as an “Afghanistan War veteran.”
Waltz has never served in Afghanistan, but he was deployed to Italy, more than 3,000 miles from the Taliban-controlled country, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
The current Minnesota governor’s only deployment has been to Norway in support of NATO.
Walz retired from the National Guard in May 2005, as his battalion was preparing to deploy to the Iraq war zone, and then decided to run for Congress.
Earlier this week, Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance, 39, accused Walz of abandoning his fellow Guard members by retiring so close to deployment.
“He abandoned his unit right before going to Iraq, he never spent a day in a combat zone, and what weapons did he bring to the war? What bothers me about Tim Waltz is this nonsense about stolen heroism,” Vance said in Michigan.
The Ohio Republican senator referred to recently resurfaced footage of Walz from 2018 in which he argued, “We can study the effects of gun violence. The weapons of war that I carried in war can only be carried in war.”
Vance, a Marine Corps veteran, said Waltz “shouldn’t pretend to be something he’s not.”
During a press conference with Speaker Pelosi, Walz falsely claimed his rank in the National Guard was “master sergeant.”
“As someone who spent my entire military career as an NCO, my job as a command sergeant or first sergeant was just to take care of these Soldiers,” Waltz said.
Waltz was discharged as a sergeant major because he did not complete the necessary coursework to achieve the rank of master sergeant.
The Harris-Waltz campaign on Thursday removed a description of Waltz as a retired “master sergeant” from Waltz’s official biography on its website.
“Listen, I applaud anyone who volunteers to serve their country, and I think we all should,” Harris told reporters Thursday in response to Walz’s criticism of his National Guard service.
