COLUMBUS, Ohio — Following a tense exchange between Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, and anchor Dana Bash over rival Tim Waltz’s military history, Vance’s campaign fired back at CNN on Sunday, accusing the reporter of ignoring his own network’s reporting.
In the interview, which aired Sunday morning, Bash defended Kamala Harris’ running mate, noting that Walz submitted his retirement notice a month before the National Guard announced its plans to deploy to Iraq.
Waltz, 60, is accused of resigning from his post as a National Guard commander in 2005 to avoid deploying to a combat zone in Iraq.
Vance, 39, quickly fired back, pointing to CNN’s own reporting.
“But he said last night on CNN, Dana, one of the people who was actually in command with him, he knew he was going to be deployed to Iraq in the fall of 2004. So he knew he was going to Iraq and he decided to resign,” the Ohio congressman responded.
Vance’s campaign is now accusing CNN of trying to hide the facts in Walz’s favor.
“CNN’s ignoring of its own scoop from the night before shows the lengths the mainstream media will go to to cover up Kamala and the Democratic Party,” Taylor Van Kirk, national spokesman for Team Vance, told The Post on Sunday.
“But voters are not stupid, and they’re tired of being lied to by the mainstream media.”
Saturday night, CNN aired an interview with retired National Guard Sergeant Major Doug Julin. Walz’s boss and longtime critic of the Minnesota governor alleged that he knew about Walz’s plans to deploy to Iraq before he applied for an honorable discharge.
““People don’t really understand the sequence of events here,” Julin argued. “In 2005… we were told we were going to Iraq. Get your teams ready, get your people ready.”
Julin said those plans were further discussed at a February 2005 meeting of National Guard commanders, including one attended by Walz.
Julin later claimed that “shortly after” that meeting, Walz told him he planned to run for Congress, with full knowledge of the battle plans.
Waltz He filed papers stating that he was considering running for the National Assembly. February 5, 2005.
Shortly after the CNN interview, the caption “Not Tim Waltz” began trending on X, a site where active and retired military personnel post photos of themselves taken in combat zones while on active duty.
“I and one of my brothers are battle stained and not Tim Walz,” wrote Florida Representative Brian Mast.
“I was 58 years old,” said Tim Hollingsworth, a retired U.S. Army veteran. [I was] “I’m not Tim Walz fighting alongside my son. I was a 45-year-old grandfather when my son and I fought together.”
