Military veterans who served with Harris’ nominee for lieutenant governor, Gov. Tim Walz, have accused Harris of exaggerating her time in the military and abandoning her unit shortly before deploying.
In an interview with “The Ingram Angle” on Wednesday, retired Army Sergeant Major Thomas Berens said he was a member of Waltz’s battalion and scolded the Minnesota governor for misleading the American public about his military history.
His service ended in 2005 when he retired from his unit in the Minnesota National Guard shortly before deploying to Iraq. The New York Post reported..
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Democratic Governor of Minnesota Tim Walz (Glenn Stubb/Star Tribune via Getty Images)
Asked about accusations of “honor theft” made by Sen. J.D. Vance, Trump’s running mate, against Walz, the National Guard veteran told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that this was “a lot darker than a lot of people think.”
“He used a rank he never earned to further his political career,” he said. “So he still says he’s a retired master sergeant, but he’s not. He’s using other people’s ranks to make himself seem like a better person than he is.”
Questions have arisen about Waltz’s comments about his military service after Vice President Kamala Harris selected him as her running mate for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination.
Waltz is The governor’s website biography describes him as a retired “master sergeant” and claims to have carried guns “during wartime” despite never having seen combat.
But Ingraham said the Minnesota National Guard told Angle he retired as a sergeant major.
“For most people, that would mean he was in combat, in a combat zone, carrying a weapon, receiving combat pay, being under fire, in a dangerous, hostile environment,” Berens said.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. (Reuters/Elisabeth Franz)
“So if he thinks that Italy was a combat zone, a war zone, and that he was transporting it during the war, that’s a delusion,” he added.
Berens said Waltz was promoted to master sergeant in 2004 but argued that the promotion would be void unless he served two more years.
Berens said his early retirement resulted in his promotion being terminated and he was demoted to the rank of sergeant.
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“What he did was basically quit. He didn’t meet the requirement of serving two years after graduation, so he was demoted to the rank of sergeant and is now a retired sergeant.”
His campaign released a statement on the matter: “Governor Walz retired from the military in 2005 after 24 years of service before running for Congress. During his term in the House of Representatives, he served as Secretary of Veterans Affairs and was a tireless advocate for our military members. And as Vice President of the United States, he will continue to work tirelessly on behalf of our veterans and military families.”
That response didn’t sit well with Behrens.
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“I’ve heard from the soldiers that went with him in Iraq, probably 98 percent of them, that he was totally against embellishing his record,” he said. “Don’t make it look like you were a sergeant major. Don’t make it look like you went somewhere in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. It’s all just embellishment and lies to make things look good.”
Tom Schilling, who said he was also a member of Waltz’s battalion, slammed Waltz’s actions as a “disgrace” in an interview with “Jesse Watters Primetime.”
“I have stories about what she’s done to our troops, what she’s put us through, and I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?'” Schilling recalled his reaction when he heard Harris had picked Walz as her running mate.
“We all did what we had to do. We all did the right thing. What he did was disgraceful,” Schilling said. “He gave his position to somebody else. He just abandoned us.”
Waltz’s team did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Ingram Angle.
