Vice President Kamala Harris had nothing but “praise” for her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz when questioned about his service in the National Guard Thursday.
Harris, 59, was asked by a reporter to respond to criticism that Walz “deserted his own troops, deserted his own colleagues” when he opted to retire from the Minnesota National Guard in May 2005, as his battalion was preparing to deploy to the Iraq warzone.
“Listen, I praise anyone who has presented themselves to serve our country,” Harris said. “And I think that we all should.”
Walz, 60, served 24 years in the Minnesota National Guard before retiring to run for the House of Representatives in the state’s 1st Congressional District. He unseated incumbent Republican Gil Gutknecht in that race, in which Walz made his opposition to the Iraq war a centerpiece of his campaign.
The Minnesota governor joined the National Guard after high school and had served in the 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery prior to his retirement.
Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance accused Walz on Wednesday of embellishing his military service.
“He said we shouldn’t allow weapons that I used in war to be on America’s streets,” Vance said in Michigan. “Well, I wonder. Tim Walz, when were you ever in war?
“What bothers me about Tim Walz is the stolen valor garbage. Do not pretend to be something that you’re not,” Vance, a Marine Corps veteran, added.
Vance was referencing a recently resurfaced clip of Walz from 2018, in which he argued: “We can research the impacts of gun violence. We can make sure those weapons of war, that I carried in war, are only carried in war.”
The Harris-Walz campaign scrubbed another contested claim about the governor’s service record from his official biography on its website on Thursday — that Walz had retired as a command sergeant major.
Walz had not completed the required coursework to reach the rank of command sergeant major and thus retired as a master sergeant.
President Biden also expressed admiration for Walz Thursday, telling his former campaign staffers in Wilmington, Del., that “When you get to know him, he’s the real deal,” according to CNN.
