Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is dealing with what advisers see as a potential liability Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz: Detachment from the Army National Guard twenty years ago.
waltz, was introduced on Tuesday As Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, he ended a 24-year military career to run for public office in 2005 — just before the unit he led was deployed to Iraq.
“Do you know what Tim Walz did when his country asked him to go to Iraq? He left the army and let his unit go without him – a fact that was aggressively criticized by many of those he served with. Senator JD VanceR-Ohio, Trump’s running mate and a Marine veteran who served in Iraq, said at a news conference in Michigan on Wednesday.
“I think it’s a shame to prepare your troops to go to Iraq, make a promise that you’re going to keep, and then walk away right before you go,” Vance said.
A strategy Trump reinforced Wednesday Calling the waltz “RABCHEK”. On Truth Social is a 2004 throwback to Republican Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry’s record as a Navy officer in Vietnam. Chris LaCivita, an adviser to the Swift Boat Veterans group that helped sink Kerry’s bid, is a senior adviser to Trump’s campaign and has said he’s willing to reopen the playbook on Walz.
“And when his men needed him the most … when he entered the battlefield … he abandoned them … he abandoned them,” LaCivita posted on Tuesday X, shortly after Harris selected Walz to join him on the Democratic ticket. “Why? Thus, he can be a candidate for Congress.”
While introducing Walz, 60, to a wider audience outside of Minnesota, the Harris campaign highlighted his military record as well as his military service experience. football coach. Campaign officials tout his decision to leave the National Guard and pursue a career in politics as a way to offer him new and meaningful opportunities to help service members and veterans.
“After 24 years of military service, Governor Waltz retired in 2005 and ran for Congress, where he chaired Veterans Affairs and became a tireless advocate for our men and women in uniform — and as Vice President, he will continue to be a relentless champion for us. veterans and military families,” Harris campaign spokeswoman Lauren Hitt said in a statement.
Walz has faced such attacks before, including during his 2022 re-election campaign A GOP challenger questioned his decision Leaving the service in 2005. Walz’s campaign responded with a letter signed by 50 veterans praising his record and leadership.
“Governor Waltz has secured additional funding for new veterans homes,” read a letter the Harris campaign shared with NBC News on Wednesday. “In its first term, Minnesota was one of seven states initially selected by the US Department of Veterans Affairs to participate in the Governor’s Challenge to End Veteran Suicide Deaths.”
Eric Erickson, prominent conservative commentator, pointed out on Tuesday a sent a paid letter to the editor It was published in 2018 by the West Central Tribune of Willmar, Minnesota, which scrutinized Walz’s service and just days before he won his first term as governor. Erickson also called on Swift Boat Veterans to Give Back for Truth, which led to LaCivita’s initial social media post. Other posts followed.
“He deserted his men and quit before going into battle” LaCivita wrote Walz in response to a follow-up post by Alyssa Farah Griffin, host of daytime talk show The View and former White House aide who has since denounced Trump.
LaCivita’s previous work with Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is one of the most aggressive and potentially consequential political attacks of modern times.
A recipient of a Silver Star, a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts for combat wounds, Kerry drew the ire of many veterans for his anti-war advocacy after returning home. And when he was running for president in 2004, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ran ads accusing him of lying about the service. 50 meter aluminum craft He carried out dangerous missions on the waterways of South Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. Some veterans featured in the ads said he won awards under false pretenses.
Senator John McCain, who spent years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam before befriending Kerry in the Senate, criticized the ads and noted that veterans made allegations against Kerry. he did not serve on his ship. Here are some who did He supported Kerry’s bills. The allegations, which Kerry did not immediately dispute, clouded the picture of him portraying himself as a war hero – which seemed to be the group’s goal from a political perspective. Speedboat Veterans for Truth may not have proven its case, but it cast doubt on Kerry’s perceived strength — his combat service — and credibility.
FactCheck.org concluded after thorough investigation, “at this point, 35 years later and half a world away, we see no way to decide which of these versions of reality is closer to the truth.” Kerry lost to President George W. Bush.
Walz joined the National Guard in 1981, when he was 17 years old. After transferring from the Nebraska National Guard in 1996, he served with the Minnesota National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery, said Army Lt. Kristen Augé, public affairs officer for the Minnesota Guard. Walz, Augé added, “concluded his career serving as a battalion command sergeant major” and “retired as a sergeant major for benefits in 2005 because he did not complete additional coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeant Major Academy.”
During Walz’s nearly quarter-century of service, he was part of flood relief efforts, responded to tornadoes and spent months on active duty in Italy, according to the Harris campaign. Walz “was sent to Italy in 2003 to guard against potential threats in Europe, while also deploying active military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.” The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported in 2022in an article about the verification of his military service, he attributed the information to Valz.
Walz and Vance are the first veterans to receive a national ticket for either major party since McCain became the GOP presidential nominee in 2008. In his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, 40-year-old Vance briefly recounted his experiences in Iraq. public works sea.
“Sometimes I would accompany the civilian press, but generally I would photograph or write short stories about individual Marines or their work,” he said. “At the beginning of the deployment, I joined the civil affairs unit to engage with the community. Civil affairs missions were typically considered more dangerous because few Marines would venture into unprotected Iraqi territory to meet with local residents.
Harris shared the campaign in a post Tuesday at X that highlighted Walz’s hunting and military background. undated video It showed he was talking about gun control.
“We can be sure that those combat weapons that I carried in the war are the only places where those weapons are,” Walz said in the short clip.
Vance cited the video during a campaign stop Wednesday, accusing Walz of misrepresenting his military service and claiming he never spent time in a combat zone.
“Well, I wonder, Tim Waltz, when were you in the war? Considering you left your unit before they went to Iraq, what was this weapon you carried into battle?” Vance asked at an event near Detroit. “What bothers me about Tim Walz is this stolen bravado garbage. Don’t pretend to be something you’re not. … If I were in his place, I would be ashamed if I lied about military service like he did.”
Later, at an event in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Vance told reporters that he had “served in a combat zone” and “I never said I saw a shooting myself, but I always told the truth about the Marine Corps service. ”
Trump spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt also referenced the video in a statement, telegraphing the campaign’s intent to pursue Walz’s military record.
“Tim Walz is a fraud who wants to ban firearms similar to the ones he claims to have carried in combat – Tim Walz has never been deployed to a combat zone and has lied about his experience in the National Guard,” Leavitt said. “If Walz doesn’t tell voters the truth, we will: Like Kamala Harris, Tim Walz is a dangerously liberal extremist and the Harris-Walz California dream is every American’s nightmare.”
When asked about the video, a Harris campaign spokesman did not deny that Walsh embellished it when he talked about carrying a gun in war.
“In his 24 years of service, the governor has carried, fired and trained others to use countless combat weapons,” the spokesman said. “Governor Walz would never disparage or diminish the service of any American to this country – in fact, he thanks Senator Vance for putting his life on the line for our country. It’s the American way.”