Harris campaign said Walz ‘chaired Veterans Affairs.’ But he didn’t
As Republicans began scrutinizing the military record of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Harris campaign released a statement supporting the vice-presidential nominee, in part, by pointing to his time in Congress and claiming that “he chaired Veterans Affairs.”
While the former congressman spent over a decade in the House, serving on Veterans Affairs and eventually rising to become the ranking member of that committee, at no time was he ever the chairman.
Vice President Kamala Harris correctly characterized Walz’s time in Congress when introducing her running mate in Philadelphia, calling him “the top Democrat on the Veterans Committee.”
It was her campaign, however, that erred.
The statement in question reads, “after 24 years of military service, Governor Walz retired in 2005 and ran for Congress, where he chaired Veterans Affairs and was a tireless advocate for our men and women in uniform — and as Vice President of the United States he will continue to be a relentless champion for our veterans and military families.”
It was printed in RealClearPolitics, NBC News, and numerous other outlets, further raising the ire of Republicans who already claim that Walz has misrepresented his record. A Harris aide told RCP Thursday morning that the error “was an innocent mistake” made by staff.
“Governor Walz was ranking member/top Democrat on the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs,” a spokesman for the Harris campaign said, for the 115th Congress between 2017 and 2018.
A spokesman for Illinois Republican Rep. Mike Bost, current chairman of the committee, told RCP the same, saying that “Rep. Walz was only ever ranking member and he served in that role from 2017-2019.”
“When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, do you know what he did? He dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him – a fact that he’s been criticized for aggressively by a lot of the people that he served with,” said GOP vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance. A Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq, Vance added, “I think it’s shameful to prepare your unit to go to Iraq, to make a promise that you’re going to follow through, and then to drop out right before you actually have to go.”
It was a reference to the fact that Walz retired from the National Guard in 2005, ending a 24-year career before his unit, the National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery, deployed to Iraq.
Walz eventually reached the rank of a command sergeant major, the most senior enlisted noncommissioned officer in a battalion and represented himself previously as “the highest-ranking enlisted service member ever to serve in Congress.”
As Army Lt. Col. Kristen Augé, public affairs officer for the Minnesota National Guard, told NBC News, however, Walz “culminated his career serving as the command sergeant major for the battalion” and “retired as a master sergeant in 2005 for benefit purposes because he did not complete additional coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy.”
Another discrepancy: In a video clip promoted by the Harris campaign, Walz called for gun control on the grounds that “we can make sure those weapons of war, that I carried in war, are only carried in war.” The candidate did not, however, ever serve in a war zone.
A spokesperson for the Harris-Walz campaign did not dispute that the governor may have overstated his case when claiming he carried a weapon in combat. “In his 24 years of service, the governor carried, fired and trained others to use weapons of war innumerable times. Gov. Walz would never insult or undermine any American’s service to this country – in fact, he thanks Senator Vance for putting his life on the line for our country,” the campaign said in a statement to RCP on Wednesday. “It’s the American way.”
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