Anika Begay
Democratic vice presidential candidate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, speaks at a campaign rally with Democratic presidential candidate, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.
Image by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Hide caption
active caption
Image by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Democratic vice presidential candidate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, speaks at a campaign rally with Democratic presidential candidate, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.
Image by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
By most measures, the launch of the new Democratic ticket has been surprisingly smooth.
But there’s a caveat to that: The way Tim Walz described his military service is controversial.
In a 2018 video, Walz, who served 24 years in the National Guard, made a comment that sounded like he was AT WAR.
A spokeswoman for the Harris-Walz campaign said in a statement that the Democratic vice presidential nominee “misspoke” when discussing his military service.
Walz’s Republican opponent, J.D. Vance, pounced on that comment to accuse Walz of “stolen valor,” perhaps the most serious charge possible in the veterans community.
Retracing the past.
In the video, Walz was talking about gun violence in the United States and how to keep assault rifles off American streets. At one point, he says:
“We can make sure that those weapons of war, which I brought to war, are the only place they are.”
This is the point that Republicans like Vance have used to accuse Walz of misrepresenting his time in the military.
And that’s not all they say.
According to the Minnesota National Guard, Walz retired in May 2005, two months before his unit was due to be alerted to mobilize to Iraq in July of that year.
Nothing new in politics.
All this attention to Walz’s military record has people recalling another moment in American politics when a Democratic candidate’s military record was questioned and even attacked.
In 2004, presidential candidate John Kerry found his performance questioned by opponents who claimed his heroism was a lie.
NPR national political correspondent Don Gonyea covered that campaign in 2004.
It recalls John Kerry’s tenure as a U.S. Senator and Vietnam veteran, former commander of a small vessel known as Swift Boat.
“During the war he earned three Purple Hearts, a Silver Star and a Bronze Star for his actions in combat,” Gonyea said.
And at that year’s Democratic Convention, his acceptance speech made military service the focal point.
“But within a week, attacks on his military service began, coming from an outside group known as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Involved in that group was Chris LaCavita, a current Trump adviser,” Gonyea added.
This episode was produced by Marc Rivers. It was edited by Courtney Dorning, Andrew Sussman, and Megan Pratz. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.
