Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris defended her running mate Tim Walz on Thursday when she was asked by a reporter about the Minnesota governor being slammed for his comments about his military service.
Walz, who served in the Army National Guard for 24 years, has been scrutinized this week after he appeared to embellish his military service. His comments were thrown into the spotlight and even fact-checked by legacy media outlet CNN. In one clip that was posted by Harris’ campaign, Walz said that he has carried weapons in combat zones, which is not true.
Harris was asked about the controversy and defended her running mate.
“Listen, I praise anyone who has presented themselves to serve our country, and I think that we all should,” she said.
Speaking to supporters at a campaign event, Walz defended his push for gun control, saying, “I spent 25 years in the Army and I hunt. … I’ve been voting for common sense legislation that protects the Second Amendment, but we can do background checks. … We can make sure those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is the only place where those weapons are carried.”
During a TV segment, CNN correspondent Tom Foreman stated, “Walz did make a comment, speaking to a group — he’s done it a couple of times, where he has used language that suggested that he carried weapons in a fighting situation. As you know, with your contact with the military, I know from coming from a military family, there is a difference between being in a combat area, being involved at a time of war, and actually being in a position where people are shooting at you. There is no evidence that any time that Governor Walz was in the position of being shot at and some of his language could easily be seen to suggest that he was.”
CNN on Governor Tim Walz:
“Walz did make a comment, he’s done it a couple times, where he has used language that suggested that he carried weapons in a fighting situation. There is no evidence that any time that he was in the position of being shot at and some of his language… pic.twitter.com/o7gEPW5Xj3
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) August 7, 2024
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In 2018 when Walz was running for governor, his fellow veterans — retired Command Sergeants Major Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr — wrote an open letter, stating, “On May 16th, 2005, [Walz] quit, betraying his country, leaving the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion and its Soldiers hanging; without its senior Non-Commissioned Officer, as the battalion prepared for war.”
Ohio Senator and Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance, who served in the Marines and was deployed to Iraq, said that if Behrends and Herr’s allegations are true, it’s “absolutely shameful” that Walz “abandoned his troops” before they deployed to war.
RELATED: Tim Walz Repeatedly Misconstrued His Military Service. Here Are The Examples.
