Many Republican veterans who are either in the House of Representatives or are running for the House are blasting Democrat vice presidential candidate Tim Walz amid stolen valor accusations.
Walz, who served 24 years in the National Guard, including the Minnesota National Guard’s 1st Battalion 125th Field Artillery, retired shortly before his unit went to Iraq. He did not see combat, yet, in a video shared by the Harris-Walz campaign, he said that he carried weapons “in war.”
Gov. @Tim_Walz: 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 research the impacts of gun violence. We can make sure those weapons of war, that I carried in war,… pic.twitter.com/3IVaXi2RP2
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 6, 2024
He also faces harsh criticism from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Republican Vice Presidential Nominee JD Vance for not going to Iraq with his battallion. Cotton, a veteran who did two combat tours in the U.S. Army, says Walz “let his troops go to war” in Iraq “without him.”
The sentiments echo those of two Army command sergeants major who wrote that when Walz retired on May 16, 2005, he left “1-125th Field Artillery Battalion and its Soldiers hanging; without its senior Non-Commissioned Officer, as the battalion prepared for war” in a letter published in the West Central Tribune in 2018.
Walz notably filed to run for Congress in February 2005 before the unit was notified of potential deployment in March 2005. However, the alert came two months before his retirement.
Finally, Walz’s bio implied he retired at the rank of E-9 when he actually retired as an E-8. However, he did serve as an E-9 for a time before leaving as a master sergeant E-8.
Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), an Afghanistan veteran, ripped Walz on Wednesday as a “fraud” and remarked it is “Crazy that Kamala would pick a running mate who lied about his military service.”
Tim Walz is a fraud https://t.co/6CJqbtnCrC
— Jim Banks (@Jim_Banks) August 7, 2024
Crazy that Kamala would pick running mate who lied about his military service. Either her vetting process led by Eric Holder was very weak or she doesn’t care … or both!
— Jim Banks (@Jim_Banks) August 7, 2024
“Either her vetting process led by Eric Holder was very weak or she doesn’t care … or both!” said Banks, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Indiana.
Banks also posted a picture of himself from his time deployed in the Army as part of a larger trend on X.
🇺🇸 https://t.co/1ud7bp6FRo pic.twitter.com/sPT925dO5Q
— Jim Banks (@Jim_Banks) August 7, 2024
Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), a veteran bomb disposal expert of the U.S. Army who lost both of his legs to an improvised explosive device, hammered Walz.
“Tim Walz LIED about his rank. He LIED about serving in Afghanistan,” he wrote in a post on X. “And now, according to CNN, Walz LIED about carrying weapons of war in a war zone.”
Tim Walz LIED about his rank. He LIED about serving in Afghanistan.
And now, according to CNN, Walz LIED about carrying weapons of war in a war zone. pic.twitter.com/QWLmuvJYke
— Rep. Brian Mast (@RepBrianMast) August 8, 2024
U.S. Air Force veteran Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), whose husband, also a veteran, was shot in Afghanistan fighting al-Qaeda and received a Bronze Star, blasted Walz for “claiming to be a combat veteran.”
Today is Purple Heart day and we have a guy who is claiming to be a combat veteran as Harris’ running mate. Disgusting.
— Anna Paulina Luna (@realannapaulina) August 7, 2024
“Today is Purple Heart day and we have a guy who is claiming to be a combat veteran as Harris’ running mate. Disgusting,” she stated on X.
Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL), a combat-decorated Green Beret, broke down the problems the Democrat vice presidential pick is facing in a 1:35 video posted to X. He focused on both Walz’s rank and his “walking away from his soldiers after they had been called to go to Iraq.”
I’ve seen the reports on Tim Walz’s military record and he has some explaining to do. pic.twitter.com/Qo6lhUbS4h
— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) August 7, 2024
“I commanded Green Berets,” the Florida congressman emphasized. “Everything that you do prepares you for that moment when you have to lead your men and women into harm’s way. It’s kind of like the quarterback of a big team walking away from their team right before they go to the Super Bowl.”
Another Florida combat veteran, Rep. Cory Mills (R), blasted Walz while speaking with Fox News’s Laura Ingraham on her eponymously-named show The Ingraham Angle.
“I think it’s very clear when your job as a leader is to continue to try and fight and deploy alongside your troops that the idea of running for politics should be the last thing on your mind,” Mills, an Army veteran who served in Iraq and received a Bronze Star, said.
Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), a retired U.S. Navy SEAL commander, weighed in as well, with criticisms of Walz and Harris. Zinke notably served in Iraq, leading special operations.
My statement on Kamala Harris’ runningmate Tim Walz’s stolen valor and abandoning his unit. pic.twitter.com/5xWFgJ9kya
— Ryan Zinke (@RyanZinke) August 8, 2024
“In 2005 Walz abandoned his unit just like Kamala abandoned Americans in Afghanistan and she abandoned our closest allies in Israel,” he wrote.
“Tim Walz didn’t fight for us then. He didn’t fight for Minnesota when she burned in 2020. And he won’t fight for you now,” Zinke said.
Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX), a Navy veteran and former physician to multiple U.S. presidents, ripped Walz as a “lying coward.”
“Your ‘war stories’ disgust me and disgust most other veterans that actually deployed in defense of this country!” he wrote, addressing Walz. “SIMPLY PUT, YOU ARE PATHETIC AND A NATIONAL DISGRACE!!!”
Fraud Tim Walz is a lying coward who NEVER deployed and was NEVER in harms way.
He never deployed to Iraq.
He never deployed to Afghanistan.
Your “war stories” disgust me and disgust most other veterans that actually deployed in defense of this country!
SIMPLY PUT, YOU ARE…
— Ronny Jackson (@RonnyJacksonTX) August 8, 2024
Veteran Rep. Derick Van Orden (R-WI), who saw five combat deployments and retired as a Navy SEAL senior chief, called Walz “a coward” as well.
@Tim_Walz Abandoned his Soldiers, sent them to Iraq in his place and hid under his couch.
As the actual longest serving enlisted member of Congress in the history of our nation, I am disgusted by this and would shun him from any military function.
He is a coward. https://t.co/XD46C2FUoz pic.twitter.com/QCtPLwZw9j
— Derrick Van Orden (@derrickvanorden) August 7, 2024
“As the actual longest-serving enlisted member of Congress in the history of our nation, I am disgusted by this and would shun him from any military function,” he wrote.
Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA), who served in the Marines and Navy with service in combat zones, said, “Georgia’s military community will find it rather repugnant that Walz opted to retire from the National Guard right when he found out his unit was headed to Iraq.”
I think Georgia’s military community will find it rather repugnant that Walz opted to retire from the National Guard right when he found out his unit was headed to Iraq… https://t.co/xgiPyAF76U
— Dr. Rich McCormick for Congress (@RichforGA) August 7, 2024
https://t.co/PVjBL4UB6X pic.twitter.com/38Jn6yjqQ5
— Dr. Rich McCormick for Congress (@RichforGA) August 8, 2024
Laurie Buckhout, a candidate for North Carolina’s First Congressional District and a decorated Army colonel combat veteran, also ripped Walz as a “coward” who “quit” on his unit.
I understood the full extent of my commitment to this country when I served in the Army for 26 years.
My unit was deployed to Iraq in 2003. I left without hesitation and led a battalion of 800 soldiers to carry out our mission.
But when @Tim_Walz heard his unit was mobilizing… https://t.co/wCCPyqb0Be
— Laurie Buckhout (@lauriebuckhout) August 7, 2024
“I understood the full extent of my commitment to this country when I served in the Army for 26 years,” Buckhout wrote in a post on X. “But when @Tim_Walz heard his unit was mobilizing to Iraq…he quit.”
“Walz quit on his unit, his soldiers, and his country. That’s what we can expect from him as VP, too. Coward,” she wrote.
This is a photo of me not being @Tim_Walz and actually answering the call to serve my country overseas.
I put my life on the line for this country then, and I’d do it again now in a heartbeat. https://t.co/QThg7sRdjF pic.twitter.com/WVMJyYti0G
— Laurie Buckhout (@lauriebuckhout) August 8, 2024