Senator JD Vance responded to CNN after an anchor accused him of embellishing his own military service record. JD Vance has recently done the same towards his opponent Governor Tim Walz.
At issue is how Governor Walz has described his military service, especially since being named as Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate. Vance, an Iraq combat U.S. Marine war veteran, has been aiming all of this at the commander in chief. But Keilar questioned Vance’s own claim.
“Because we have, as you introduced him, as a combat correspondent, which is what [Vance’s] title was,” Keilar told her CNN colleague Dana Bash Thursday. “But when you dig a little deeper into that, he was a public affairs specialist, someone who did not see combat, which certainly the title ‘combat correspondent,’ kind of gives you a different impression. So he may be the imperfect messenger on that.”
Vance responded by going on social media. “Brianna this is disgusting, and you and your entire network should be ashamed of yourselves,” Vance wrote on X. “When I got the call to go to Iraq, I went. Tim Walz said he carried a gun in a war. Did he? No. It was a lie.”
Vance later explained to reporters, “I served in a combat zone. I never said that I saw a firefight myself, but I’ve always told the truth about my Marine Corps service. That’s the difference.”
The Walz controversy grew even more inflamed after an old video of him discussing the issue of guns — and tweeted out by mistake through a Harris staffer account — made its way to social media in which he promoted gun control measures, saying: “We can make sure those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is the only place where those weapons are at.”
The governor’s comments drew the ire of Thomas Behrends, who was in Walz’ battalion. “To most people, that would mean that he was actually in combat, carrying a weapon in a combat zone and getting combat pay and in a dangerous and hostile environment where he is getting shot at,” Behrends said.
A CNN correspondent scrutinized his statements even further, and said Walz’s claim that he carried weapons in combat as a soldier had also been debunked.
The Minnesota National Guard said Walz was not sent to a conflict zone. He later deployed to Italy from August 2003 – August 2004 supporting Operation enduring freedom where he conducted security missions throughout Europe and Turkey with his battalion. Walz did not serve in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Walz underwent further scrutiny of his military record following his selection as the Democratic vice-presidential candidate. Walz did serve as a command sergeant major, but he retired as a master sergeant in 2005 so that division would not affect his benefits pending the completion of U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy coursework.
Walz has been accused of retiring at an “opportune” time, leaving the military service early to beat a deployment order for Iraq.
