Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate for the 2024 presidential election. Within hours of his selection, ‘stolen valor’ claims that have followed Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz throughout his political career quickly resurfaced.
Walz was forced to defend his record during his first solo appearance as a member of the Democratic ticket. “I am damn proud of my service to this country,” Walz said in Los Angeles during a speech to the AFSCME convention. “These guys have — are even attacking me for my record of service,” Walz added. “And I just want to say I’m proud to serve my country, and I always will be.”
Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey Jr., a Democrat up for reelection in 2024, rose to Walz’s defense on Tuesday. “I think when someone serves as Gov. Walz did for 24 years, I think that service should be lauded and commended, not to be denigrated,” Casey told reporters.
Pennsylvania’s Sen. Bob Casey defended Gov. Tim Walz days after VP nominee Sen. JD Vance accused Walz of “stolen valor.”
Casey told reporters, “I think when someone serves as Gov. Walz did for 24 years, I think that service should be lauded and commended, not to be denigrated.”
— Emma Barnett (@emmab929) August 12, 2024
The inconsistencies in Walz’s public statements about his military record have raised allegations of “stolen valor” or falsely inflating or inaccurately portraying one’s military service for political gain.
Walz served in the Minnesota National Guard for 24 years. His service has garnered scrutiny due to a series of comments and claims that don’t appear to align with his military record. Then-Congressman Walz said in 2018, “we can make sure that those weapons of war that I carried in war is the only place where those weapons are at.”
Walz never served in combat, but he did not correct the record until six years later when the Harris-Walz campaign said he “misspoke.”
Walz retired in 2005, four years into the six-year contract he signed after 9/11. Walz’s unit was not officially called up to deploy to Iraq until several months after he retired, but his status as a senior noncommissioned officer would have likely meant he was aware a deployment was a near-term possibility.
The timing of Walz’s retirement meant he retired at the rank of master sergeant, but he repeatedly claimed throughout his career to have retired at the higher rank of command sergeant major, a rank he temporarily filled just before retirement. The Harris-Walz campaign was forced to revise his biography on the campaign website as it also falsely described him as a “retired command sergeant major.”
