White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre praised presumptive Democratic vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s service in the Army National Guard on Wednesday in response to Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance accusing him of committing an act of “stolen valor.”
Vance, who served as a combat correspondent in the Marine Corps., criticized Walz on Wednesday for allegedly leaving his battalion upon learning of its deployment to Iraq in 2005. Jean-Pierre told a reporter that Walz bravely served in the National Guard for 24 years without addressing his avoidance of a deployment.
“Today, Sen. J.D. Vance has accused Gov. Walz of stolen valor, and obviously military service is something that is deeply personal to the president given the service of his son. I’m curious, how is he reacting to these statements?” a reporter asked Jean-Pierre.
“Look, any statements, attacks or comments, I would have to refer you to the campaign,” Jean-Pierre replied. “I think when I was answering your colleague[‘s] question earlier about Gov. Walz, I laid out and you’ve all seen his bio, right? This is someone who enlisted at 17 years old to serve this country, he was part of the Army National Guard for 24 years. This is someone who [was] a high school teacher, a high school coach as well, who grew up in a small town in the Midwest. And so I think his bio speaks for itself, who he is speaks for itself, his record speaks for itself, and I’m just not going to say anything beyond that.”
Retired Command Sergeants Major Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr, two veterans who say they served in Walz’s battalion, wrote a letter in 2018 accusing the Minnesota governor of “betraying his country” by allowing the remainder of the battalion to be deployed to Iraq without him, according to the New York Post.
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“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,” Behrends and Herr wrote, according to the NYP.
Vance accused Walz on Wednesday of shamefully abandoning his battalion and “lying” about fighting in combat. Vice President Kamala Harris’ headquarters posted footage of Walz saying civilians should not own the weapons he carried in war.
“I think it’s shameful to prepare your unit to go to Iraq, to make a promise that you’re going to follow through and to drop out right before you actually have to go,” Vance said during a Wednesday press conference. “I also think it’s dishonest … He said we shouldn’t allow weapons that I used in war to be on the streets. Well, I wonder, Tim Walz, when were you ever in war? What was this weapon that you carried into war given that you abandoned your unit right before they went to Iraq and he has not spent a day in a combat zone? What bothers me about Tim Walz is the stolen valor garbage.”
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Vance enlisted in the Marine Corps. in 2003 and was deployed to Iraq in the latter part of 2005, according to an excerpt from his 2016 bestselling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.”
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.