Walz draws scrutiny for implying Afghanistan trip as congressman was military deployment
WASHINGTON — Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz is drawing fresh scrutiny for implying in recently unearthed remarks that a brief congressional trip to Afghanistan was a military deployment as part of his National Guard service — after his Republican counterpart, JD Vance, accused him of “stolen valor” for exaggerating his service record.
Walz, Minnesota’s governor since 2019, spoke about his “guilt” that he “came home” when others did not during a commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks — moments before mentioning his time at Afghanistan’s Bagram Air Base, without clarifying he was there as a civilian.
“I had the privilege of serving in this state’s National Guard. And when I left, I had a 2-year-old, and when I came home, I had a 3-year-old. But as I listened to [Gold Star families speak] — the guilt. I came home and my daughter went on, and when you’re 2 and 3, she knew no difference,” said Walz, who deployed to Italy in a support role in 2003 during the war on terror.
“And as our nation changed and as our political systems became more difficult for all of us to understand, I stood one night in the dark of night on the tarmac at Bagram and watched a military ramp ceremony. And if you’ve seen it … you don’t leave the same. And it makes you wonder, what are we doing?”
Walz did not enter the war zone as a National Guard member and controversially retired in May 2005 ahead of a looming deployment to Iraq. He said he left the service to run for Congress in 2006.
The video of Walz’s remarks on being at Bagram in Afghanistan stoked a social media firestorm among influential conservatives — who pointed out that an apparent prepared copy of the speech seemed even more damning.
In that version, hosted on a Minnesota government website, Walz is quoted as saying, “I had the privilege of serving in this state’s National Guard. I stood one night in the dark of night on the tarmac at Bagram Air Base in Iraq [sic] and watched a military ramp ceremony – a soldier’s body being loaded onto a plane to be returned home.”
Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt told The Post that he “was referring to his congressional delegation trip in 2008.”
“Here are Walz’s comments before he mentions ‘going to Bagram’ (where he presumably went as a congressman—definitely not as a soldier.),” tweeted former Illinois Republican congressional candidate Mike Koolidge.
Here is the latest on VP pick Tim Walz’s time in the military
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- Tim Walz falsely claimed he carried weapons ‘in war’ in resurfaced clip: ‘Absolutely false’
- Tim Walz left National Guard battalion ‘hanging,’ ‘slithered out the door’ before Iraq deployment: vets
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“How can a casual listener hear this and not conclude he’s implying he deployed to war? He ‘went away’ and ‘came back’ To where? He doesn’t say.”
Grabien founder Tom Elliott wrote: “Walz visited Bagram as a congressman and doesn’t specifically say he was there on deployment, but it’s nonetheless clear he’s always hoping the casual observer presumes he was there on active duty.”
Vance, an Ohio senator and Iraq war veteran, slammed Walz last week for allegedly exaggerating his military exploits after other remarks by the Minnesota Democrat surfaced.
In 2018, Walz said in a pro-gun control speech that “we can make sure those weapons of war, that I carried in war, are only carried in war.”
“In making the case for why weapons of war should never be on our streets or in our classrooms, the Governor misspoke,” Hitt said in a Saturday statement.
