OAN Staff James Meyers
11:49 AM – Wednesday, August 21, 2024
Fifty Republican members of Congress, who are military veterans, denounced Democrat vice presidential pick Tim Walz for lying about his military record. Walz lied about his rank in the Army National Guard and retired before a deployment to Iraq in order to kickstart his political career.
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Representative Brian Mast (R-Fla.), a retired U.S. Army staff sergeant who chairs Veterans and Military Families for Trump, put out an open letter to Walz. In it, Mast and other members of Congress asked the Democrat to correct the “egregious misrepresentations” about his military record.
“[Y]ou have lied your way through a political career launched on the foundation of a title you did not earn and combat deployments you did not take part in,” the former military service members in Congress charged.
“You have stated that you are ‘damn proud’ of your service, and like any American veteran, you should be,” they wrote. “But there is no honor in lying about the nature of your service.”
“Repeatedly claiming to be a ‘Retired Command Sergeant Major‘ when you did not complete the requirements was not honorable,” they went on. “Nor was it honorable to claim to carry weapons ‘in war’ when you had not served in war, and abandoning the men and women under your leadership just as they were getting ready to deploy was certainly not honorable either.”
“To be blunt, when you falsely claim military service that did not happen and abandon your post, you diminish the real sacrifices made by veterans who did serve in combat,” they said.
“Until you admit you lied to them, there is no way you can be trusted to serve as Vice President.”
Walz’ military career consisted of serving in the Army National Guard for 24 years. However, he retired from his artillery battalion and ended up leaving over 500 men under his command just two months before his battalion was set to deploy to Iraq in 2005.
Due to Walz’ early military exit, it dropped him down a rank from command sergeant major to command master sergeant for not having completed a two-year commitment he had already signed, which involved additional coursework.
Other military members who were in Walz’ unit have called the Minnesota Governor a coward for leaving to run for Congress in 2006 and accused him of “stolen valor” for repeatedly referencing his military record as part of his political career.
He recently said at a campaign rally in Los Angeles that he was “damn proud of my service to this country. And I firmly believe you should never denigrate another person’s service record.”
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