Vance hits Walz over military service

Sen. JD Vance (Ohio), the GOP vice presidential nominee, criticized Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), Vice President Harris’s running mate, over his military service, saying Wednesday the governor should “not pretend to be something that you’re not.” 

Vance was asked by a reporter to respond to Walz’s criticism that the Ohio senator’s Silicon Valley backing and Ivy League education made him part of the elite.  

“I came from a family where nobody in my family had ever gone to law school,” Vance said at a campaign event in Michigan. “I was — I grew up in a poor family. The fact that Tim Walz wants to turn it into a bad thing, that I actually worked myself through college, through law school, and made something of myself — to me, that’s the American dream.”  

“And if Tim Walz wants to insult it, I think that’s, frankly, pretty bizarre,” he added. 

The Ohio senator, a Marine veteran, suggested that Walz was being insincere about his military background.  

“You know what really bothers me about Tim Walz as a Marine who served his country in uniform? When the United States Marine Corps — when the United States of America — asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did it. I did what they asked me to do it, and I did it honorably, and I’m very proud of that service,” Vance said.  

“When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did?” he said. “He dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him.”

Walz spent two dozen years in the Army National Guard, where he was deployed overseas for a few months on active duty and whose responsibilities also included tornado response and flood fights, according to Minnesota Public Radio. Walz didn’t see combat.  

Walz left the Army National Guard for a congressional bid, according to the Star Tribune.  

Vance also hit Walz over a past video shared by the Harris campaign in which Walz said he carried weapons during war. The Ohio GOP senator questioned whether Walz had ever been in war or carried a weapon in war.  

Vance worked as a combat correspondent and spent some time in Iraq, according to the Army Times.

“What bothers me about Tim Walz is the stolen valor garbage,” Vance said. “Do not pretend to be something that you’re not, and if he wants to criticize me for getting an Ivy League education, I’m proud of the fact that my mamaw supported me, that I was able to make something of myself.”

“I’d be ashamed, if I was him, and I lied about my military service, like he did,” he added. 

Walz was formally selected as Harris’s running mate on Tuesday. The two held their first campaign event together later that day in Philadelphia.  

The Harris campaign defended Walz in a statement to The Hill

“After 24 years of military service, Governor Walz retired in 2005 and ran for Congress, where he chaired Veterans Affairs and was a tireless advocate for our men and women in uniform — and as Vice President of the United States he will continue to be a relentless champion for our veterans and military families,” the campaign said.