Walz hits back at Vance over military service

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) hit back at Sen. J.D. Vance’s (R-Ohio) attacks on his military record Tuesday, as the battle between the two vice presidential candidates escalates.

Walz, in his first solo speech since he was picked as Vice President Harris’s running mate last week, outlined his service and said no one’s record should be denigrated.

“I am damn proud of my service to this country. And I firmly believe you should never denigrate another person’s service record. To anyone brave enough to put on that uniform for our great country, including my opponent, I just have a few simple words: Thank you for your service and sacrifice,” Walz said in an address to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union in Los Angeles.

Vance, a Marine veteran, has suggested that Walz, who served in the Army National Guard, has been insincere about his military background. Vance has said he served in Iraq when he was asked to, while Walz “dropped out of the Army” to avoid doing so.

Walz spent two dozen years in the Army National Guard and didn’t see combat. He left to run for Congress before his unit was deployed, and those who served with him said the group didn’t know they’d be leaving at the time of his retirement. Walz said Tuesday that he was a “champion” for veterans as a lawmaker.

“These guys are even attacking me for my record of service. And I just want to say, I’m proud to have served my country and I always will be. With my dad’s encouragement — a guy who served in the Army during the Korean War — I signed by for the Army National Guard two days after my 17th birthday,” Walz said Tuesday.

“Then in 2005, I felt the call of duty again, this time of being a service to my country in the halls of Congress. My students inspired me to run for that office,” he added.

The Minnesota governor’s speech was largely an appeal to union workers, who are a critical voting bloc for Democrats to court ahead of November.

He said he is the first union member on a presidential ticket since former President Ronald Reagan, adding, “but rest assured, I won’t lose my way.”

“Donald Trump and JD Vance, they see the world very differently than we do. The only thing those two guys knows about working people is how to work to take advantage of them,” Walz said. “That’s what they know about it.”

He also noted that Harris worked at a McDonald’s while in college to bash Trump over his background.

“Can you simply picture Donald Trump working at a McDonald’s? … He couldn’t run that damn McFlurry machine if it cost him anything,” the governor said.

He argued that Trump has “waged war on workers,” and quoted United Auto Worker President Shawn Fain, who has called Trump a “scab.”

“The vice president and I, we know exactly who built this country — it was nurses, it was teachers and it was state and local government employees that built this nation. People in this room built the middle class,” Walz added.

The Minnesota governor is set to hold a fundraiser in California later Tuesday and then will continue on his first solo fundraising swing to Colorado, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York.