Minnesota Governor Tim Walls defends military service record

CNN
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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walls, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, defended his military record in Los Angeles on Tuesday, saying he was “proud” of his service in the Army National Guard.

Speaking at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Union conference, Walls addressed attacks from Republicans, including GOP vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance, who falsely claimed he misrepresented his military record and avoided overseas deployments.

“These people … are attacking me for my record of service, and I want to say, I am proud to have served my country and I always will be,” he said, drawing loud applause from the audience.

Walls outlined his time in the military, enlisting in the Nebraska Army National Guard when he was 17 years old and serving a total of 24 years in the National Guard. He spoke about his work as a member of Congress on the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

“I’m going to say it again as clearly as I can: I’m proud of my service to this country, and I firmly believe that you should never disparage another person’s service record,” he said.

“For anyone who has the courage to put on that uniform for our great country, including my opponent, I have a few simple words: Thank you for your service and sacrifice,” Walls said.

Walls defended his record after Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign admitted he “misspoke” during a 2018 campaign event on Saturday that he handled assault weapons “in combat.” After the Harris campaign He shared the video In 2018 comments last week, Vance, who served in the Marine Corps, accused Walls of “stolen heroism.”

In an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday, Vance defended his attacks on Walls, arguing that he was criticizing Walls’ statements about his record rather than his actions while serving.

“I’m not criticizing Tim Walls’ service; “I’m critical that he lied about his service for political gain,” the Ohio senator said on “State of the Union.”

Vanzum made the same argument In a social media post Responding to Walls’ comments on Tuesday, he reiterated his attacks while expressing openness to a debate.

“Hi Tim, Thank you for your service. But you shouldn’t lie about it. He should not have said he went to war when he did not go to war. You shouldn’t say you didn’t know your unit was going to Iraq. Happy to discuss further in a discussion,” he said in a post on X.

Vance served four years as an enlisted war correspondent in public affairs and was deployed to Iraq about every six months, according to his military record. Walls, for his part, was sent to Vicenza, Italy with the Minnesota National Guard in August 2003 to support the U.S. war in Afghanistan, CNN reported earlier this month.

Walls also faced criticism from Republicans, and some soldiers who served with him retired before his unit could deploy to Iraq. Retired Command Sgt. Major, Walls’ superior and longtime critic of the Minnesota governor. Doug Julin told CNN’s Laura Coates on Friday that Walls retired months before he was deployed to Iraq. Walls filed to run for Congress in February 2005 — before it was announced his unit might be deployed to Iraq. He retired in May 2005, according to the Minnesota National Guard.

Walls has previously had to avoid accusations of embellishing his military service record. In a CNN KFile review, Walls’ description of his service in his first congressional campaign backfired in 2006, prompting him to personally address claims in the local paper.

“There is no place in this debate for defamation of a candidate’s character,” he wrote at the time. “This nation needs to do better because we have too many pressing issues to do anything less.”

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

CNN’s Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, Jeremy Herb, Haley Britzky and Andrew Kaczynski contributed to this report.