Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance on Wednesday accused his Democratic counterpart, Tim Walz, of “stolen valor.”
Walz and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris have touted the Minnesota governor’s time in the Army National Guard, but Vance pointed out that Walz ended his 24-year military career in 2005, when he ran for office, just before his unit deployed for Iraq.
“He said, ‘We shouldn't allow weapons that I used in war to be on America's streets.’ Well, I wonder, Tim Walz, when were you ever in war? When was this? What was this weapon that you carried into war, given that you abandoned your unit right before they went to Iraq, and he has not spent a day in a combat zone?” Vance said during a news conference and campaign stop in Shelby Township in Michigan. “What bothers me about Tim Walz is the stolen valor garbage. Do not pretend to be something that you're not.”
Vance, a Marine veteran who served in the Iraq War, contrasted Walz’s decision to his own service.
“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, and I did it honorably, and I'm very proud of that service,” the Ohio senator said. “I think it's shameful to prepare your unit to go to Iraq, to make a promise that you're gonna follow through, and then to drop out right before you actually have to go.”
