The controversies surrounding Democrat vice presidential nominee Tim Walz are continuing to emerge as Kamala Harris’s campaign attempts to inflate the Minnesota governor’s political career.
Walz has been at the center of a growing scandal after multiple allegations of stolen valor have surfaced.
As Walz’s military record comes under scrutiny, the Harris campaign released a statement supporting the vice president’s running mate.
The statement from the Harris campaign points to Walz’s time as a U.S. congressman.
However, the statement falsely claims that during his time in Congress, Walz “chaired Veterans Affairs.”
Walz spent over a decade in the House before he was elected governor.
While it’s true that the former congressman served on Veterans Affairs and eventually rose to become the ranking member of that committee, at no time was he ever the chairman.
Harris correctly characterized Walz’s time in Congress when introducing her running mate in Philadelphia.
She called him “the top Democrat on the Veterans Committee,” which was accurate.
However, it was her campaign that erred.
The statement in question reads:
“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.
“As Vice President of the United States, he will continue to be a relentless champion for our veterans and military families.”
The statement was published by NBC News and numerous other corporate media outlets.
The issue has led to further ire of Republicans who are already outraged that Walz has misrepresented his record for political gain.
A spokesman for Illinois Republican Rep. Mike Bost, current chairman of the committee, blasted the misleading claims from harris and Walz.
“Rep. Walz was only ever ranking member and he served in that role from 2017-2019,” the spokesman said in a statement.
GOP vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq, said:
“When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, do you know what he did?
“He dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him – a fact that he’s been criticized for aggressively by a lot of the people that he served with.”
Vance added, “I think it’s shameful to prepare your unit to go to Iraq, to make a promise that you’re going to follow through, and then to drop out right before you actually have to go.”
It was a reference to the fact that Walz retired from the National Guard in 2005.
He ended a 24-year career after learning that his unit, the National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery, was being deployed to Iraq.
Walz eventually reached the rank of a command sergeant major, the most senior enlisted noncommissioned officer in a battalion, and represented himself previously as “the highest-ranking enlisted service member ever to serve in Congress.”
As Army Lt. Col. Kristen Augé, public affairs officer for the Minnesota National Guard, told NBC News, however, Walz “culminated his career serving as the command sergeant major for the battalion.”
Walz “retired as a master sergeant in 2005 for benefit purposes because he did not complete additional coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy.”
Additionally, in a video clip promoted by the Harris campaign, Walz called for gun control on the grounds that “we can make sure those weapons of war, that I carried in war, are only carried in war.”
WATCH:
The candidate did not, however, ever serve in a war zone.