The Trump campaign has sharpened its line of attack against Kamala Harris’ new running mate, Tim Walz, by accusing the Minnesota governor of dodging war service.
Walz served 24 years in the Minnesota National Guard, reaching the rank of command sergeant major and leading an artillery unit.
The attack centers on a claim that Walz quit his unit to avoid being deployed to Iraq, an attack which was deployed against him when he ran for governor in 2018, a race which he won.
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“When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did?” Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance said Wednesday during a press conference. “He dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him—a fact he’s been criticized for aggressively by many of the people he served with.”
The attack has been lifted from an accusation lobbed in 2018 by a retired Guardsman who alleged the Democratic governor quit the Army after his National Guard unit was called to active duty.
“What bothers me about Tim Walz is the stolen valor garbage,” said Vance, who served as a combat correspondent for the Marines in Iraq. “Do not pretend to be something that you’re not.”
The barrage against Walz has all the hallmarks of the Swift Boating of Democrat John Kerry’s 2004 presidential chances, right down to its architect, Chris LaCivita, who happens to be Donald Trump’s campaign manager.
The allegations were also featured in a Tuesday Republican National Committee press release toward the bottom of a laundry list of Walz’s pitfalls.
“Walz lied about his own National Guard service,” it read.
In a New York Post story published Tuesday, a one-time member of Walz’s unit accused the governor of retiring from the Minnesota National Guard just before he was scheduled to deploy to Iraq in 2005. Walz ran for Congress the next year.
In 2018, during Walz’s first bid for governor, the critic published a scathing letter alleging Walz quit after their unit received notice that it would soon be called to active duty. Media outlets picked up the allegations, as did his GOP rival during his reelection bid.
“My record speaks for itself and my accomplishments in uniform speak for itself, and there's many people in this crowd, too, that I served with,” Walz said in 2022.
Walz also suggested that year that the veteran who made the attack might just disagree with his politics. Another veteran from the governor’s unit said the accusation was ill-informed and possibly a product of personal grievance.
Republicans’ tactic of attacking Walz’s military service is similar to the “swiftboating” strategy that helped sink John Kerry two decades ago. Back then, a group of swift boat veterans sought to discredit the Democratic nominee’s Naval record and medals with a smear campaign.
The architect of that plan was Chris LaCavita, who is now Donald Trump’s top strategist.
When Harris introduced Walz in Philadelphia on Tuesday, her line referring to him as “Sergeant Major Walz” earned particularly loud applause. But the New York Post called that into question, as well, citing previous reporting suggesting his promotion to that rank was nullified when he retired.
The Harris-Walz campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
