Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Kamala Harris' running mate, hasn't taken any questions since being tapped for the ticket more than a week ago. Harris hasn't answered any substantive questions either, of course, having ducked any interviews for nearly a month. The campaign is instead communicating through pre-written speeches at rallies, paid advertisements, 'influencer' endorsements (allegedly including paid endorsements), and a deluge of glowing press coverage -- including puff pieces they aren't participating in, or commenting for. In one of Walz's recent speeches, he indignantly asserted that he's "damn proud" of his military service, then thanked JD Vance for his own service to the country. This is apparently supposed to sound tough, but also magnanimous:
Let me be clear: I am damn proud of my service to this country. pic.twitter.com/9a9rJSQurQ
— Tim Walz (@Tim_Walz) August 13, 2024
When you can’t respond to a good argument, respond to bad argument that no one is making https://t.co/2X2KfvDS7B
— Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) August 13, 2024
Of course, Walz should be proud of his honorable service, which is not the issue. The issue is that he repeatedly embellished, exaggerated, and lied about his service, including his final rank. He also bailed on a deployment to Iraq, choosing to retire before his unit was sent to that combat zone (he'd never served in a combat zone, hence the problem with his false pro-gun control claim that he'd 'carried' weapons 'in war'). He knew the deployment was likely, acknowledged as much, then left to pursue a political career. Many of his men felt betrayed and abandoned:
Tonight’s @thelauracoates interview with Walz’ direct enlisted superior [retired CSM] Doug Julin is pretty damning- Julin says sr leaders learned abt deployment in fall 2004 and Walz initially was going to stay and deploy before changing his mind. (1/2)pic.twitter.com/ayz7ESBAzA https://t.co/8a3K5eW7Dl
— Peter Meijer (@RepMeijer) August 10, 2024
Some of them Walz served with, including his second in command, have been calling him out on these falsehoods and misrepresentations for years. (His commanding officer also added a scathing assessment last week). He has ignored and belittled them, knowingly carrying on with his deceptions. He's had many opportunities to correct the record, and he's chosen not to:
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Hi, @Tim_Walz and @KamalaHarris—
— Bree A Dail (@breeadail) August 11, 2024
Just wondering, did you also “misprint” your rank as Command Sergeant Major on your Congressional Challenge Coin?
cc: @NBCNews https://t.co/KIILqMgj9S pic.twitter.com/fkZrb4luHv
This is the most egregious video I’ve seen so far- and it’s on a 40min C-SPAN segment! That’s the easiest of settings to correct the interviewer’s intro that said he deployed to Afghanistan. Unless there are any instances of Walz correcting, this is a real pattern.
— Peter Meijer (@RepMeijer) August 10, 2024
(I looked for… https://t.co/UoZZxDn7XM
Welp. Wonder how she and so many others got that false impression? https://t.co/ao8obaAqvs
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) August 9, 2024
UPDATE - Again, they've been admonishing him on this for years:
.@wsteaks and @OliviaRubinABC report that in 2016, Thomas Behrends, who took over Walz's battalion after Walz retired from military service in 2005, penned a private letter to Walz imploring him to stop using the title of Command Sergeant Major.
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) August 15, 2024
"It saddens me that after your…
That is the problem. Indeed, JD Vance should be thanked for his service. He also has never lied about it, which is why this sort of trolling bravado is particularly unbecoming:
Vance shows up for a tough challenge & doesn’t lie about it. Walz is the one doesn’t always follow suit, as we’ve learned. https://t.co/l1rXjEImUA
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) August 14, 2024
Vance has, of course, accepted the debate (October 1 on CBS). Meanwhile, it looks like honesty is a serious weakness for Walz. I suppose that if a man is willing to fudge, obscure, and distort the truth about his own military service -- even after private and public exposures of his inaccuracies -- aggressively lying about a politically-inconvenient (and extremely dangerous) DUI would come rather easily. Kudos to this CNN reporter for uncovering what happened:
NEW: During his 2006 congressional run, Tim Walz’s campaign falsely claimed he wasn’t drinking during his 1995 arrest and the DUI charge was dismissed. They even said he drove to the station.
— Andy Kaczynski (@KFILE) August 15, 2024
Court records show the truth.
He was drunk, driving 96 mph.https://t.co/V36D4vzxhc
According to court and police records connected to the incident, Walz admitted in court that he had been drinking when he was pulled over for driving 96 mph in a 55 mph zone in Nebraska. Walz was then transported by a state trooper to a local hospital for a blood test, showing he had a blood alcohol level of .128, well above the state’s legal limit of 0.1 at the time. But in 2006, his campaign repeatedly told the press that he had not been drinking that night, claiming that his failed field sobriety test was due to a misunderstanding related to hearing loss from his time in the National Guard. The campaign also claimed that Walz was allowed to drive himself to jail that night...None of that was true. A CNN KFile review of statements made by the Walz campaign at the time reveals numerous discrepancies between how the campaign described the events and the facts of what actually took place that night.
“The DUI charge was dropped for a Reason: it wasn’t true,” Walz’s then-campaign communications director told local news in 2006. “The trooper had him drive to the station and then leave on his own after being at the station. Tim feels bad about speeding and has paid the ticket and apologized to his family at the time it happened.” In fact, the incident’s police report clearly states that Walz was transported by police to a local hospital for blood alcohol testing after being arrested. And this week, Nebraska state police confirmed to CNN that Walz was taken by a state trooper to jail...On Tuesday, the Daily Beast published an interview with the state trooper who arrested Walz. He disputed claims that Walz had not been drinking and noted that sobriety test had nothing to do with hearing. The Harris-Walz campaign declined to comment for this story.
Using 'deafness' from his National Guard service as a baseless excuse while lying about the facts of this incident is quite a touch, and very on-brand, it seems. Driving 96mph while drunk is exceptionally reckless. Lying about all of it, for political gain, appears to be reflective of this man's character. I'll leave you with this: Does Tim Walz ever tell the truth about anything?
EXCLUSIVE: Tim Walz—in footage unearthed by @dcexaminer—called Hitler-promoting imam Asad Zaman a “master teacher” who offered Walz lessons over the time they “spent together"
— Gabe Kaminsky (@gekaminsky) August 13, 2024
The footage further contradicts the Harris campaign’s claim Walz has no personal relationship w/ Zaman pic.twitter.com/F1lKcJyzI1
WHERE THE MONEY GOES: Gov. Tim Walz’s administration gave over $100,000 to the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, which is run by Imam Asad Zaman, who has used his Facebook page to share official Hamas press releases. https://t.co/JjDcY1jFg4 pic.twitter.com/VhyRvOnl0D
— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 11, 2024
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