Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign quietly altered Gov. Tim Walz’s (D-MN) biography on its official website after his military rank fiasco.
The website initially listed Walz as a “retired command sergeant major,” a position he never held. As of Thursday, however, the Harris campaign’s website lists the governor as “the rank of Command Sergeant Major.”
However, the website does not mention Walz’s rank was diminished before retirement.
The decision reflects the need for significant damage control after a damning report revealed that Walz lied about his time in the National Guard. Walz previously claimed he reenlisted in the military to serve an additional four years in the National Guard following the 9/11 terror attacks, adding that he retired the year before his battalion was deployed to Iraq so that he could run for Congress. However, a report found that the governor actually reenlisted for an additional six years only to quietly retire a year before his battalion was deployed to Iraq.
In the original biography, the same sentence called Walz “the son of an Army veteran and a retired Command Sergeant Major in the Army National Guard himself,” website archives show. A Harris campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did Walz’s gubernatorial office in Minnesota, the website for which still describes him as “Command Sergeant Major Walz.” Walz’s campaign website for governor also used this title.
Led by GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance, a Marine Corps veteran who deployed to Iraq, Republicans have suggested that Walz inflated his credentials by calling himself a “retired command sergeant major.” The Minnesota governor did serve as a command sergeant major but was reverted back to the rank of master sergeant when he left the military because he had not completed required coursework for the higher rank with the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy. Via Politico.
Republicans have accused Walz of committing an act of “stolen valor,” which resulted in him dodging questions from reporters awaiting him on the tarmac and running toward his car on Wednesday.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was grilled on Walz’s questionable military career, to which she diverted to citing his biography, praising Harris’ running mate.
“I laid out and you’ve all seen his bio, right? This is someone who enlisted at 17 years old to serve this country, he was part of the Army National Guard for 24 years. This is someone who [was] a high school teacher, a high school coach as well, who grew up in a small town in the Midwest,” Jean-Pierre said. “And so I think his bio speaks for itself, who he is speaks for itself, his record speaks for itself, and I’m just not going to say anything beyond that.”