Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz claimed to have carried guns “in war” during his career in the Army National Guard, according to a video released by the Kamala Harris campaign Tuesday. There’s one glaring problem with his claim.
Walz, the governor of Minnesota, served 24 years in the Army National Guard but never saw combat, according to his own résumé. Walz responded mostly to natural disasters in Minnesota and Nebraska, he told Minnesota Public Radio. He served overseas on a few occasions, but far away from any war zone: in Italy to support the European security force during the war in Afghanistan and Norway for joint training exercises with NATO forces.
According to Minnesota Public Radio, Walz said he reenlisted in the National Guard following the 9/11 attacks, but did not see combat before his retirement in 2005. “I know that there are certainly folks that did far more than I did. I know that,” Walz told the outlet in 2018.
But Walz left a far different impression of his military service at a townhall event that the Harris campaign highlighted shortly after his selection as VP.
“I spent 25 years in the Army, and I hunt,” Walz says at the beginning of the clip. He said he supports “common sense legislation” that “protects the Second Amendment,” but said he favors extensive background checks.
