Tim Walz was supposed to be a messianic Vice Presidential candidate. He was a far-left progressive governor who had somehow convinced Minnesotans that he, too, shared their traditional Midwestern values. Here was a guy, the lore went, who could deliver both moderates and fringe lunatics to his deeply unpopular running mate, Kamala Harris. He was the perfect candidate for the job.
Congressman Josh Gottheimer could not wait to offer his resounding endorsement of Tim Walz as his party’s Vice Presidential nominee. On August 6th, mere moments after the Kamala Harris veepstakes decision went public, Gottheimer gushed, “Tim is just a great guy! Can’t wait to vote for Harris-Walz in November!”
Josh Gottheimer’s eagerness to follow orders and mindlessly rush into the partisan fray is astounding. At least there’s still one “good soldier” left in the Democratic Party.
But it’s not Tim Walz. A former National Guardsman, in 2005 Walz abruptly quit once rumors circulated that his unit might be slated to deploy to Iraq. As a Command Sergeant Major – the highest enlisted position in the entire unit – he walked away from the hundreds of soldiers he was responsible for training, mentoring, and protecting. As his troops marched on to war, Tim Walz marched on home.
But that hasn’t stopped Walz from telling people he went to war. On several occasions during his political power climb, Walz has padded his leftist credentials and taken advantage of voters by decrying, “We can make sure those weapons of war, that I carried in war, are only carried in war,” [emphasis added].
Tim Walz carried nothing in war, because unlike his troops, he was never there. He has often touted his service in Operation Enduring Freedom, a generic term that can refer to either a combat tour in Afghanistan, or simply supporting a forward-deployed unit from a non-combat location during our nation’s post-9/11 Global War on Terror.
Tim Walz fought the terrorists from Italy, and we thank him for that service. But we don’t thank him for knowingly using confusing military speak to hoodwink voters and falsely imply he stood toe-to-toe with our nation’s enemies. He didn’t.
Whether or not you believe this is stolen valor, no one doubts the moral bankruptcy of inflating one’s service record to climb the political ladder. It is the behavior of a cold, calculated politician who places self before country. It is the embodiment of what has brought our system down to its knees.
We shouldn’t be surprised. Of course Kamala Harris would turn a blind eye to this disqualifying character flaw. If her hand in the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, which took the lives of thirteen of our own troops, was not grounds for her own disqualification and removal from office, why would Tim Walz pawning an embellished military career in exchange for cheap political bona fides give her any pause in putting him on the Democratic ticket?
But for those of us who fought in our nation’s wars, and had friends who did not return home, it does give us pause. Unlike Josh Gottheimer, we cannot bring ourselves to gush that Tim Walz is a “great guy” who we should be delighted to vote for in November.
Tim Walz is not a great guy. When the going got tough, he bailed on his troops and his country. And then he lied about it repeatedly. Only in the eyes of a pandering Congressional sycophant could that seem Vice Presidential.
_
Nick De Gregorio is a US Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a 2022 Congressional candidate, he did not lie about his service record. Perhaps that is why he lost that race and is not Kamala Harris’ choice for Vice President.
Joseph Labarbera Served in the US Marine Corps and the US Army from 1995-2016 deploying twice to Iraq, three times to Afghanistan and once to Kosovo. He is a recipient of the Combat Infantryman’s badge and currently volunteers as the Sussex County NJ Republican Committee Chairman
