(TheRedAlertNews.com) – In a pointed critique designed to hit his opponent Tim Walz where it hurts, Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance slammed the Democrat’s military service.
Walz, the Governor of Minnesota, is the vice-presidential selection of Kamala Harris.
During an event in Michigan, Vance, who is Donald Trump’s running mate, expressed his concerns, The Guardian reports.
“You know what really bothers me about Tim Walz? When the United States Marine Corps … asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did it. I did what they asked me to do and I did it honorably, and I’m very proud of that service. When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did? He dropped out of the army and allowed his unit to go without him,” Vance said.
Vance, now a US Senator from Ohio at the age of 40, was deployed to Iraq in 2005 as a military journalist.
His role, titled ‘combat correspondent,’ did not involve actual combat, the report notes.
Walz, age 60, served in the army national guard for 24 years, focusing on infantry and artillery roles and was deployed in response to natural disasters within the US and to Europe in support of operations in Afghanistan.
He retired in 2005 to pursue a political career, shortly before his unit was deployed to Iraq.
Walz has been subject to similar criticism previously.
In a 2018 interview with Minnesota Public Radio, he stated, “I know that there are certainly folks that did far more than I did. I know that. I willingly say that I got far more out of the military than they got out of me, from the GI bill to leadership opportunities to everything else.”
Al Bonnifield, a soldier who served under Walz, defended him.
“Would the soldier look down on him because he didn’t go with us? Would the common soldier say, ‘Hey, he didn’t go with us, he’s trying to skip out on a deployment?’ And he wasn’t. … He weighed that decision to run for Congress very heavy. He loved the military, he loved the guard, he loved the soldiers he worked with,” Bonnifield said.
He further praised Walz as “very caring” and a “very good leader,” noting that Walz was supportive of his soldiers upon their return from Iraq.
Vance also criticized Walz based on a campaign video released by Harris, in which Walz discusses gun control reform.
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