Latest Attack On Tim Walz For Statements About Military Service Is A Dud

Republican radio host Hugh Hewitt on Monday said a clip of Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz talking about his memory of Bagram Airfield proved Walz had falsely taken credit for serving in Afghanistan.

“I stood one night in the dark of night on the tarmac at Bagram and watched a military ramp ceremony,” Walz said during a Sept. 11 remembrance ceremony in 2021. “And if you’ve seen it … you don’t leave the same, and it makes you wonder, what are we doing?”

Walz served in the National Guard and deployed to Europe, not Afghanistan, as part of Operation Enduring Freedom from August 2003 to April 2004. The clip seemed to be another example of Walz exaggerating his service, in what Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance on Wednesday described as “stolen valor garbage.”

But Hewitt’s supposed bombshell didn’t catch on with prominent Republicans, because even though Walz didn’t deploy to Afghanistan, he did visit the country on a congressional delegation in 2008, according to contemporaneous press releases and articles. He didn’t claim in his speech that he’d seen the military ramp ceremony as part of his earlier deployment.

Vance, a Marine Corps veteran who served in the Iraq War, has slammed Walz for retiring from the Army National Guard in 2005 before his unit deployed to Iraq. Walz had served in the guard for 24 years.

It’s too soon to say whether the more substantive criticism from Vance since last week will hurt Walz’s standing with voters. So far, one poll, conducted over the weekend by Morning Consult, suggests voters view Walz favorably by a 5-point margin after his initial days on the campaign trail. (The same survey showed Vance underwater by 13 points.)

On Tuesday, Walz acknowledged the