Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz knew his National Guard battalion was being eyed for a likely deployment to Iraq when he decided to retire, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.
Walz said he had a "responsibility" to "serve if called on," shortly before he dropped out of the Guard, an archived campaign statement shows. That statement eliminates any doubt over whether Walz knew an Iraq deployment was on the table when he decided to leave the service. A source who served in the Minnesota National Guard at the time previously told the Free Beacon that the timing of Walz’s retirement "left a bad taste in a lot of peoples’ mouths."
"As Command Sergeant Major, I have a responsibility not only to ready my battalion for Iraq, but also to serve if called on," Walz said in a campaign statement on March 20, 2005. Just three days prior, the National Guard Public Affairs Office announced that at least part of his battalion could be shipped overseas to the Middle East in the next two years.
Walz left the National Guard that May. Two months later, his battalion was put on notice that they would be deploying to Iraq.
CNN reported on Wednesday that Walz’s National Guard unit only received notice of the deployment in July, two months after he retired. But the campaign statement shows that Walz knew that an Iraq deployment was at least on the table. The two reporters who wrote that piece, Haley Britzky and Jeremy Herb, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The revelation that Walz knew of his potential deployment when he decided to retire is just the most recent controversy surrounding his representation of his military career. Walz has previously faced accusations of "stolen valor" from combat veterans for how he described his time in the National Guard.
Walz presented himself as a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom both at a 2004 rally and during his 2006 congressional campaign launch, the Free Beacon reported Wednesday. Those misrepresentations spurred a local Iraq war veteran to confront Walz’s staff about Walz’s claims, a resurfaced video from 2009 shows. Walz’s staff then said they would follow up with the veteran. A subsequent meeting never occurred, a source familiar with the situation told the Free Beacon.
Harris’s presidential campaign released a video on Tuesday featuring Walz calling for gun control. In that video, Walz says, "We can make sure those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is [sic] the only place that those weapons are at."
The Harris-Walz campaign did not return a request for comment.
Walz served in the Nebraska National Guard from 1981 to 1996 and the Minnesota National Guard from 1996 to 2005. His deployments only took him as far as military bases in Europe and he never saw any combat.
Sen. J.D. Vance (R., Ohio), the Republican vice presidential nominee, attacked Walz for his military record on Thursday. At a press conference, Vance, a Marine who served in Iraq, said, "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," he said.