Morning Jolt: Why the Story on Tim Walz’s Military Record Isn’t Going Away

WITH AUDREY FAHLBERG

August 09 2024

Why the Story on Tim Walz's Military Record Isn't Going Away

Good morning! Audrey Fahlberg here, National Review's political reporter, here filling in for Jim Geraghty.

On the menu today: The attacks on Tim Walz's time in the military are continuing apace.

Trump Team Goes Scorched Earth on Tim Walz's Military Record: 'Unforgivable Sin'

On Tuesday evening, the Kamala Harris campaign was riding high. Two weeks after emerging as the presumptive Democratic nominee, Harris was rallying onstage for the first time with the man she'd tapped as her running mate — Midwestern governor Tim Walz, a small-town Nebraska native, former football coach, social-studies teacher, purple-seat representative, and 24-year military veteran.

Then came the drip, drip, drip of Republican attacks on Walz's military record. In recent days, Ohio senator J. D. Vance has led the GOP ticket's military-related attacks on Walz, hitting him for not deploying to Iraq with his unit in 2005 and arguing that he has misrepresented his retired rank and service on multiple occasions.

"What bothers me about Tim Walz is this stolen-valor garbage," Vance, who served for years of active duty in ...

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