'Absolutely shameful': JD Vance slams Tim Walz for 'abandoning his troops' before National Guard battalion was deployed to Iraq

Vice presidential candidate JD Vance has spoken out against Kamala Harris’ vice presidential pick after reports surfaced that Tim Walz "retired" from the Army National Guard as his battalion was preparing to deploy to Iraq, four years into his six-year reenlistment.

Vance, who served in the US Marines and was deployed to Iraq, told the Daily Mail, "I mean, your job as a senior enlisted guy in a unit is to keep your people safe. That's not a job you can switch out of on a moment's notice."

"So if he abandoned his troops before they went to Iraq or wherever ... absolutely shameful," he added.

Vance added, "There was a clip the Kamala campaign posted about him where he's making a gun control argument.  He said, 'Look, you should not be able to carry the weapons that I carried in war.' And I'm, I'm thinking to myself, well, when did you go to war? What weapon did you carry in the war, Tim, because apparently you skipped out on your unit before they went to Iraq."

"I know he didn't go to a combat zone, so why is he lying to make a political point?"

In a clip posted by the Kamala Harris campaign on Tuesday, Walz was heard claiming he carried guns "in war" during his time in the Army National Guard, though Walz previously has said that he never saw combat.

"I spent 25 years in the Army and I hunt," he said, later adding, "I’ve been voting for common sense legislation that protects the Second Amendment, but we can do background checks. We can do CDC research, we can make sure we don’t have reciprocal carry among states, and we can make sure that those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is the place where those weapons are at." 

Walz acknowledged to Minnesota Public Radio in October 2018, ahead of the election that would see him win the governorship, that he never saw combat during his 24 years in the Army National Guard. "I know that there are certainly folks that did far more than I did. I know that," he said.

Walz’s overseas deployments included Italy, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, and Norway, where he joined joint training exercises with NATO forces.

In a letter published to the West Central Tribune in November 2018, Retired Command Sergeant Major Thomas Behrends and Retired Command Sergeant Major Paul Herr said that Walz "embellished and selectively omitted facts and circumstances of his military career for years."

They claimed that Walz reenlisted in the Minnesota Army National Guard for six years, and was conditionally promoted to Command Sergeant Major on September 17, 2004.

A warning order was issued to the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion in early 2005 to prepare to be mobilized for active duty in Iraq. The National Guard Sergeants Major wrote that Walz quit on May 16, 2005, "leaving the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion and its Soldiers hanging; without its senior Non-Commissioned Officer, as the battalion prepared for war." Walz was reduced to Master Sergeant on September 10, 2005.

Walz, they wrote, claimed that he reenlisted for four years, not six. The Sergeants Major noted that Walz's official Report of Separation and Record of Service that Walz had reenlisted for six years in 2001. They wrote that even if Walz had reenlisted for four years like he said, his retirement date would have been in September of 2005, not May.

"And he makes it sound like he 'retired' a year before his battalion deployed to Iraq; when in reality he knew when he 'retired' that the battalion would be deployed to Iraq," they wrote.