Tim Walz’s 2005 Campaign Website Featured An Article Claiming The Candidate Was A ‘War Vet’

During his first congressional run in 2005, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s campaign website featured an article touting the candidate as a “war vet.”

The article, from Roll Call, was headlined “Minnesota Skinny: Democrats Fretting About Rowley, Touting War Vet.” The website shared other headlines that implied Walz had deployed to Iraq, including “After Hackett’s Close Call, Iraq War Veterans Are in Demand” and “Other Iraq War Veterans Running.”

Walz has long come under fire for misconstruing his military service record. Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign brought the issue back into the spotlight this week when it shared a video of Harris’ running mate advocating gun control, saying, “We can make sure that those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is the only place where those weapons are at.”

Walz did not deploy to Iraq, or Afghanistan, but was stationed in Italy.

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Chris Manning, who, like Walz, served in the National Guard, told The Daily Wire that the term “war vet” should never be used for someone who was not deployed to a combat zone.

“If you don’t go to war you are not a war veteran,” Manning said. “Being a security guard at an airbase in Italy is not going to war, it isn’t a combat tour.”

“Walz is not a war veteran and it is dishonest for him to claim he is,” Manning added.

Walz’s 2006 campaign website listed “Veterans’ issues” as its top priority, and noted that Walz felt a special connection to the issue because of his service.

“As a veteran of the Army National Guard, Command Sergeant Major Walz is deeply concerned about those veterans that are already in the VA system, as well as the high number of military personnel that will be classified as veterans in the near future,” the website reads.

The Minnesota National Guard said Walz’s claim to have retired as a Command Sergeant Major is false, saying he retired as a master sergeant “in 2005 for benefit purposes because he did not complete additional coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy.” He did not complete the course because he retired in May 2005, after his battalion received notice that it might be deployed to Iraq — leading many to suspect Walz retired in order to avoid seeing combat.

Walz acknowledged that he expected his campaign to be deployed to Iraq in a campaign press release in March 2005.

Related: Iraq War Vet Said In 2006 That Tim Walz Never Served, ‘Abandoned His Fellow Soldiers’