Concerns about the way Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz – Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate – described his military service are not new to the 2024 election.
Back in 2009, Iraq War veteran David Thul went to then-Congressman Walz’s office in Mankato, Minnesota, and presented evidence he said showed Walz misrepresenting his military service. The encounter was captured in a video that has recently resurfaced.
NEW: Unearthed video from 2009 shows two of Tim Walz’s congressional constituents showing up to his office confronting his staff with Walz’s questionable claim of being an Afghanistan War vet. pic.twitter.com/nKPx44YiV7
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Thul presented a Walz staffer with a 2004 photo of Walz holding a sign saying “Enduring Freedom Veterans for Kerry” and said that the image depicts Walz as an “Afghanistan War veteran.”
“Congressman Walz is not an Afghanistan War veteran, is he?” Thul asks the staffer.
“He served in Italy as a part of Operation Enduring Freedom,” the staffer responds.
“But he didn’t serve in Afghanistan, did he?” Thul then asks.
“Not that I’m aware of,” the staffer says.
The video then shows Thul meeting with another staffer and showing him the same picture.
The staffer said he always “understood” that Walz’s involvement in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) was that he was deployed “in support of it.” Thul then asked the staffer if he believed most people would associate Operation Enduring Freedom with Afghanistan, to which the staffer suggested it was a broader operation.
Thul then tells the staffer that OEF is “limited to Afghanistan and the air space directly above it.” He acknowledged that other units were called up “in support of” OEF but stated that his “concern” with the picture he presented and Walz’s official website is that “without any other details, don’t you think it’s reasonable people might assume that he served in Afghanistan?”
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The staffer takes a moment before responding: “Perhaps, I guess?”
Thul then points out that it has been nearly five years, and Walz’s official biography has potentially caused confusion about whether or not he actually served in Afghanistan.
When the staffer asked how Thul would change the wording to make it clearer, the Iraq War veteran said adding the words “in Italy” would suffice.
“We both appreciate his being deployed,” Thul said, “but there’s a huge difference between being deployed to a base in Italy and being in a combat zone in Afghanistan.”
Thul also notes that there were media articles in 2006 that referred to Walz as a “war veteran” and tells the staffer that the photo of Walz depicting him as an Afghanistan War veteran could violate Stolen Valor laws and result in incarceration. Walz has never been charged with Stolen Valor crimes, nor has he been officially investigated for such offenses. Walz also does not appear to have claimed to have received any awards or medals for being a war veteran.
