High-ranking former military officers accused their onetime colleague Tim Walz of further inflating his war stories in a sitdown with Megyn Kelly over the holiday weekend.
The former Fox News anchor and conservative satellite radio star convened a panel of Minnesota National Guard veterans who served with the Democratic governor and vice presidential candidate, indicting Walz on charges of desertion and politicizing a rank they say he did not fully earn. Kelly’s “must-see” interview was lighting up the internet from Monday night into Tuesday morning. “He’s got absolutely no integrity,” one member said in a 68-second clip, according to the Western Journal.
Shortly after, Kelly released a full episode spotlighting accusations against Walz of “stolen valor,” or the practice of misrepresenting or outright lying about military accomplishments or veteran status to achieve tangible benefits. Walz has previously been accused by retired commanders of using a rescinded title of Command Sergeant Major during his first successful campaign for Congress in 2005. “Many men who served with Governor Walz when he was in the National Guard… have come forward to accuse him of that sin,” Kelly said on X.
For well over an hour, she speaks with four of the men who served under Gov. Walz in the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion which deployed to Iraq without Walz, who asked for retirement in order to launch his political career. Military brass granted his wish but rescinded his title as Command Sergeant Major, reducing him to Master Sergeant at the time of his departure. In 2018, during his first campaign for governor, retired Command Sergeant Majors Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr wrote that Walz left them and other men under his command “hanging” without him in Iraq, a sentiment shared by those men who spoke with Kelly.
“It is morally indefensible. He didn’t care. It was all about him,” one guest said. Another called Walz a “military impersonator” while a third said it’s impossible to justify what the Democrat did nearly 20 years ago. “I don’t understand how you do it morally,” he said. “If you knew my blood was boiling right now because Walz has done nothing but lie to feather his own bed his entire career,” he added. “That’s how I know. I was there. I didn’t just make this stuff up. I was in the meetings. Soldiers died … Their parents didn’t want their soldiers to take a pass, take a knee?”
Asked about the accusation that Gov. Walz won a seat in the U.S. House by leaning into a military title that was quickly rescinded, the men agreed it wasn’t surprising when they learned about it. “He’s a habitual liar. He lies about everything,” one of the four men told Kelly. That, as well as deserting his platoon right before deployment, should disqualify Walz from serving as vice president should Kamala Harris win in November, they said. “If you sold out your Guard unit and abandoned them, what are you going to do at the national level?” another guest added.
Walz’s opponent, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), has already promised to bring up the Democrat’s military misfortunes when the two meet for a first debate on October 1st. Vance, a Navy veteran, has publicly ripped his competitor for abdicating his military duty during the nation’s third year of war in the Middle Eastern nation. “What really bothers me about Tim Walz, as a Marine who served his country in uniform, when the United States Marine Corps, when the United States of America asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did it. I did it when they asked me to do it and I did it honorably, and I’m very proud of that service,” he stated during an appearance in Michigan last month. “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, a fact that he’s been criticized for aggressively by a lot of the people that he served with.”
