On Wednesday, the senator said: Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) criticized Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) for attacks on the military career of the Democratic vice presidential candidate and governor of Minnesota. Tim Walz.
On Wednesday, Vance had already accused his opponent of “stolen bravery” at an event in Michigan. He had left the National Guard in 2005, shortly after his battalion was deployed to the Iraq War, and falsely claimed to have served in the war.
“What bothers me about Tim Walz is this nonsense about stolen heroism,” said Vance, who served in the Marines.
“I’m wondering, Tim Walz, when have you ever been to war? … Don’t pretend to be someone you’re not,” Vance said. “He never spent a single day in a combat zone … I would be ashamed if I were him and how he would lie about my military service.”
The Republican senator was apparently referring to a viral clip featuring Walz posted on social media by Harris’ campaign team on Wednesday.
In the clip, Walz discusses gun control and explains: “We can ensure that the weapons of war that I carried in war are only carried in war.”
Although Vance admitted that he too has not participated in actual combat operations, he highlighted his deployment to Iraq in 2005 as a reporter for the Marine Corps Public Affairs Division.
In response to Vance’s attacks on Walz, Kelly posted on X: “Hey JD Vance, have you forgotten what the (United States Marine Corps) taught you about respect? Tim Walz wore the uniform for decades.”
“You both deserve thanks for your service,” continued Kelly, a retired Marine captain who served in Operation Desert Storm. “Don’t become Donald Trump (the former president). He calls veterans suckers and losers and that is beneath the dignity of those of us who actually served.”
Kelly, a former Navy officer who became a NASA astronaut and launched a surveillance balloon project before his election to the Senate, was one of the leading contenders for Harris’s vice presidency but was ultimately passed over in favor of Walz.
In a statement on Thursday, Vance’s press secretary said: Luke Schroederrepeated Vance’s criticism of Walz’s military career.
The governor of Minnesota lied about carrying a gun in war and abandoned his unit when it was preparing for actual combat duty. He said he would answer the call, but when the call came, he ran for political office instead, Schroeder said.
“There is nothing more insulting to veterans who answer the call to serve in a combat zone, as Senator Vance did, than those who engage in stolen valor to further their political careers – and that is exactly what Walz appears to have done. Perhaps Mark Kelly would have been a better choice for vice president after all,” he concluded.
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