Harold Hutchison
MSNBC hosts Mika Brzezinski and Jonathan Lemire attempted to address allegations that Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota was guilty of “stolen valor” Thursday, accusing Republicans of trying to “Swift boat” the presumptive Democratic nominee for vice president.
Questions about Walz’s 2005 retirement from the Minnesota National Guard arose after a 2018 Facebook post by retired Army Command Sergeant Major Thomas Behrends resurfaced in the wake of Walz’s selection as Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate. After airing a video segment from MSNBC host Chris Hayes, Brzezinski then cited a Minnesota Public Radio report as she attempted to “fact check” the stolen valor allegations directed at Walz, comparing them to the criticism of then-Democratic Sen. John Kerry from Vietnam War veterans during the 2004 presidential campaign, highlighted by a group known as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
“A medical board considered dismissing Walz in 2002 due to hearing problems he developed while working with high-powered weapons during his more than two decades in the National Guard. At that point, a guardsman who served under Walz says he was already openly discussing retiring in order to run for Congress,” Brzezinski claimed. “Records show that in January of 2005, he did, indeed, take that step and filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission. Two months later, Walz acknowledged in a campaign statement that there were talks about units potentially being deployed but wrote, quote, ‘I do not yet know if my artillery unit will be part of this mobilization.’”
In the statement, dated March 20, 2005, Walz, then running against Republican Rep. Gil Gutknecht of Minnesota, said that “as Command Sergeant Major I have a responsibility not only to ready my battalion for Iraq, but also to serve if called on.”
“In May of that year, documents show he officially retired from the military, meaning he likely had to inform the National Guard of his plans many months earlier,” Brzezinski continued. In July of 2005, six months after Walz declared his intent to run for Congress, his former battalion received a mobilization alert. Then the following month, the order to deploy. Vance also accused Walz yesterday of lying about his rank of command sergeant major. But in a statement, the National Guard says the governor did, indeed, reach that level. Though he, quote, retired as a master sergeant for benefit purposes because he did not complete additional coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy.”
Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, the GOP nominee for vice-president, accused Walz of “dishonesty” Wednesday while speaking at a campaign event in Wisconsin. Walz claims in his official page that he retired as a Command Sergeant Major, but the Harris campaign later said Walz earned the title, but admitted he retired as a master sergeant, according to Politico.
“Jonathan Lemire, again, different people do different types of service, and J.D. Vance is going after Tim Walz and lining it with untruths, but also, I feel like a service member denigrating another service member for his service is just, I don’t know, I’m not sure how that’s going to play,” Brzezinski said to “Morning Joe” co-host Lemire. “That may go in the JV Vance category, as well.”
Co-host Lemire claimed the Trump campaign was trying to attack Walz’s service record, comparing it to the criticism Kerry received from fellow Vietnam War veterans during the 2004 campaign.
“The overall argument as you just laid out in the fact-check, and our colleague Chris Hayes did last night, it simply doesn’t hold water, the idea of stolen valor, that he bailed on his unit to avoid combat deployment. These are attacks that don’t seem particularly honest, and it’s unclear whether they will resonate,” Lemire said. “Charlie Sykes, I think it is a couple other things that need to be noted here. First of all, this just shows how the Trump team has really struggled to come up with any sort of effective attack lines against Vice President Harris and now, in these early days, her running mate, so they’re seizing upon this. We should say perhaps it’s not too surprising, Chris LaCivita, one of the top Trump aides, he was the architect of the Swift Boat attacks against John Kerry back in 2004. This is a familiar playbook with him.”
LaCivita did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Featured image credit: Screenshot/Grabien/MSNBC
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