(ProsperNews.net) – After weeks of internal deliberations and public speculation, Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris finally picked her running mate, but he’s already off to a rough start and facing criticism about his biography.
On Tuesday, Aug. 6, Harris announced that her running mate for the White House is Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Critics of the Democratic vice presidential candidate soon pointed out that he misrepresented his military background on his official website.
amid increased scrutiny following the announcement by the Harris campaign, critics noticed the website claimed Walz held a higher rank than the rank he retired with. Some of those critics include veterans who accused the Minnesota governor of stolen valor.
When Walz retired from the Minnesota Army National Guard, he was a master sergeant, also known as an E-8. The biography on the governor’s official website implies he retired at the rank of E-9, or command sergeant major, when Walz only served under that rank for a brief period before it was rescinded and he did not retire as a command sergeant major. Critics also point out how Walz has implied in speeches to have seen combat when the governor did not fight in any battle or skirmish.
Army Lt. Col. Kristen Augé, who serves as the State Public Affairs Officer for the Minnesota National Guard, confirmed to reporters that Walz retired as an E-8 and not an E-9. Meanwhile, the governor’s website mentions that he served 24 years with the National Guard and then states that as “Command Sergeant Major Walz,” he retired from his battalion in 2005. It then goes on to mention Walz’s first election to Congress the following year and his successive re-elections for five more terms.
In her email, Augé said Walz was a master sergeant when he retired “for benefit purposes” and that he failed to complete the “additional coursework” necessary to retire officially as a command sergeant major. According to a 2018 letter from Paul Herr and Thomas Behrends, both retired Army Command Sergeant Majors, Walz was only “conditionally promoted” in 2004 but that the promotion was nullified after he did not meet the requirements.
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