CNN Guest Blasts Harris Campaign's 'Backlash' on Ex-Hillary Adviser de Walz

CNN guest Bryan Lanza on Thursday criticized the Harris campaign for scrubbing part of Vice Presidential running mate Kamala Harris' biography of Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, prompting a response from one of the panelists.

Lanza appeared on “The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer” alongside former Hillary Clinton senior campaign adviser Karen Finney, where the two discussed how the Harrises campaign. in silence removed the “retired command sergeant major” from its website after receiving a wave of backlash from Republicans over the mention. Lanza began by discussing Trump's press conference Thursday afternoon before noting how he hadn't heard Trump talk about how the biography was edited, claiming Walz “admitted he lied.”

“No, listen, I think he came into the conversation in a way that he really felt like he was in control. You have the media covering a lot of things, and he probably didn't feel like his narrative was moving forward. So he's always felt that he was their best messenger, and he came in to deliver it,” Lanza said. “So what I heard was that President Trump wanted three debates, not one. What I heard Vice President Kamala say was, 'Maybe we'll have the debate. Let's see how the first one goes'”.

“What I didn't hear, though, that Trump's press conference trotted out, was the fact that Governor Tim Walz had to edit his biography. He admitted that he lied in his biography for the last 20 years, and then Kamala Harris and her campaign had to correct that. That's a shame. 24 hours after that, you're looking at the guy's record and you're finding huge discrepancies. of changing his biography,” Lanza continued.

After referring to himself as a retired command sergeant major, Walz's bio was scrubbed after the Minnesota National Guard released a statement to Just the news on Wednesday correcting the record of how the governor was only promoted to a conditional rank. After the conditional promotion, Walz was unable to complete the training necessary to permanently maintain the title and instead retired as a master sergeant in 2005, according to the release.

After Lanza's statement, Finney could be seen shaking his head as he tried to jump into the discussion before CNN host Wolf Blitzer asked for his response.

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“Bryan, that's just not true. The man served honorably for only 24 years, and the comment he made was about carrying a weapon of war into war, he was deployed, he didn't say he was in a combat zone, he didn't say he was in active combat. But that's the point I think Adam Kinzinger made so beautifully earlier today,” Finney said. “The measure shouldn't be whether or not you believe in combat. The point is, did you put on the uniform of the United States of America? Tim Walz did that for 24 years.”

Walz was too was shouting on CNN via a video promoted by the Harris campaign on Tuesday, in which Walz could be heard saying he wanted to ban the kind of weapons he “carried into war.” CNN correspondent Tom Foreman said Wednesday that there was “no evidence” to support Walz's claim that he “carried weapons in a combat situation.”

The Harris campaign later released a statement to CNN saying that Walz would “never insult or undermine the service of any American to this country,” noting how he “carried, shot and trained others to use weapons of war countless times.”

“Let me tell you if this is the way they want to distract from the fact that Donald Trump used his wealth and his privilege to be able to shirk his responsibility to our country and not wear our country's uniform. That's fine. Let's have that conversation. Let's ask more questions about why Donald Trump felt he was too good to serve in the United States Armed Forces,” Finney concluded.

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