Gov. Tim Walz, Kamala Harris' pick for vice president, abandoned the troops he was supposed to lead in the Minnesota National Guard after learning they were deploying to Iraq. He conveniently retreated as they went and fought.
This would not be the only time Walz abandoned his fellow servicemen.
Time and time again, Walz put politics ahead of service. Our veterans have paid the price for their lack of service. During the Trump administration, Walz was the top Democrat on the House committee responsible for veterans' health care.
The VA health care system was struggling to right the ship after years of scandal. Veterans in desperate need of care had suffered long wait times, poor quality care and neglect. Some even committed suicide because they could not get the help their nation had promised.
The VA crisis was personal for me, as a veteran of the war in Afghanistan and a member of the Army's 34th Infantry Division, the same unit as Walz. I had friends from Afghanistan who killed themselves after returning home. I dedicated myself to reforming the broken system that had failed my friends.
As a frontline advocate of this fight, I can tell you that there was no greater champion of reform than President Donald Trump. Shamefully, there was no worse obstacle than Tim Walz.
When President Trump came into office, he created a 10-point plan for VA reform. Trump's approach was common sense: VA bureaucrats needed to be held accountable when they failed, and veterans deserved more and better choices about where to get health care.
An important piece of President Trump's reform agenda was the VA MISSION Act. Before this bill was passed, veterans had to drive up to 40 miles and wait up to a month to receive treatment at a VA facility, even if there was a corner clinic that could offer the same treatment on the same day. The VA MISSION Act opened up the system, allowing veterans to receive medical care in their local community if the VA could not easily provide that care.
The bill the House passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, 347-70. It later passed the Senate, 95-5, and was signed into law by President Trump. But Tim Walz and other liberal Democrats didn't want to hand the president a win, even if it meant giving veterans the finger. Walz was part of the partisan, left-leaning minority that voted “no,” along with Nancy Pelosi.
Opposing the VA MISSION Act was cynical politics at its worst. When Walz had the chance to help veterans, he decided to score political points.
This is the truth about Tim Walz's decades-long political career. When faced with choosing between what was right or what would advance his career, he ran from what was right and chose his career every time.
So when Walz's Guard unit was slated for a deployment to Iraq, he spoke of his “responsibility“to serve, but then shied away from that responsibility. Walz's own chaplain called this decision what it is: cowards. I know many veterans who share this view.
Later, when it was useful for his political career, Walz claimed that he fought in the war. A Democratic spokesman recently admitted that Walz “misspoken.” This is the weasel's campaign: he lied.
And Walz lied again when he listed his retirement rank as “Command Sergeant Major,” a rank he held for a brief period but was voided because he did not complete the training required to serve – him The Harris campaign had to scrub that claim from its website. I guess Walz went back to “having misspoken”.
Any one of these lies is enough to prove that Tim Walz is involved. Together, they demonstrate beyond doubt that he does not have the character to co-lead this nation.
The 34th Infantry Division is known as the “Red Bull” Division. We are known for taking the fight to the enemy, from North Africa and Italy during World War II to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our motto is “Attack, attack, attack”.
Walz did not live up to the high standards of our unit. As demonstrated by his actions, from abandoning his troops before Iraq, to ​​abandoning Minneapolis, to the fire riots in 2020, to obstructing veterans' health care reform, the his personal motto is “Withdrawal, withdrawal, withdrawal”.
Tim Walz failed his troops when he quit before the fight. But he failed all the veterans in their selfish attempts to get ahead as a politician. We cannot allow the country to fail again.
Mark Lucas is the Executive Vice President of the Article III Project. Lucas served as an infantry officer in the Iowa Army National Guard and graduated from the US Army Ranger School. He was awarded the Infantry Combat Badge and Bronze Star Medal in Afghanistan during the deadliest year of Operation Enduring Freedom. Lucas advocated for improved health care for veterans as executive director of Concerned Veterans for America.
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