Democrats move to avoid ‘Swift Boat’ redux in attacks on Walz service

On Tuesday, a few hours after Vice President Kamala Harris revealed she’d picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, the conservative radio host Erick Erickson posted a video from Walz’s 2022 reelection campaign attacking his military service record.

The slickly produced video resembled a professional television news segment, but it came from a Minnesota website called Alpha News, which received a “red” unreliable rating from media watchdog NewsGuard because it fails to disclose it was founded by the head of a conservative advocacy group. In the video, an unidentified woman interviews Thomas Behrends, a Minnesota farmer who served in the state’s National Guard with Walz and faults him for retiring before the unit deployed to Iraq.

Within minutes, Trump’s co-campaign manager, Chris LaCivita, promoted Erickson’s post and wrote on X, “IVE SEEN THIS ACT BEFORE — AND IT DOESNT END WELL …”

LaCivita was alluding to his claim to fame as the media adviser for Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, an outside group that in 2004 cut devastating ads showing veterans questioning the service of John F. Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee. Kerry received a Silver Star, a Bronze Star with Combat “V” for valor and three Purple Hearts for his Navy service in Vietnam.

The posts kicked off a burst of Republican attacks on Walz, spurring fears among some Democrats that the vice-presidential candidate could face the same kind of damaging attacks that Kerry suffered in 2004. Without any need to produce or place campaign ads, Behrends appeared in interviews in the New York Post and with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham. Republican nominee Donald Trump promoted those clips and responded by calling Walz “A DISGRACE.” His running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, accused Walz of embellishing his military service.

“The media should be demanding Tim Walz do a news conference to explain why he deserted his fellow soldiers and quit before they went to combat,” LaCivita, who received a Purple Heart for his Marine service in the Gulf War, said in a statement. “Walz must also apologize to all those who feel disrespected by his claims,” citing the mother of one soldier killed in Iraq who told The Daily Mail that Walz had “abandoned” the unit.

The attacks have focused on the timing of Walz’s retirement, his eventual rank, and subsequent statements that could be construed to suggest he served in Afghanistan or in combat. Walz deployed to Italy in support of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and retired after 24 years in the Minnesota National Guard to run for Congress in 2005, at a time when his unit was widely expected to deploy to Iraq but before it received official orders. He reached the rank of command sergeant major but retired at one level down because he did not complete required coursework.

A Harris-Walz campaign spokesman acknowledged for the first time on Friday that Walz “misspoke” in 2018 when he explained his support for gun regulations by saying, “We can make sure that those weapons of war that I carried in war is the only place where those weapons are at.” That phrase led Vance and other Republicans this week to accuse Walz of falsely suggesting he fought in combat.

“Governor Walz would never insult or undermine any American’s service to this country — in fact, he thanks Senator Vance for putting his life on the line for our country. It’s the American way,” the spokesman, Ammar Moussa, said. “In making the case for why weapons of war should never be on our streets or in our classrooms, the Governor misspoke. He did handle weapons of war and believes strongly that only military members trained to carry those deadly weapons should have access to them, unlike Donald Trump and JD Vance who prioritize the gun lobby over our children.”

On the campaign trail, Harris stood by her new running mate, telling reporters Thursday, “I praise anyone who has presented themselves to serve our country, and I think that we all should.” The campaign quietly edited its online bio of Walz to remove “retired command sergeant major.”

Others have come to Walz’s defense by turning the criticism back around on Trump, who received educational and medical deferments from the Vietnam-era draft. Others have criticized Vance, who deployed to Iraq as a Marine Corps public-affairs specialist, for denigrating a fellow veteran or for not having fought in combat either. There is no evidence that Vance overstated his service, which he described extensively in his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.”

“It’s not enough to say that he served, he has to tear down someone else’s service. They only campaign by tearing people down,” Pete Buttigieg, in his personal capacity, said of Vance. Buttigieg deployed to Afghanistan with the U.S. Navy Reserve and currently serves as transportation secretary. “The idea that you’re going to attack a guy for not staying for a 25th or 26th year is just not how most veterans I know would talk about someone’s service,” he said.

It is too soon to tell how the pile-on could impact Walz’s debut, and its political salience could be muted by the fact that Walz is not at the top of the Democratic ticket. Still, Republicans are poised to continue hammering Walz’s service, alongside his handling of the covid pandemic and George Floyd protests as governor, in the hopes of dulling his potential appeal to White moderate voters in the battlegrounds of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

“Walz made a big unforced error. He got cute with his wording to bolster his military bona fides banking on the fact that the 95 percent of people in the country who didn’t serve would not pick up on it,” said Mitch Brown, an Army veteran and pollster at the Republican firm Cygnal. “It is very clear to veterans like myself that his dodging a combat deployment speaks volumes to his character. It’ll leave a sour taste in the mouths of every veteran who hasn’t committed to either candidate at the top of the ticket.”

Some Democrats voiced dismay at what they see as a pattern of undermining politicians who served in the military by exploiting the public’s lack of familiarity with the complex realities of the armed forces.

“Tim Walz is just the latest in a long line of baseless Republican attacks,” said Brandon Friedman, an Army veteran who later served as a spokesman for the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Obama administration. In addition to Kerry, he cited Trump’s insulting the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who was a prisoner of war; a 2002 attack ad questioning the courage of then-Sen. Max Cleland (R-Ga.), who lost his legs in Vietnam; and Barry McCaffrey, a decorated retired Army general who Vance has smeared.

“Tim Walz did everything his country ever asked him to do, and he did it honorably,” Friedman said.

Walz struggled with the decision to leave the National Guard to run for Congress while his unit was preparing to go to war, a colleague recalled to The Washington Post. Walz filed for candidacy in February 2005. The next month, the National Guard announced that all or a portion of Walz’s battalion could be deployed in Iraq within two years.

It is not known exactly when Walz submitted his retirement request, but it typically takes at least 90 days, and he officially retired in May 2005, at a time when a fellow soldier said there were only rumors of a deployment. His unit received an alert order to mobilize two months later, then began those preparations in October, the Minnesota National Guard said.

Behrends succeeded Walz as the unit’s command sergeant major for the mission. He has donated to Republican causes and publicly criticized Walz since 2018 and campaigned with his 2022 opponent. His grain silo, visible from the highway, bears a banner reading “Walz is a traitor!” He did not respond to calls seeking comment.

Former Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Pa.), who served on the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs with Walz, defended the governor’s decision to retire to run for Congress.

“The fact that he ran for Congress to speak out against the Iraq War on behalf of his fellow soldiers says a lot about him,” he said. “It’s not easy for a soldier to step out of the command mentality and express their opinion, and I think he’s been proven right by history — that he opposed the Iraq War.”

As Republicans escalate their attacks, Lamb said the governor and the campaign should focus on emphasizing Walz’s lifelong commitment to service — as a teacher, coach and soldier.

“The way that Tim lived that story — the military was a mode of advancement for him — I think that’s powerful and touches the experience of so many people in this country,” he said, noting Walz used the GI Bill to attend college. “The Republicans do support the military on plenty of issues, but sometimes when it comes to pay benefits and educational opportunities, they don’t put their money where their mouth is.”

Walz has sometimes presented himself as a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom, the mission named for the Afghanistan invasion that his Italy deployment supported. Some Republicans have complained that this description leads people to think he served in Afghanistan. Walz has written letters to the editor to make clear that he served in support of the invasion in Italy, not in Afghanistan.

“I wonder, Tim Walz, when were you ever in war?” Vance said Wednesday, referring to Walz’s 2018 statement of carrying weapons “in war.” He went on to accuse Walz of “stolen valor,” a term often used to allege someone is claiming credit for something they did not achieve in the military. The Stolen Valor Act of 2013 makes it a crime to profit from fraudulently claiming certain unearned military honors Walz is not accused of.

Former Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.), who served with the Army Reserves in Iraq, said it’s a common temptation for veterans in politics to use their service for credibility, sometimes in ways that take advantage of stereotypes about veterans and stretch the truth about their own individual experiences.

“He just kind of played fast and loose with this, and I think deserves to make a clarification, to apologize to anyone who may have perceived that he was a combat veteran,” said Meijer, who has said he will support the Republican ticket in November. “The risk that a lot of candidates run is wanting to play into someone’s most positive expectations, and that can be innocent or that can get to a point where now you may be projecting an image of what you did that is, even if it isn’t factually wrong, it can still give an impression that is deceptive.”

At the same time, some Democrats welcome the opportunity to remind voters about Trump’s draft deferments and insults to service members. His former chief of staff, John Kelly, has said Trump privately disparaged fallen soldiers as “suckers” and “losers,” which Trump and other aides have denied.

“I think we’ll end up talking more about how Donald Trump disrespects every military leader out there, and yet again, his campaign attacked another person’s service,” said John Soltz, the chairman and co-founder of pro-Democratic super PAC VoteVets. Soltz said he’s known Walz since 2006 and called him more careful than most about describing his service. “It’s as much about talking to veterans as it is explaining this to nonveterans who don’t know the differences of the nuances.”

Some veterans said they were disheartened to see Vance leading the attacks on Walz. Vance stressed that he served in Iraq but never claimed to have seen a firefight himself. Service members do not choose where they’re deployed or how much danger they’ll face, and anyone who has served since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks has had to decide when to leave amid ongoing hostilities.

“Neither of these guys were Rambo and neither of them are acting like they were Rambo,” said Phil Klay, a former Marine public affairs officer in Iraq and author of “Uncertain Ground: Citizenship in an Age of Endless, Invisible War.” “For a lot of people, the idea of, ‘Did I do enough? Did I live up to whatever ideal I was trying to reach when I signed the oath of office?’ — I think that hangs over a lot of our heads. It hangs over my brain. And especially because you always know guys who did more. And the guys who did the most aren’t around to soak in the accolades.”