Virginia Senate candidate Hung Cao is a retired Navy captain and special operations officer (explosive ordnance disposal and deep-sea diving) who served in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia, so he definitely had something to say about Democratic vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and his decades-long boasting about his time in service; problematic boasting, as my colleague Matt Funicello has exposed.
Governor Walz joined the Minnesota National Guard in 1981 and served for 24 years, reaching the rank of Sergeant Major. However, in September 2005, he was demoted to Master Sergeant after failing to complete the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy. But that is just the end of his military career; according to Herr and Behrends, Tim Walz did other shameful things and something far worse – he abandoned his troops when they went to Iraq.
The Harris campaign and Walz’s interviews and biographies claim he served in combat and retired as a commander sergeant major, the highest rank of any member of Congress. Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance has called him out on this deception.
REGARD:
Do you know what really bothers me about Tim Walz?
When the U.S. Marine Corps asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did.
When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, he left the Army and let his unit go without him. I find that shameful. pic.twitter.com/Dq9xjn4R51
— JD Vance (@JDVance) 7 August 2024
Cao kept his powder dehydrated for a minute, but ultimately let Walz have both barrels:
🧵I’ve tried to take my time responding to stories about Tim Walz’s service record. The hypocrisy amazes me.
— Hung Cao (@HungCao_VA) 7 August 2024
I’ve tried to take my time responding to reports about Tim Walz’s service record. The hypocrisy astonishes me.
Because I am a Trump supporter running against a liberal career politician, a so-called Pentagon correspondent asked me to provide evidence of every time I was outside the barbed wire fence on a mission and every time I came under enemy fire.
— Hung Cao (@HungCao_VA) 7 August 2024
Because I am a Trump supporter running against a liberal career politician, a so-called Pentagon correspondent asked me to provide written evidence of every time I was outside the barbed wire fence on a mission and every time I came under enemy fire.
Yet no one in the established media seems to question Walz’s claims, and some even defend him:
I was asked to provide my medical records and questioned about why I did not receive a Purple Heart for my brain injury. In contrast, Tim Walz, whose entire political career seems to have been based on a lie: that he served in Iraq when he did not.
— Hung Cao (@HungCao_VA) 7 August 2024
I was asked to provide my medical records and questioned about why I did not receive a Purple Heart for my brain injury. In contrast, Tim Walz, whose entire political career seems to have been based on a lie: that he served in Iraq when he did not.
Funicello’s article contains detailed evidence and is worth a full read. Although Walz was stationed in Italy for a year, he was far from Iraq, and because he made several questionable decisions while serving in the Minnesota National Guard, he was demoted – facts he conveniently omitted when discussing his military service:
He exaggerated his rank. In order to disarm law-abiding Americans, he claimed he had been in combat when he had never been.
— Hung Cao (@HungCao_VA) 7 August 2024
“He exaggerated his rank. In an effort to disarm law-abiding Americans, he implied that he had been deployed in combat when he had never been.”
In the Navy, we often talked about a “deployment-induced muscle strain.” I believe Tim Walz suffered just that.
— Hung Cao (@HungCao_VA) 7 August 2024
That’s brutal. But the truth is often:
While it makes me furious to read that Walz abandoned his unit before deployment, it honestly makes me angrier that this man spent 20 years as a candidate and in elected office and is now trying to win the Vice Presidency of the United States and no one in the media asked him about it before or after…
— Hung Cao (@HungCao_VA) 7 August 2024
While it disturbs me to read that Walz abandoned his unit before deployment, it frankly disturbs me even more that this man has spent 20 years as a candidate and in elected office and is now seeking the Vice Presidency of the United States, and no one in the media has asked him a straightforward question before or since such as:
You were supposed to be sent to Iraq, but you quit to avoid going there and then for years you implied that you had done it. Why?
Because it was a convenient prop to show that he “loved” America even though he is a Democrat. See Duckworth, Tammyet al. It is rhetorical, but Cao answers anyway:
The truth is: We all know the answer. And it disqualifies us from being our future vice president.
— Hung Cao (@HungCao_VA) 7 August 2024
“The truth is: We all know the answer. And it disqualifies us from future service as your vice president.”
It also disqualifies our current vice president and the woman who wants to be commander in chief. What kind of vetting did the Harris camp do? And why would she assume it’s OK to parade this man and brag about his alleged military service when he made up much of it? It reflects the lax nature of the Biden-Harris administration and the Harris campaign. It’s all about optics, and substance be damned. Finally, it reflects questionable judgment. Harris can’t even properly vet a vice presidential nominee; how is she supposed to be able to properly select her cabinet or assess actual threats to our nation? If this is a reflection of Kamala Harris’ leadership abilities, then we certainly don’t want her as the leader of our country.
