Governor Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s pick for vice president, abandoned the soldiers he was supposed to lead in the Minnesota National Guard, after he learned they were deploying to Iraq. He conveniently retired while they went and fought.
This would not be the only time Walz abandoned his fellow servicemembers.
Time and again, Walz put politics ahead of service. Our veterans have paid the price for his dereliction of duty. During the Trump Administration, Walz was the top Democrat on the House committee responsible for veterans’ health care.
The VA health system was struggling to right the ship after years of scandal. Veterans who desperately needed care had suffered long wait times, poor-quality care, and neglect. Some even committed suicide because they couldn’t get the help their nation had promised.
The VA crisis was personal for me, as a veteran of the war in Afghanistan and member of the Army’s 34th Infantry Division—the very same unit as Walz. I had friends from Afghanistan who committed suicide after returning home. I devoted myself to reforming the broken system that had failed my friends.
As an advocate on the front lines of this fight, I can tell you there was no greater champion for 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 receive health care.
An important piece of President Trump’s reform agenda was the VA MISSION Act. Before this bill 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 clinic around the corner that could offer the same treatment the same day. The VA MISSION Act opened up the system, allowing veterans to get medical care in their local community if the VA couldn’t easily provide that care.
The bill passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support, 347-70. It later sailed through the Senate, 95-5, and was signed by President Trump. But Tim Walz and other liberal Democrats didn’t want to give the president a win—even if it meant giving veterans the finger. Walz was in the partisan, left-wing minority that voted ‘no,’ along with Nancy Pelosi.
Opposing the VA MISSION Act was cynical politics at its worst. When Walz had a chance to help veterans, he decided to score political points instead.
That’s the truth about Tim Walz’s decades-long career in politics. When he faced a choice between what was right or what would advance his career, he ran from what was right and chose his career every single time.
So when Walz’s Guard unit was eyed for a deployment to Iraq, he talked about his “responsibility” to serve—but then he ran from that responsibility. Walz’s own chaplain called that decision what it is: cowardly. I know plenty of veterans who share that view.
Later, when it was helpful to his political career, Walz claimed that he fought in war. A Democrat spokesman recently admitted that Walz “misspoke.” That’s campaign weasel-speak for: he lied.
And Walz lied again when he listed his rank at retirement as “Command Sergeant Major,” a rank he held for a brief period but that was rescinded because he failed to complete the training required to hold it. The Harris campaign had to scrub that claim from its website. I guess Walz “misspoke” again.
Any one of these lies is enough to prove that Tim Walz is in it for himself. Together, they prove beyond doubt he lacks the character to co-lead this nation.
The 34th Infantry Division is known as the “Red Bull” division. We’re renowned 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 didn’t live up to the high standards of our unit. As he showed by his actions—from abandoning his troops before Iraq, to abandoning Minneapolis to fiery riots in 2020, to obstructing veterans' health care reform—his personal motto is “Retreat, Retreat, Retreat.”
Tim Walz failed his troops when he quit ahead of the fight. But he failed every veteran in his selfish attempts to get ahead as a politician. We cannot allow him to fail the country again.
Mark Lucas is the Executive Vice President at Article III Project. Lucas served as an infantry officer in the Iowa Army National Guard and is a graduate of the U.S. Army Ranger School. He was awarded the Combat Infantry Badge and Bronze Star Medal in Afghanistan during the deadliest year of Operation Enduring Freedom. Lucas advocated for improved veteran healthcare as Executive Director of Concerned Veterans for America.
