There’s a sure fire way to tell when someone is on the ropes politically: they lie. The more panicked they are, the bigger and louder the lie. It’s a time tested tactic that’s held dishonest politicos in good stead for many years.
The latest example involves Kamala Harris’s running mate Tim Walz, the subject of growing scrutiny for lying about his military service. Evidence of this panic comes in the form of an open letter, said to be signed by more than 1,000 veterans and military families, claiming that "JD Vance’s recent comments attacking Governor Walz’s service record are disrespectful and deeply disappointing.” This letter is a lie. More than 1,000 people signed on to this lie and in doing so, they managed to keep the issue of Waltz’s integrity in the news cycle. BZ to them for doing so.
Nobody I know has or is “attacking Governor Walz’s service record.” However, Vance and many others have criticized Walz for lying repeatedly about his rank. Others are criticizing his false claim about “weapons I carried in war,” which is a lie because he never went to war. He never went to war because he subverted the chain of command to retire after learning his National Guard unit was preparing to deploy to Iraq.
Walz isn’t being called a bum for serving 24 years in the Minnesota National Guard; I think that’s fantastic. He’s not being called a liar for retiring at the rank of sergeant major; that’s a great accomplishment. Nobody is calling Walz a coward for deploying to Italy in 2003 to provide security to military installations; that’s an important job.
The reason Walz’s political allies and the establishment media are lying when they claim Vance attacked Walz’s service record is because they don’t want to state the obvious; Walz has repeatedly lied about it.
The Harris-Walz campaign offered a weak mea culpa for him with a press release last week claiming Walz “misspoke” about being in war. Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t. But the statement was silent on Walz’s years of lying about his rank. If Walz also misspoke about that, perhaps he mis-minted his congressional challenge coin into which the lie was engraved in solid metal. It was also silent on whether he went around the chain of command in submitting his retirement paperwork.
Walz’s lie is not terribly different from me claiming I was a division officer in the Navy, which I was - for two days. It was Christmastime in 1981 and about 80% of my division of electronics technicians was on leave and I, being the highest ranking guy not on leave, was acting division officer for a couple days. I managed the morning muster and read the Plan of the Day. Yes, I was a division officer for a time but I don’t tell people that. I left the service as a Petty Officer Second Class and I’m okay with that.
But Walz is not okay with retiring as a master sergeant. Something in the man’s psyche prevented him from telling the truth. Perhaps some superiority complex born of low self-esteem prompted Walz to repeatedly lie, claiming to be something he was not, even though the truth is pretty impressive. We all have our flaws - Lord knows I have plenty - but they do not include lying about my rank in the Navy.
There is nothing I can find in the military record of Tim Walz to criticize. He spent more time in uniform than most veterans and retired with a rank higher than most. By many accounts, he did a good job. But his continued denials and those of his supporters only add fuel to the fire. What started out as Walz lying about his rank has now turned into Walz lying about lying. It’s absurd and the best way to put out this fire is to apologize and tell the truth. It could be done in 40 words: “I am sorry for not having been honest about my rank in the military. I retired as a master sergeant after 24 years, and I apologize for misrepresenting my rank to the millions of men and women who proudly served.”
It’s doubtful that Walz will acknowledge his lies or apologize for them, even though doing so would put the matter behind him and probably ingratiate himself to voters for being humble enough to fess-up. But why should he? Walz is surrounded by people who are prepared to lie on his behalf and the media will largely ignore it, choosing instead to lie about people who criticize his dishonesty.
It’s a vicious cycle of lie upon lie and it’s indicative of what we might expect should Walz and Harris win the election. If they’re willing to lie about something like a military rank, there’s nothing they’re not prepared to lie about.