Republicans were shocked last month when Vice President Kamala Harris bowed to the radical pro-Hamas wing of the Democratic Party and tapped hard-left Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) to be her running mate.
Within 24 hours of the announcement, stories began to swirl around Walz’s lies about his rank in the National Guard. Next, a video recorded during his 2018 gubernatorial run surfaced in which he implied he had served in a combat zone.
Walz is heard telling a group, “We can make sure those weapons of war, that I carried in war, are only carried in war.” Most disturbing were reports that he retired from the Guard after learning that his unit was being deployed to Iraq.
On Monday, podcast host Megyn Kelly conducted a long-form interview with four veterans who served with Walz in the National Guard. Their detailed and compelling testimonies make it impossible to believe the spin served up by the Harris-Walz campaign.
Kelly’s guests included Tom Behrends, the retired command sergeant major “who replaced Walz after his retirement,” Paul Herr, a retired CSM “who was present when Walz was informed his unit would be getting a notice to deploy to Iraq,” Tom Schilling, a “retired sergeant first class who was part of said deployment,” and Rodney Tow, “a retired first sergeant who was Walz’s peer.”
Kelly asked the men to “[r]aise your hand if you think Tim Walz is guilty of cutting and running as opposed to serving in Iraq.” In the clip below, each man raises his hand.
Kelly asked the men why they came forward. Their responses were brutal.
At various moments, the men described Walz as a “habitual liar,” a “coward,” a “turncoat,” a “traitor,” and worst of all, a “deserter.”
Herr called Walz’s decision to retire after learning about the deployment “morally indefensible. He didn’t care. It was all about him.”
Later in the discussion, Herr said that “Walz is a habitual liar. He lies about everything. He lies about stuff that doesn’t make sense.”
Regarding accusations of “stolen valor,” Herr told Kelly, “You’re [Walz] taking a piece of their thunder [veterans who actually served in harm’s way]. And you’re trying to capture it and put it in a bottle for yourself and use that for your own benefit.”
Herr continued, “Fear is a reaction, bravery is a decision, and Walz has made the wrong decision. He is not brave. I call him a coward because he is … He took the easy path. He took the path of least resistance.”
Behrends called Walz a “military impersonator.” He said, “The rumor went across the state that he’d quit. And, it was like, who the hell does that? It was just unbelievable that a CSM abandoned his troops, with 500 soldiers basically, but beyond that, there’s a thousand parents out there that expect that person to lead those people into combat.”
Behrends explained, “He basically said, ‘I’ve got better things to do. Go pick someone else to go on a mission.’ And if you’ve sold out your guard and abandoned them, what are you going to do at the national level?”
Good question.
“He did [serve] for 24 years and, all of a sudden said ‘no,’ Behrends said. “I just call him a ‘deserter’ because he left his post, he left his duty station, and he walked off into the sunset. … He slithered out of the armory. … He was gone.”
The following clip provides some of the highlights of the interview.
Kelly noted that if Harris and Walz win in November, Walz would be “a heartbeat away from the presidency and from being the commander in chief in charge of all the armed forces and saying who deploys and when.”
Herr replied that “even as vice president,” Walz could be dangerous because he would be part of decisions to “determine rules of engagement” and to “shape strategy.”
Behrends pointed out, “He [Walz] can be in the Situation Room like Kamala was when Afghanistan fell. She was the last one in the room. You’re not raising your hand and saying, ‘Well, this is bulls***. What’s going on? This is ridiculous?’”
All four men agreed that the only way for Walz to move beyond this scandal would be to apologize to the American people for his lack of candor. Herr said, “If you’re in the military and you give him a pass when he left in the middle of the night, left his troops, lied about everything, you need to reevaluate.”
Powerline’s John Hinderaker, provided perhaps the best description of the interview. He wrote: “Apart from the details of Walz’s military history, what comes through most strongly is how much these men–the men who worked with Walz for years and who knew him best–detest him. They consider Walz a thoroughly repellent character. We should listen to them.”
Watch the full interview below.
Finally, it’s worth noting that a Reddit post about the interview was taken down by the site. Its title, “IT’S OVER: Megyn Kelly Interviews National Guard Veterans Who Served With Tim Walz …What They Say About Him Is DEVASTATING,” proved to be more than the moderators could bear.
In its place was the following message, “Sorry, this post has been removed by the moderators.”
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a member of the Editorial Board at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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