House Republicans, Candidates Who Are Vets Slam ‘Coward’ Walz Amid Stolen Valor Accusations

Many Republican veterans who are either in the House of Representatives or are running for the House are blasting Democrat vice presidential candidate Tim Walz amid stolen valor accusations.

Walz, who served 24 years in the National Guard, including the Minnesota National Guard’s 1st Battalion 125th Field Artillery, retired shortly before his unit went to Iraq. He did not see combat, yet, in a video shared by the Harris-Walz campaign, he said that he carried weapons “in war.”

He also faces harsh criticism from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Republican Vice Presidential Nominee JD Vance for not going to Iraq with his battallion. Cotton, a veteran who did two combat tours in the U.S. Army, says Walz “let his troops go to war” in Iraq “without him.”

The sentiments echo those of two Army command sergeants major who wrote that when Walz retired on May 16, 2005, he left “1-125th Field Artillery Battalion and its Soldiers hanging; without its senior Non-Commissioned Officer, as the battalion prepared for war” in a letter published in the West Central Tribune in 2018.

Walz notably filed to run for Congress in February 2005 before the unit was notified of potential deployment in March 2005. However, the alert came two months before his retirement.

Finally, Walz’s bio implied he retired at the rank of E-9 when he actually retired as an E-8. However, he did serve as an E-9 for a time before leaving as a master sergeant E-8.

Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), an Afghanistan veteran, ripped Walz on Wednesday as a “fraud” and remarked it is “Crazy that Kamala would pick a running mate who lied about his military service.”

“Either her vetting process led by Eric Holder was very weak or she doesn’t care … or both!” said Banks, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Indiana.

Banks also posted a picture of himself from his time deployed in the Army as part of a larger trend on X.

Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), a veteran bomb disposal expert of the U.S. Army who lost both of his legs to an improvised explosive device, hammered Walz.

“Tim Walz LIED about his rank. He LIED about serving in Afghanistan,” he wrote in a post on X. “And now, according to CNN, Walz LIED about carrying weapons of war in a war zone.”

U.S. Air Force veteran Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), whose husband, also a veteran, was shot in Afghanistan fighting al-Qaeda and received a Bronze Star, blasted Walz for “claiming to be a combat veteran.”

“Today is Purple Heart day and we have a guy who is claiming to be a combat veteran as Harris’ running mate. Disgusting,” she stated on X.

Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL), a combat-decorated Green Beret, broke down the problems the Democrat vice presidential pick is facing in a 1:35 video posted to X. He focused on both Walz’s rank and his “walking away from his soldiers after they had been called to go to Iraq.”

“I commanded Green Berets,” the Florida congressman emphasized. “Everything that you do prepares you for that moment when you have to lead your men and women into harm’s way. It’s kind of like the quarterback of a big team walking away from their team right before they go to the Super Bowl.”

Another Florida combat veteran, Rep. Cory Mills (R), blasted Walz while speaking with Fox News’s Laura Ingraham on her eponymously-named show The Ingraham Angle. 

“I think it’s very clear when your job as a leader is to continue to try and fight and deploy alongside your troops that the idea of running for politics should be the last thing on your mind,” Mills, an Army veteran who served in Iraq and received a Bronze Star, said.

Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), a retired U.S. Navy SEAL commander, weighed in as well, with criticisms of Walz and Harris. Zinke notably served in Iraq, leading special operations.

“In 2005 Walz abandoned his unit just like Kamala abandoned Americans in Afghanistan and she abandoned our closest allies in Israel,” he wrote.

“Tim Walz didn’t fight for us then. He didn’t fight for Minnesota when she burned in 2020. And he won’t fight for you now,” Zinke said.

Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX), a Navy veteran and former physician to multiple U.S. presidents, ripped Walz as a “lying coward.”

“Your ‘war stories’ disgust me and disgust most other veterans that actually deployed in defense of this country!” he wrote, addressing Walz. “SIMPLY PUT, YOU ARE PATHETIC AND A NATIONAL DISGRACE!!!”

Veteran Rep. Derick Van Orden (R-WI), who saw five combat deployments and retired as a Navy SEAL senior chief, called Walz “a coward” as well.

“As the actual longest-serving enlisted member of Congress in the history of our nation, I am disgusted by this and would shun him from any military function,” he wrote.

Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA), who served in the Marines and Navy with service in combat zones, said, “Georgia’s military community will find it rather repugnant that Walz opted to retire from the National Guard right when he found out his unit was headed to Iraq.”

Laurie Buckhout, a candidate for North Carolina’s First Congressional District and a decorated Army colonel combat veteran, also ripped Walz as a “coward” who “quit” on his unit.

“I understood the full extent of my commitment to this country when I served in the Army for 26 years,” Buckhout wrote in a post on X. “But when @Tim_Walz heard his unit was mobilizing to Iraq…he quit.”

“Walz quit on his unit, his soldiers, and his country. That’s what we can expect from him as VP, too. Coward,” she wrote.