Vance Fires Back At CNN For Questioning His Military Service

 Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), former President Donald Trump‘s running mate, fired back at CNN in response to one of its anchors questioning his service in the U.S. Marine Corps.

CNN’s Brianna Keilar said on Thursday that Vance may be an “imperfect messenger” to knock Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who this week joined Vice President Kamala Harris‘s 2024 ticket, over his military record.

The critique focused on how Vance served as a combat correspondent during the Iraq War, which Keiler suggested gave the false impression that he saw combat.

“Brianna this is disgusting, and you and your entire network should be ashamed of yourselves,” Vance said on X. “When I got the call to go to Iraq, I went. Tim Walz said he carried a gun in a war. Did he? No. It was a lie.”

He was responding to a clip posted by the “Trump War Room,” which told Keilar, “the difference is that [Vance] never lied about his rank or his service, and when his unit deployed to Iraq, he didn’t abandon them.”

Walz spent more than two decades in the Army National Guard.

He had been deployed as part of Operation Enduring Freedom after the Sep. 11 attacks, but not in a combat zone, according to The New York Times.

 

CBS News reported that Walz retired in 2005 and ran for Congress prior to his artillery unit being ordered to Iraq.

A video of Walz, which Harris’ presidential campaign shared on social media this week, showed him claiming that he carried weapons “in war.”

However, CNN’s own Tom Foreman reported on Wednesday how there was “no evidence” that Walz was ever in a position of “being shot at” as the governor had suggested.

Amid the controversy over Walz’s service record, POLITICO reported on Thursday that Harris’ campaign revised a biography about her running mate.

Whereas it had described Walz as a “retired command sergeant major,” the description was changed to say he once served at the command sergeant major rank.

The first Green Beret to serve in Congress, Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL), explained how Walz got promoted to sergeant major, but did not complete sergeant major’s academy and was “demoted” to master sergeant.

During an appearance in Michigan on Wednesday, Vance slammed Walz over “stolen valor garbage.” He also said, “I would be ashamed if I was him and I lied about my military service like he did.”