Outrage over alleged “stolen valor” wasn’t quelled by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s (D) onetime superior officer who spoke to the “backdoor process” used to “quit” before deployment.
On top of the governor’s radical positions on gender ideology, DEI and all things Marxist, joining Vice President Kamala Harris as running mate opened up the Democratic Party ticket to a persistent conflict between how Walz presents himself and his actual record. While fact-checks had led to a statement contending the politician had “misspoke” about serving “in war,” the matter of how he avoided deployment was addressed by former Minnesota National Guard Command Sgt. Maj. Doug Julin.
During an interview with CNN’s Laura Coates highlighted by Donald Trump Jr., who asserted Walz “went back on his word and abandoned his men,” Julin broke down the timeline and manner in which the retirement unfolded.
“We were informed that we would be alerted to go to Iraq within the next upcoming year,” Julin explained after getting a notification in fall 2004, “start preparing your team, getting your team together and let’s get the process in play.”
BOMBSHELL: Tim Walz’s superior officer in the National Guard tells CNN that Walz knew he was going to be deployed to Iraq six months before he decided to retire. He also says Walz promised he would deploy and went back on his word and abandoned his men.pic.twitter.com/6Vpw9KQ0Vl
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) August 10, 2024
“In approximately February of 2005, my boss, my commander…and the command team, we scheduled a meeting at Camp Ripley Minnesota, for a meeting, getting everybody together so all the battalion sergeant majors, battalion commanders, and their staff would get to see each other and kind of start the team-building…at that meeting was Gov. Tim Walz, or Sgt. Maj. Tim Walz at the time,” he continued as he explained that after the meeting Walz asked to speak with him and detailed intentions to run for Congress, which were formally filed on Feb. 10, 2005.
A subsequent meeting at Camp Ripley in March or April included Walz who told Julin he was “going forward with the battalion,” only to retire in May 2005.
The following month, Julin was informed that Walz had “quit.”
“The issue that came out of this was, first of all, how did Tim Walz quit without discussing with me because I was his next level of leadership,” Julin explained during his interview with CNN. “The other issue…was that the individual that approved this was two levels higher than myself in the enlisted corps and should have had Tim Walz come back to me…and discuss why he was going forward or not going forward now after he already told me he was going forward.”
While Coates endeavored to highlight that Walz was eligible for retirement after serving four years more than the necessary 20 years, the sergeant major made clear the issue was with how Walz had gone about it and how he gone back on his word.
“Tim Walz knew the processes and procedures,” said Julin, “he went around me and above and beyond me…basically went in there to get somebody to back him…it was just a backdoor process.”
The interview came as the governor has also had to answer for his claims about deployment made in 2018 and stretching make to his early days in Congress, as he lashed out at Second Amendment rights. “We can make sure that those weapons of war that I carried in war is the only place where those weapons are at.”
That statement led a campaign spokesperson to comment in part, “In making the case for why weapons of war should never be on our streets or in our classrooms, the Governor misspoke. He did handle weapons of war and believes strongly that only military members trained to carry those deadly weapons should have access to them, unlike Donald Trump and JD Vance who prioritize the gun lobby over our children.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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