News/Commentary

Wes Moore speaks out about Bronze Star debacle: ‘I made an honest mistake’

September 7, 2024 | | Print Article

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a pro-Kamala Harris Democrat, is in trouble for tacitly pretending to have been awarded a Bronze Star for his Army service in Afghanistan.

He was incorrectly identified as a Bronze Star recipient first in a 2008 “PBS NewsHour” interview and then later in a 2010 “Colbert Report” interview. Neither time did he correct the record.

But it gets worse. He himself claimed to be a Bronze Star recipient “on an application for a prestigious White House fellowship in 2006, when he was 27 years old,” according to The New York Times.

“For my work, the 82nd Airborne Division have awarded me the Bronze Star Medal and the Combat Action Badge,” he wrote on the application.

Not only had he never received a Bronze Star Medal, but he wouldn’t receive a Combat Action Badge for another two years.

FYI, Moore is the same Democrat who recently faced backlash for writing on social media that former President Donald Trump “is about to find out being the President of the United States is a Black job.”

Speaking with the Times, Moore portrayed what he did as an “honest mistake” and claimed that a superior officer and mentor had advised him to list the Bronze Star Medal on the application because he’d earned it but it just hadn’t been processed yet.

“I made an honest mistake by including something because my commanding officer thought it was a good idea,” he said to the Times. “He thought that I earned it and he was already going through the paperwork to process it.”

To be fair to Moore, that commanding officer, Michael R. Fenzel, confirmed the veracity of the claim to the Times.

“The general said he had told Mr. Moore that he and others had approved the medal, that it was appropriate to include in his application and that it would be processed by the time his fellowship began,” according to the Times.

“You’ve got to include it,” Fenzel, now a lieutenant general who serves as the United States security coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority, recalled telling Moore. “If you are selected as a White House fellow, you’re going to be wearing it whenever you’re wearing your uniform.”

Keep in mind this still doesn’t explain why Moore included the Combat Action Badge on his application even though he hadn’t received it yet.

Unfortunately for the governor, many critics remain unconvinced of his innocence in all this. Indeed, many claim he’s a blatant “liar.”

Look:

Yet speaking with Fox News, Moore doubled down on his innocence.

“It was an honest mistake that I made nearly 20 years ago — and I own it — when I was just coming back from a combat deployment, when I was now being thrust into a national media that I’d never been in before, when I was still very much dealing with a lot of the consequences of conflict,” he said.

“Should I have, in a long introduction, gone back and said something? In retrospect, I probably should have… And I take responsibility for that,” he added.

He continued by saying that, despite this scandal, he remains proud of his service, and that his love for America remains “undying.”

“I joined the military when I was 17 years old,” he said. “I chose to raise my hand and serve with the uniform of this country, the flag of the country on my shoulder, and to serve with one of the most elite units in the entire United States military. I led soldiers, I led paratroopers in combat, and I was rated as a top 1% officer. My senior rater said I was the best lieutenant that they worked with in all of Operation Enduring Freedom, in the entire Afghanistan campaign.”

“I am deeply proud of my service. I’m deeply proud of the work that we did. I’m deeply proud of the work that I did, that I’m doing now to support veterans and veterans’ families now as the governor of Maryland. And I will always do that, and I will always be very proud of the service I did,” he added.

Vivek Saxena
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