Minnesota Democrat Gov. Tim Walz "embellished" his military service and will have a difficult time winning the trust of voters, Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Mich., told Newsmax on Thursday.
"Unfortunately, sometimes it's tough to go back on what you said for fear people would lose confidence that you lied to them in the first place, that you embellished your service, which is what he did," Bergman told "Wake Up America," when asked on why Walz did not directly address accusations about stolen valor in regards to claims about his military service.
Walz, who served for 24 years in the U.S Army National Guard, has come under fire over his past comments about his military service, including his claims retirement rank and his carrying weapons of war "in war." Former President Donald Trump's running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, has accused Walz of "stolen valor," and a group of veteran Republican legislators have called the governor's claims about his service record "egregious."
The governor also said about gun violence in 2018 that "we can make sure that those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is the only place where those weapons are at."
The Harris-Walz campaign released a statement earlier this month clarifying the governor "misspoke," adding that while "he did handle weapons of war," he did not serve in a combat zone.
"We all hold weapons when we're in the military because we learn to use them in the event we have to use them," said Bergman, who is a retired Marine Corps lieutenant general. "It's OK to say that … you went to the fight and didn't end up being in the fight. There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, that's the case in most cases.
"But what Walz has done is made it seem he did more than he did. And when you translate that into being a leader at the federal level, vice president in this particular case, if you can't be trusted then, how can you be trusted now?"
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Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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