Got Him

Via Cynical Publius [original link deleted; update HERE], Minnesota Governor Tim Walz spoke on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and described himself “standing on the tarmac” at Bagram — in Afghanistan — watching an American KIA being loaded onto a plane to be flown home for burial. A not-quite-accurate transcript of his comments can be found in a state-published document here, on pg. 374 (by the page number on the bottom of the page) or pg. 394 of the PDF file:

Yes, the transcript has him saying that Bagram — an air base in Afghanistan — was in Iraq. This is especially odd in light of the fact that he didn’t say “in Iraq” in his recorded speech, saying only that he stood on the tarmac at Bagram.

Video here, scroll to 1:38:12:

Screenshot, with transcript:

I’m preparing a ten-second video excerpt, and will post it when it’s ready.

Tim Walz, who did not serve in wartime Afghanistan, has publicly and explicitly claimed that he did. Period. Flatly, this is stolen valor, and the evidence is clear. This man should not hold any form of public office at all, ever, anywhere.

UPDATED:

Video excerpt won’t load at YouTube, so far, but we’ll see. A comment to Cynical Publius suggests that Walz went to Afghanistan as a congressman, and will use his presence at Bagram in that role for cover. It seems extremely clear to me that Walz meant to depict himself as a soldier standing on the tarmac, after a years-long depiction of himself carrying weapons in war and being a retired command sergeant-major. In the bizarrely inaccurate transcript, the sentence before “I stood on the tarmac” says “I had the privilege of serving in this state’s National Guard.” That’s the context of his claim, and he should be asked if he approved the edited transcript in the museum-published document.

SECOND UPDATE:

THIRD UPDATE:

In previous descriptions of his travel to Bagram, Walz said he watched wounded soldiers being loaded onto a plane. Description from that link:

“Walz, who served 24 years with the Army National Guard before being elected to Congress, was able to accompany wounded soldiers as they moved from the battlefield to field hospitals to major military medical facilities in Germany.”

If any journalists can find Tim Walz to ask him the question, it appears that invented a KIA in his speech.

FOURTH UPDATE:

The published transcript has Walz saying, in adjacent sentences, that he was in the National Guard and he stood on the tarmac in Afghanistan. The video shows that the speech he gave didn’t link those two claims quite that clearly, but the strongly implied connection remains:

He started with the claim that he deployed, deployment location unstated, had a two year-old when he left and a three year-old when he returned — and then that he stood on the tarmac at Bagram. His intent, and the impression he left for his audience, are clear.