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CNN anchor Brianna Keilar seems to be strolling again her swipe towards Trump working mate Sen. JD Vance, insisting he “served honorably” after dealing with backlash for suggesting he embellished his army service.
“Informed observers connected to politics or the military, myself included, have noted that the Trump campaign is ‘swiftboating’ Tim Walz. Attacks on JD Vance’s service are also offensive,” Keilar started a monologue on Friday. “JD Vance served honorably in Iraq, a combat zone where anything can happen and frequently does. As he said in his book, he was, quote, ‘lucky to escape any real fighting.’ That doesn’t make his service less than. ‘Lucky,’ he says. And luck is often what makes the difference in a combat zone or even a training mission. That today is not your day.”
“In a country where so few shoulder the burden, military service should not be a liability, it should be an asset,” she continued. “And despite our recent years as a country at war, many service members haven’t seen combat. That doesn’t make them or their service less admirable, or less necessary. Nor does retiring from the National Guard after 24 years. These kinds of attacks from the left or the right diminish the service of so many others who have served honorably, who sacrifice time away from family, who put themselves in harm’s way because the military is made largely of JD Vances and Tim Walzs.”
VANCE FIRES BACK AT ‘DISGUSTING’ CNN ANCHOR SUGGESTING HIS MILITARY SERVICE WAS EMBELLISHED AMID WALZ DISPUTE
CNN’s Brianna Keilar informed viewers Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, “served honorably” after dealing with backlash for suggesting he embellished his army service. (Screenshot/CNN)
The liberal anchor marveled that “there are two veterans on these presidential tickets,” one thing that has been absent in latest presidential elections.
“They have unique insight into what America’s men and women in the armed forces and their families have been through and need. And shouldn’t that be the focus?” Keilar requested. “This is a presidential race for commander-in-chief. And so often, that candidate or the running mate has never personally served even as they vie to make decisions about sending people into dangerous situations.”
“The fact that this year they do matters to a lot of people. It matters to me. In a family where we’re raising two boys who idolize their dad’s military service, two boys who are significantly more likely to serve because their dad did,” she added. “And if they choose that path, it matters to have someone at the table who knows what that sacrifice means.”
JD VANCE ACCUSES TIM WALZ OF ‘LYING’ ABOUT MILITARY SERVICE: ‘STOLEN VALOR GARBAGE’
On Thursday, Keilar speculated that Vance “may be an imperfect messenger” to criticize Walz.
“Because we have, as you introduced him, as a combat correspondent, which was what [Vance’s] title was,” Keilar informed her CNN colleague Dana Bash. “But whenever you dig a bit of deeper into that, he was a public affairs specialist, somebody who didn’t see fight, which definitely the title ‘combat correspondent’ kind of gives you a different impression. So he may be the imperfect messenger on that.”
Vance knocked Keilar and CNN on social media.
“Brianna this is disgusting, and you and your entire network should be ashamed of yourselves,” Vance wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “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.”
Vance told reporters Wednesday, “I served in a combat zone. I never said that I saw a firefight myself, but I’ve always told the truth about my Marine Corps service. That’s the difference.”
CNN did not respond to Fox News Digital’s previous request for comment.
Sen. JD Vance R-Ohio, slammed Keilar as “disgusting” following her comments. (AP Photo/CNN)
Critics have put a spotlight on an old video incidentally shared by the Harris campaign of Walz pushing for gun control, telling voters, “We can make sure those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is the only place where those weapons are at.”
Ret. Command Sgt. Maj. Thomas Behrends, who said he was a member of Walz’s battalion, blasted the governor’s comments.
“To most people, that would mean that he was actually in combat, carrying a weapon in a combat zone and getting combat pay and in a dangerous and hostile environment where he is getting shot at,” Behrends told the “Ingraham Angle” on Wednesday.
CNN FACT-CHECKS TIM WALZ ABOUT ‘ABSOLUTELY FALSE’ CLAIM HE CARRIED WEAPONS ‘IN WAR’
A CNN correspondent even fact-checked Walz on Wednesday, declaring that “there is no evidence that at any time Gov. Walz was in a position of being shot at, and some of his language could easily be seen to suggest that he was.”
Walz was by no means in an lively battle zone. He mobilized with the Minnesota National Guard to Italy on Aug. 3, 2003, to assist Operation Enduring Freedom, in response to the Minnesota Guard. The battalion supported safety missions at numerous areas in Europe and Turkey, in response to the Guard, and Walz was stationed in Vicenza, Italy, till returning to Minnesota in 2004. He didn’t deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan.
Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has been dealing with intense scrutiny over his army file since turning into Vice President Kamala Harris’ working mate (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Vance’s opponent has been on the heart of a brewing controversy since he joined the Democratic ticket. Walz, who served within the Minnesota National Guard for twenty-four years, repeatedly referred to himself as a “retired command sergeant major,” which isn’t correct.
According to the Minnesota National Guard, whereas Walz served as command sergeant main, “He retired as a Master Sergeant in 2005 for benefit purposes because he did not complete additional coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy.”
On Thursday, the Harris marketing campaign modified the language in Walz’s bio on their web site after the dust-up. The biography initially mentioned Walz was a “retired Command Sergeant Major,” however was then up to date to say he “served as a command sergeant major.”
Walz has additionally confronted criticism over the timing of his retirement from army service over allegations that he did so sooner than he deliberate to dodge deployment to Iraq.
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Tom Schilling, a veteran who additionally mentioned he served in the identical battalion as Walz, mentioned he “ditched” his troopers earlier than they have been deployed to Iraq in 2005.
“We all did what we were supposed to do, we did the right thing,” Schilling mentioned on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime” Wednesday. “It’s dishonorable what he did. He left somebody else up to take over his spot. He just ditched us.”
The Harris marketing campaign launched a press release saying, “In his 24 years of service, the Governor carried, fired and trained others to use weapons of war innumerable times. Governor Walz would never insult or undermine any American’s service to this country — in fact, he thanks Senator Vance for putting his life on the line for our country. It’s the American way.”
Fox News’ Alexa Moutevelis, Jennifer Griffin and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
