'No evidence': Vance attack on Walz military service gets thorough fact-check
Donald Trump running mate Sen. J. D. Vance's attack on Gov. Tim Walz's war record was subjected to a thorough fact check on CNN — as were Walz's own claims about his service.
CNN analyst Tom Foreman Wednesday found a significant falsehood in Vance's attack on Vice President Kamala Harris' newly selected running mate and provided a notable piece of context.
"[Walz] was in the [National] Guard for 24 years," Foreman noted. "Vance was in the Marines for four years."
Foreman analyzed Vance's comments in Michigan earlier in the day when Vance characterized Walz' service as shameful. Vance' claimed Walz "dropped out" of the Army to dodge service in Iraq and touted his own service in that conflict.
"When were you ever in war?" Vance said. "What was this weapon that you carried into war?"
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Foreman rejected Vance's claim that Walz dodged serving in Iraq in 2005 by noting he resigned two months before orders to deploy were sent to his unit.
"The claim that he was somehow dodging going over there after 24 years of service, saying 'Well I just don't want to go to combat,' there's just no evidence to back that up," Foreman said.
Foreman also noted Walz has both thanked Vance for his service and honors it.
But Foreman took issue with Walz' statement at a rally in Philadelphia Tuesday addressing gun control in the U.S., when he said, "We can make sure that those weapons of war that I carried in war is the only place where those weapons are at."
Foreman explained that the phrase "carried into war" has a very specific meaning among Military families that does not necessarily apply to Walz' tenure.
"That was absolutely false when he said that about gun rights out there," Foreman said. "'Carried in war' to most of us means in means, 'I carried it into a situation where I was shooting at other people and they were shooting back at me.'"