Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Kamala Harris\u2019 presidential campaign updated its online biography of running mate Tim Walz\u2019s military service amid Republican efforts to question his record in the Army National Guard.<\/p>\n
On its website, the Harris campaign axed a reference to Walz as a \u201cretired command sergeant major\u201d and now says that he once served at the command sergeant major rank \u2014 a small change that nonetheless reflects his true rank at retirement from the Army National Guard. Walz, the governor of Minnesota, served for 24 years in the National Guard before retiring in 2005 from the military to run for the U.S. House, where he became the most senior enlisted soldier to serve in Congress.<\/p>\n
Led by GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance<\/a>, a Marine Corps veteran who deployed to Iraq, Republicans have suggested that Walz inflated his credentials by calling himself a \u201cretired command sergeant major.\u201d The Minnesota governor did serve as a command sergeant major but was reverted back to the rank of master sergeant when he left the military because he had not completed required coursework for the higher rank with the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy.<\/p>\n Similar accusations have followed Walz in previous campaigns, including his 2018 race for governor, when a paid letter to the editor written by two retired command sergeant majors alleged that Walz misrepresented his rank during the campaign. Walz went on to win that race<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe son of an Army veteran who served as a command sergeant major, Walz was the ranking member on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, where he passed legislation to help stem veterans\u2019 suicides,\u201d the Harris campaign\u2019s biography of Walz now reads.<\/p>\n In the original biography, the same sentence called Walz \u201cthe son of an Army veteran and a retired Command Sergeant Major in the Army National Guard himself,\u201d website archives show. A Harris campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did Walz\u2019s gubernatorial office in Minnesota, the website for which still describes him as \u201cCommand Sergeant Major Walz.\u201d Walz\u2019s campaign website for governor also used this title.<\/p>\n “Walz attained the rank of command sergeant major and served in that role but retired as a master sergeant in 2005 for benefit purposes due to not completing additional coursework,” Army public affairs officer Lt. Col. Kristen Aug\u00e9 said in a previous statement to the Minneapolis Star Tribune<\/a>.<\/p>\n