Trump-led attack on Walz’s military record includes false claims about Republican lawmakers with military experience

Former president Donald Trump’s campaign released a letter Wednesday from Republican lawmakers with military experience that criticized Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), the running mate of Vice President Kamala Harris, for how he has described his military record.

But Trump’s campaign reissued the letter hours later after a Democratic veterans group raised issues with how it characterized the military experience of many of the lawmakers.

The group, VoteVets, said 29 of the 50 lawmakers who signed the letter targeting Walz came “from Republicans who falsely claim they retired from military service.” The group later revised the number to 28.

A military retiree is defined as someone who has accrued at least 20 years of service. Troops can also medically retire for service-connected ailments.

The letter also included at least two GOP congressmen - Reps. Ronny Jackson and Troy E. Nehls, both from Texas - who have faced scrutiny over their own military records, including how they have portrayed their service.

The revised letter removed the veterans’ titles and all references to retirement, instead only listing the branch of the military in which they served. Trump’s campaign attributed the correction to “a copy edit mistake made by a staffer.”

“This was corrected within hours, unlike Tim Walz, who still hasn’t corrected the record and admitted that he lied about his military service for decades to advance his political career,” Trump’s campaign said in a statement.

Harris’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment about the corrected letter. Trump’s campaign did not respond to a request for additional comment.

The initial letter listed Jackson as a retired Navy rear admiral, though he was demoted to a retired captain in 2022. That came after a Pentagon inspector general’s report that substantiated allegations about inappropriate conduct when he was the White House physician.

Jackson has continued to identify himself as a retired Navy rear admiral, including on his campaign website.

Nehls has drawn criticism, including from fellow Republicans, for his use of a military badge that the Army revoked from his record last year. Nehls has denied accusations of stolen valor and said he disagrees with the revocation, suggesting it was politically motivated. He nonetheless stopped wearing the pin in June.

Republicans have heavily scrutinized Walz’s characterizations of his military service since Harris tapped him as her running mate earlier this month. The Minnesota governor served in the Army National Guard for 24 years before retiring in 2005 to run for the House in the next year’s election ahead of a potential combat deployment.

Among the issues GOP critics have cited are his past references to himself as a retired command sergeant major, even though he retired as a master sergeant. He also implied in 2018 that he served in war, though he never served in combat, according to the Minnesota Army National Guard.

The Harris campaign updated its website to reflect the rank with which Walz retired. A campaign spokesperson also acknowledged that Walz “misspoke” in his comments in 2018.

“To be blunt, when you falsely claim military service that did not happen and abandon your post, you diminish the real sacrifices made by veterans who did serve in combat,” the GOP letter said. “Military service is not merely a job or a uniform.”

On the campaign trail, Walz has generally defended his military record amid the GOP attacks.

“I firmly believe you should never denigrate another person’s service record,” he said last week during his first solo campaign event for Harris. “To anyone brave enough to put on that uniform for our great country, including my opponent, I just have a few simple words: Thank you for your service and sacrifice,” referring to Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance.

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Alex Horton contributed to this report.