Tom Cotton: Tim Walz ‘Let His Troops Go to War Without Him’

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said Wednesday that Democrat Vice Presidential Nominee Tim Walz, who is accused of Stolen Valor, “let his troops go to war” in Iraq “without him.”

“Tim Walz’s unit got orders to Iraq. He could’ve gone with them, but didn’t. He let his troops go to war without him instead,” Cotton posted on X Wednesday. “Just like he let Minneapolis burn rather than confront the BLM rioters.”

Cotton’s post featured a video originally shared by Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance. Vance, who served in Iraq as a Marine, said Walz “dropped out of the army and allowed his unit to go without him” when he was called to serve in Iraq.

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“When the United States Marine Corps, when the United States of America asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did it. I did what they asked me to do and I did it honorably, and I’m very proud of that service,” he said.

“When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did? He dropped out of the army and allowed his unit to go without him, a fact that he has been criticized aggressively by a lot of the people that he served with,” Vance said.

“I think it’s shameful to prepare your unit to go to Iraq, to make a promise that you’re going to follow through, and then to drop out right before you actually have to go,” Vance continued, slamming Walz, a retired National Guard sergeant major.

Vance also referred to a clip of Walz that the Harris campaign put out where the Minnesota governor talks about “weapons of war, that [Walz] carried in War.”

Vance challenged whether Walz had served in war and blasted him for “Stolen Valor.”

“Well, I wonder, Tim Walz, when were you ever in war? When was this? What was this weapon that you carried into war, given that you abandoned your unit right before they went to Iraq? And he has not spent a day in a combat zone,” he said.

“What bothers me about Tim Walz is the Stolen Valor garbage,” he said. “Do not pretend to be something that you’re not,” he added.

Notably, retired Army Command Sergeants Major Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr penned a letter published in the West Central Tribune on November 2, 2019, stating Walz “quit” the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion in the lead-up to deployment:

In early 2005, a warning order was issued to the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion, which included the position he was serving in, to prepare to be mobilized for active duty for a deployment to Iraq.

On May 16th, 2005 he quit, leaving the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion and its Soldiers hanging; without its senior Non-Commissioned Officer, as the battalion prepared for war. His excuse to other leaders was that he needed to retire in order to run for congress. Which is false, according to a Department of Defense Directive, he could have run and requested permission from the Secretary of Defense before entering active duty; as many reservists have. If he had retired normally and respectfully, you would think he would have ensured his retirement documents were correctly filled out and signed, and that he would have ensured he was reduced to Master Sergeant for dropping out of the academy. Instead he waited for the paperwork to catch up to him. His official retirement document states, SOLDIER NOT AVAILABLE FOR SIGNATURE.

Walz retired at the rank of E-8, though he shortly sevrved as an E-9 under a conditional promotion that was reduced in September 2005, the command sergeants major noted. However, Walz’s personal bio suggests he retired as a command sergeant major, which is E-9.

“After 24 years in the Army National Guard, Command Sergeant Major Walz retired from the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion in 2005,” it said, as Breitbart News noted.