Amy Klobuchar Goes Off On Attacks On Tim Walz’s Military Service: ‘That Just Shocked Me’

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) appeared on Gayle King’s SiriusXM podcast, Gayle King in the House , to stand up for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) after several people criticized his military record with the Army National Guard and his actions during the George Floyd riots back in 2020.

In the first clip, King asks about accusations that Walz “abandoned” his unit before they were deployed to Iraq in 2005. However, what happened was that Walz put in his paperwork to retire so he could run for Congress. Five months later, his unit in the Minnesota National Guard was deployed to Iraq. There was also an issue of Walz discussing what kinds of weapons he carried “in war,” even though he did not serve in combat:

King: What is your response to that? Because now they’re questioning, they’re trying to say his military record is not all that it’s cracked up to be.

Klobuchar: You know, that just shocked me because while there’s going to be huge back and forth on the VP level and the presidential level, we know that. There’s going to be debate. No one has questioned Vance’s military service. I mean certainly Tim Walz didn’t and said he appreciated it, the fact that he signed up. There were different kind of service, right. Vance signs up with the Marines, he goes serves four years.

Walz signed up when he was 17 for the National Guard. And while he was not in combat, he was actually doing many, many things, including training a number of soldiers on how to use weapons of war. He carried, he fired, and he trained others to do it. He was stationed overseas just like my dad during the Korean War, who wasn’t sent to Korea. He was sent to Europe and he always felt kind of bad about it. By the way, something that J.D. Vance mentions in his own Hillbilly Elegy , that he didn’t really face combat like some of the other people did.

To the other point, surrounding Walz’s decision to send the National Guard to contain the riots that arose after the murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin , Klobuchar reminded King that Trump (who was President at the time) “commended” Walz on his actions on a phone call with two other governors:

King: During the George Floyd killing, the police killing of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin, there was unrest in the city, and that he took too long to call the National Guard. At the time, he addressed that and said he takes responsibility for that. And to say that he didn’t care, that he sat around for two days and watched the city burn, I just know that isn’t true because I, too, was there. And I think it’s important to point out that Governor Walz was reelected. So, if the people of Minnesota were so upset with him about how he handled things, I don’t think he would be reelected. Could you please respond to what you heard former President Donald Trump say about this ticket?

Klobuchar: Okay. Let’s just unpack. So number one, you know, everyone knows the tragic, horrific murder of George Floyd and the fact that Tim Walz actually stood in and gave the case to Attorney General [ Keith Ellison ], who literally brought justice to not just Minnesota, but to the world with how he handled that case. That was Tim Walz’s decision to take it away from the local attorney and give it to Attorney General Ellison. First thing. Number two, he did call in the National Guard, and he got a lot of, actually, he got grief from some people for doing it. But those were peaceful protests were happening, yes, but there were violent, horrific riots and there was much damage. And that is why he called in the National Guard. And the final thing is at which you maybe heard this tape that just got released, Donald Trump commended, I’d never of course heard this tape, but I just heard it. There’s a tape of him commending Tim Walz, two other governors who were on the call, Tim Walz was on the call, for what he’d done and how he handled it.

Watch the videos above via Radio Andy on YouTube .