‘That Is Absolutely False!’ CNN Correspondent Calls Out Gov. Tim Walz’s Claim He ‘Carried’ Weapons ‘In War’

CNN correspondent Tom Foreman fact-checked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s claim that he carried weapons in war as “absolutely false” on Wednesday, noting that the Democratic vice presidential candidate never actually took part in combat in a war zone.

After Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance accused Walz of “stolen valor” this week for saying that he “carried” weapons “in war,” when he was never actually deployed to Iraq as a a member of the National Guard, Foreman said that while there was “no evidence to back” the claim that Walz had dodged deployment, his comments about carrying weapons in war were false.

“Walz did make a comment speaking to a group, he’s done it a couple of times, where he has used language that has suggested that he carried weapons in a fighting situation,” said Foreman:

I know from coming from a military family there is a difference between being in a combat area, being involved at a time of war, and actually being in a position where people are shooting at you. There is no evidence that at any time Governor Walz was in a position of being shot at, and some of his language could easily be seen to suggest he was, so that is absolutely false.

Foreman noted, “The [Harris-Walz] campaign has essentially come forward to say, ‘Look, he had a long career, he would never want to purposely mislead people about this.’ That’s what campaigns tend to say, and I’m sure we haven’t heard the end of this.”

CNN host Brianna Keilar concluded, “The quote was, ‘We can make sure that those weapons of war that I carried in war is the only place where those weapons are at,’ and certainly for someone who wasn’t familiar with their record, they might draw a different conclusion.”

Watch above via CNN.