Walz’s former military commander blasts VP hopeful as ‘stolen valor’ controversy foments

Gov. Tim Walz ’s (D-MN) ex-battalion commander had harsh words for Vice President Kamala Harris ’s running mate, who is under fire for allegedly inflating his military career.

John Kolb, the former battalion commander of Walz’s Army National Guard unit, said he welcomed the Minnesota Democrat’s early retirement from the military.

“He got out of the way for better leadership,” Kolb wrote in a scathing review of Harris’s No. 2.

Since he stepped into his role as Harris’s running mate, Walz has faced criticism for representing himself as a retired command sergeant major. Critics have said that while Walz did serve in the role, the title was later rescinded because the Minnesota governor failed to complete the necessary paperwork to retain the title. Last week, Walz’s online campaign biography was quietly updated to say that he had "served as a command sergeant major."

Kolb weighed in on the controversy, claiming that Walz “did not successfully complete any assignment as a sergeant major” and “broke” his enlistment contract.

The former military commander wrote that he was infuriated by Walz “sitting, frocked, in the [command sergeant major] chair” when he "did not earn the rank or successfully complete any assignment as an E9.”

Walz has also been chastised for implying he served in combat. After a video surfaced on social media of Walz saying he had carried weapons “in war,” former President Donald Trump's running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), swiftly accused him of perpetuating “stolen valor garbage." On Saturday, the Harris campaign admitted Walz “misspoke.”

Vance has also suggested that Walz retired early to avoid deployment to Afghanistan. Kolb appeared to agree with Trump's running mate in a Facebook post shared by the former president's son.

“Similarly, when the demands of service and leadership at the highest level got real, he chose another path,” Kolb said, noting that Walz’s successor, Thomas Behrends, “ran toward and not away from the guns.”

The Minnesota governor retired from military service in 2005, just months before his unit deployed to Iraq. After spending over two decades in the Army National Guard, Walz decided to run for Congress.

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“He loved the Guard, he loved the soldiers that he worked with, and making that decision was very tough for him,” Allan Bonnifield, who served with Walz, said of the governor to Minnesota Public Radio in 2018. “Especially knowing that we were going on another deployment to Iraq. He didn’t take that decision lightly at all.”

The Washington Examiner reached out to the Harris-Walz campaign for comment.