Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz "misspoke" in a 2018 video circulated by the Harris campaign earlier this week that included the vice presidential candidate talking about his handling of weapons "in war," a campaign spokesperson said Friday.
The clarification comes after Republicans, led by veteran and vice presidential candidate JD Vance, have attacked Walz over his military record.
“Governor Walz would never insult or undermine any American’s service to this country — in fact, he thanks Senator Vance for putting his life on the line for our country. It’s the American way," the Harris campaign spokesperson said in a statement.
"In making the case for why weapons of war should never be on our streets or in our classrooms, the Governor misspoke. He did handle weapons of war and believes strongly that only military members trained to carry those deadly weapons should have access to them, unlike Donald Trump and JD Vance who prioritize the gun lobby over our children,” the spokesperson added.
The video clip of Walz's previous remarks shows him discussing gun control and referring to his own military background. “We can make sure that those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is the only place where those weapons are at,” Walz says in the clip posted by Harris’ campaign on Tuesday.
Walz's 24 years in the military included serving overseas and supporting forward units, but he was not deployed to a combat zone.
Vance, a Marine Corps veteran, accused his political rival of "stolen valor" this week.
“What bothers me about Tim Walz is this stolen valor garbage. Do not pretend to be something that you’re not," Vance said at an event in Michigan. "I’d be ashamed if I was him and I lied about my military service like he did.”
When reached for comment about Friday's clarification from the Harris campaign, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in an email: “Why won’t Tim Walz address his lies himself? Why does he need to send out lowly spokespeople to clean up his own mess?”
Doug Julin, a retired national guardsman who has said he worked with Walz, criticized Walz’s handling of his retirement during a CNN interview, suggesting that Walz had used a “back-door process.”
“Tim Walz knew the processes and the procedures, he went around me,” Julin said, adding that Walz “basically went to get somebody to back him, to get him out of there.”
NBC News hasn’t independently verified Julin’s account.
In response to Julin's comments, the Harris campaign referred NBC News to statements from two men who served with Walz.
"From what I know of the situation, they’re lying. He was as good as a solider as you’ll find," Joseph Eustice, who noted he's not voting for Walz, told CNN.
Al Bonnifield described Walz as a man who didn't have fear about the possibility of danger.
“He was not that kind of man,” Bonnifield told the Washington Post. “Absolutely not.”
The Minneapolis Star Tribune in 2022 reported details of Walz's service that it attributed to the governor, saying he “was deployed to Italy in 2003 to protect against potential threats in Europe while active military forces were deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan."
Walz formally retired from the Minnesota National Guard in 2005, as he prepared to run for Congress. He won a House seat the following year.
