Virginia Senate candidate Hung Cao is a retired Navy Captain and Special Operations Officer (Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Deep Sea Diving) who deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia. So, he definitely had something to say about Democrat vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and his decades-long boasts about his service record; troublesome boasts as my colleague Matt Funicello has uncovered.

Governor Walz enlisted in the Minnesota National Guard in 1981 and served for 24 years, obtaining the rank of Sergeant Major. However, he was reduced in rank to Master Sergeant in September 2005 after failing to complete the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy. But that is just the end of his military career; according to Herr and Behrends, Tim Walz did other shameful things, and something far worse -- he abandoned his troops when they went to Iraq. 

The Harris campaign, and Walz' interviews and biographies, claim he served in combat, and that he retired as a Command Sergeant Major, the highest enlisted rank to have been elected into Congress. 

GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance has called him out on this deception.

WATCH:

You know what really bothers me about Tim Walz?

When the US Marine Corps asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did it.

When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, he dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him. I think that's shameful. pic.twitter.com/Dq9xjn4R51

— JD Vance (@JDVance) August 7, 2024

Cao kept his powder dry for a minute, but ultimately gave it to Walz with both barrels:

🧵I have tried to take my time in responding to stories about Tim Walz's service record. The hypocrisy astounds me.

— Hung Cao (@HungCao_VA) August 7, 2024

I have tried to take my time in responding to stories about Tim Walz's service record. The hypocrisy astounds me.

Because I am a Trump supporter & running against a liberal career politician, a so-called Pentagon correspondent asked me to provide documented evidence of every time I had been outside the wire on a deployment & every time I received incoming enemy fire.

— Hung Cao (@HungCao_VA) August 7, 2024

Because I am a Trump supporter & running against a liberal career politician, a so-called Pentagon correspondent asked me to provide documented evidence of every time I had been outside the wire on a deployment & every time I received incoming enemy fire.

Yet no one in the legacy media appears to be questioning Walz' claims, and some are defending him:

I was asked to provide my medical records & grilled about why my brain injury didn't earn me a Purple Heart. Contrast this with Tim Walz, whose entire political career appears to be based on a lie: that he served in Iraq when he did not.

— Hung Cao (@HungCao_VA) August 7, 2024

I was asked to provide my medical records & grilled about why my brain injury didn't earn me a Purple Heart. Contrast this with Tim Walz, whose entire political career appears to be based on a lie: that he served in Iraq when he did not.

Funicello's article brings the detailed receipts and is worthy of a complete read. While Walz was deployed to Italy for a year, he was nowhere near Iraq, and because he had made several questionable decisions while he served in the Minnesota National Guard, he had been demoted--facts that he conveniently covered up when he talked about his military service:

He exaggerated his rank. In an effort to disarm law abiding Americans he implied he had seen combat when he never did.

— Hung Cao (@HungCao_VA) August 7, 2024

"He exaggerated his rank. In an effort to disarm law abiding Americans he implied he had seen combat when he never did."

In the Navy we used to talk about something called "pulling a deployment muscle." It seems to me that Tim Walz might have suffered just that.

— Hung Cao (@HungCao_VA) August 7, 2024

That's brutal. But, truth is often that:

While it upsets me to read how Walz abandoned his unit before the deployment, it frankly upsets me more that this man spent 20 years as a candidate and in elected office, now seeking the Vice Presidency of the United States, and no one in the media asked him before or since any…

— Hung Cao (@HungCao_VA) August 7, 2024

While it upsets me to read how Walz abandoned his unit before the deployment, it frankly upsets me more that this man spent 20 years as a candidate and in elected office, now seeking the Vice Presidency of the United States, and no one in the media asked him before or since any simple question like:

You were supposed to deploy to Iraq, but you quit so you didn't have to go, and then implied for years that you did. Why?

Because it was a convenient prop to use to show that he "loved" America, even though he is a Democrat. See Duckworth, Tammy, et. al. It's rhetorical, but Cao answers it anyway:

The truth is: we all know the answer. And it is disqualifying for future service as our Vice President.

— Hung Cao (@HungCao_VA) August 7, 2024

"The truth is: we all know the answer. And it is disqualifying for future service as our Vice President."

It is also disqualifying for our current vice president and the woman who wants to be commander in chief. What kind of vetting did the Harris' camp do? And why would she assume it's all good to trot this man out and boast about his supposed military service when he has manufactured a lot of it? It reflects the lackadaisical nature of the Biden-Harris administration and the Harris campaign. It's all about optics, and damn the substance. Finally, it reflects questionable judgment. Harris cannot even properly vet a vice presidential candidate; how will she be able to properly choose her cabinet or assess actual threats to our nation? If this is a reflection of Kamala Harris' leadership, then we certainly do not want her as the leader of our country.