Tim Walz is being attacked more and more patheticly from the right

With his selection As a vice presidential candidate, Tim Walz has emerged on the national political stage as one of the most grassroots and respected Democratic standard-bearers in recent history. Walz has served as a teacher, football coach, National Guardsman, congressman, and one of the country's most successful progressive governors, among other roles.

After the Democratic convention in Chicago, Walz is the only candidate on both lists with positive approval ratings, and his poll numbers (42 percent positive, 36 percent unfavorable) are almost exactly the opposite of those of Trump's running mate JD Vance (44 percent unfavorable, 38 percent positive).

Therefore, it is clear that the MAGA movement wants to put a damper on Walz.

Conservatives have attacked Walz for what they say are repeated exaggerations of his accomplishments — even going so far as to accuse him of “stolen valor” for describing his military service. Walz has been a public figure since 2006 and has occasionally exaggerated his accomplishments. But the right's attempt to establish a “pattern of evasions” that “stretches back nearly two decades” — as the Free Beacon meaningfully described it this week — is backfiring as overzealous cranks try to pin false faux pas on Walz, like posing with the wrong dog.

Below we discuss the alleged Walz “scandals” that were blown up by the MAGA scene and the banal reality behind the sensational headlines.

Not so outstanding?

This week, the right-leaning Free Beacon tried to capitalize on a claim in a 2006 press brochure by Walz that he had been named “Outstanding Young Nebraskan” by the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce in 1993. The Free Beacon pointed to a letter from the Chamber of Commerce from the same period saying it had never bestowed such an honor. The story was widely covered in right-leaning media, including Fox News, the New York Post and Newsmax.

A big problem?

It turns out that Walz had indeed received the award, from the state's Junior Chamber of Commerce. In addition, Walz's 2006 congressional campaign team had promptly updated campaign materials to correct what they called a “typo.”

“Stolen Courage”

A key component of the far-right attacks on Walz is the accusation that he exaggerated his military achievements to the extent of “stolen valor.” The denigration of Democrats who have served honorably in uniform is a popular target of GOP supporters. The “Swift Boating” of 2004 candidate John Kerry is the most egregious example.

In fact, Walz served in the National Guard for more than 20 years, was able to retire in 2001, decided to re-enlist after 9/11, was sent to Europe to support the war in Afghanistan, and then retired when he decided to run for Congress in 2005. Over the course of his career, Walz rose to the rank of Command Sergeant Major, one of the highest positions a private can attain.

The attacks on Walz's serve are threefold – and all of them are quite poor.

First, right-wingers have pounced on a 2006 clip of Walz claiming he was a “retired command sergeant major.” This can be interpreted as an exaggeration, a technicality. Although Walz served in that rank, he reportedly did not complete courses at the U.S. Army's Sergeants Major Academy to retain it, so his rank upon retirement was instead master sergeant.

Second, right-wingers—most notably Vance—seized on a clip of Walz at a 2018 campaign rally calling for restricting access to assault rifles. Walz said, awkwardly, “We can make sure that the weapons of war that I have carried are only in war.” Walz spoke like clockwork so the pause was lost, giving the impression that he had carried weapons “in war,” which suggests combat experience that Walz does not have. The Harris campaign, which caused confusion with its paraphrase of Walz’s remarks, has since claimed that Walz “misspelled.” (As a sign of how desperate the MAGA scene is to push this line of attack, other right-wingers have cried “stolen valor” over a completely accurate C-Span clip in which Walz describes: “I was deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. My battalion provided security for bases throughout the European war zone from Turkey to England during the early stages of the war in Afghanistan.”)

Third, right-wingers have criticized the timing of Walz's retirement after 24 years of service. Walz filed his retirement papers to run for Congress shortly before his unit was called up for deployment to Iraq. Trump's allies have tried to turn this career change by a then 40-year-old man with a young daughter at home into a story about his retirement from the military – as if Walz had not continued his public service by winning a seat in the House of Representatives and rising to become the ranking member of the Veterans Affairs and Armed Services Committees.

Abuse Gus?

TikTokers and other right-wing commentators have tried to make a video of Walz dragging his son Gus as they take the stage after his speech at the Chicago convention seem strange or ominous – even though the video clearly shows the father trying to stop his son from banging his head on a teleprompter, which his daughter Hope then dodges on the other side.