Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is once again facing allegations of lying about his past after an old letter from the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce, dated 2006, has resurfaced during his vice-presidential campaign.
When Walz was first campaigning for Congress in Minnesota, his campaign website claimed he had received an award from the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce in 1993 in recognition of his efforts with the business community, as noted in a 2006 article from the Post Bulletin.
However, this claim was false, as pointed out in a strongly worded letter from Barry L. Kennedy, who was president of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce at the time.
“We researched this matter and can confirm that you have not been the recipient of any award from the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce,” the letter sent to Walz on November 1, 2006, stated.
“I am not going to draw a conclusion about your intentions by including this line in your biography. However, we respectfully request that you remove any reference to our organization as it could be considered an endorsement of your candidacy. It should be pointed out, however, that the US Chamber of Commerce has endorsed your opponent, Congressman Gil Gutknecht, for his support of small business issues,” Kennedy continued.
This letter was recently uncovered by Minnesota news outlet Alpha News, reigniting the controversy that originally surfaced in 2006.
The Post Bulletin, a newspaper in Rochester, Minnesota, reported in 2006 that Walz’s campaign had corrected its website, acknowledging that the governor did not win an award from the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce, but instead received recognition from the Nebraska Junior Chamber of Commerce, also known as the Jaycees.
At the time, Walz’s campaign manager described the situation as a “typographical error,” according to the Post Bulletin.
When asked by Fox Digital about the incident, the Harris-Walz campaign defended Walz’s communication style, noting that he often speaks “openly and off the cuff.”
“Governor Walz speaks the way real people speak — openly and off the cuff. The American people appreciate that Gov. Walz tells it like it is and doesn’t talk like a politician, and they appreciate the difference between someone who occasionally misspeaks and a pathological liar like Donald Trump,” the campaign stated.
These accusations add to a long list of criticisms that Walz has faced over the years for allegedly misrepresenting his background, particularly regarding claims about his military service.
Walz served in the Army National Guard for 24 years, retiring in 2005 before launching a successful congressional campaign. He represented Minnesota in the US House from 2007 to 2019.
Following his selection as Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, Walz has faced criticism from veterans who accuse him of falsely portraying his military service, particularly in referring to himself as a retired “command sergeant major.”
Although Walz was promoted to command sergeant major after a 2004 deployment to Italy, he did not complete the necessary coursework at the US Army Sergeants Major Academy to retain this rank upon retirement. Instead, he retired as a master sergeant, which is one rank lower.
“For 20 years, they let this guy go by with a lie that he deployed to Iraq, which he didn’t, and that he retired as a command sergeant major, which he did not. I mean, that’s just blatant lies,” Republican Virginia Senate candidate Hung Cao, a retired Navy captain, said to the New York Post this month about Walz.
Earlier this month, Walz’s former battalion commander in the Minnesota Army National Guard also released a sharply critical statement regarding Walz’s claim of being a “retired Command Sergeant Major.”
{Matzav.com}
