U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, who is known as outspoken on behalf of Democratic causes, is taking on some of the latest political attacks lobbed against Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz, who is now the running mate for Democratic presidential contender Kamala Harris — currently the nation’s vice president.
In short, some in Trump’s circles are questioning Walz’s time in military service: decades in the National Guard, which he eventually left in close conjunction with a run for office. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), the running mate for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, singled out that Walz apparently hadn’t been to an active warzone while serving, accusing Walz of misrepresenting his time in service — although it’s unclear that Walz claimed anything precise that wasn’t actually true. And he was most assuredly actually in the National Guard for all of that time.
“Come to think of it, denigrating the worth of a soldier’s service based on whether he deployed to a war zone is… kind of like denigrating the worth of a woman’s citizenship based on whether she happens to have children,” Buttigieg wrote on social media, referencing other scrutinized complaints from Vance about “childless cat ladies.”
Buttigieg went on in another post. Both were on his personal account on X, the social platform formerly called Twitter.
“Tim Walz served honorably and well. Again, this is strategic: team Trump needs us tied up in debates over pre-retirement conditional rank promotions because they are desperate NOT to discuss their (unpopular) policies, like tax cuts for the rich and banning access to abortion,” added Buttigieg, himself a veteran who was discussed as a possibility for Harris’ running mate. He served as a military intelligence officer overseas. Vance, meanwhile, is also a veteran, having served as a public affairs Marine.
