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Tim Walz pressed about 2018 “weapons of war” statement in CNN interview
SAVANNAH, Ga. — In their first televised interview as Democratic presidential running mates, Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz faced more questions about Walz’s military service.
CNN anchor Dana Bash pressed Walz about a statement he made in a 2018 video following the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Walz refers to “weapons of war that I carried in war,” while telling a crowd at a campaign stop in Minnesota why he stopped taking NRA donations.
“You said that you carried weapons in war, but you have never deployed actually in a war zone. A campaign official said that you misspoke. Did you?” Bash said.
In response, Walz reiterated how he served in the National Guard with pride for 24 years, adding his record speaks for itself. Bash then asked again if he did indeed misspeak.
“I said, we were talking about in this case, it was after a school shooting, the ideas of carrying these weapons of war. And my wife, the English teacher, told me my grammar’s not always correct. But again, if it’s not this it’s an attack on my children for showing love for me, or it’s an attack on my dog,” Walz said. “I’m not going to do that, and the one thing I’ll never do is I’ll never demean another member’s service in any way. I never have and I never will.”
The topic of Walz’s military record has become a talking point for his ticket’s Republican challengers, former President Donald Trump and Ohio Sen. JD Vance, with the latter — an Iraq War veteran — specifically questioning and criticizing the governor’s service.
Walz has been accused of strategically retiring from the guard before his unit was called up to deploy to Iraq in 2005, but records show his retirement paperwork was filed months before he would’ve heard anything about deployment.
CNN
Critics also pointed to Walz being referred to as a “retired Command Sergeant Major” in biographies posted to both his state government website and on Harris’ campaign site. Although Walz did attain that rank before retiring, he never submitted the paperwork to retire as such, causing his rank to be reverted to master sergeant.
Vance has attacked Walz on both angles.
“When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did? He dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him — a fact that he’s been criticized for aggressively by a lot of the people he served with,” Vance said in a campaign appearance.
Walz has countered Vance’s statements by highlighting how they violate an unwritten code of servicemembers, an avenue the governor took in 2018 after a former military reservist told a Minnesota newspaper he misled people about the extent of his service.
“I am damn proud of my service to this country, and I firmly believe you should never denigrate another person’s service record,” Walz said.
He then made a point to thank Vance for his “service and sacrifice.”
Joseph Eustice, who once led Walz’s battalion, told WCCO earlier this month that he may differ with the governor when it comes to politics, but believes his military record is solid.
“Tim Walz as a soldier, he was a good soldier. I don’t think anyone can honestly say that he wasn’t,” Eustice said. “He was a good leader in those 24 years that he served.”
Walz and Vance will meet face-to-face in a debate on Oct. 1 on CBS. Harris and Trump square off on Sept. 10 in their first debate.
TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.
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Sean “Diddy” Combs at same Brooklyn detention center that held R. Kelly, Sam Bankman-Fried, other high-profile inmates
A second judge refused to grant bail to Sean “Diddy” Combs on Wednesday and he could remain in federal custody at a Brooklyn detention center until his trial for sex trafficking charges. Combs joins other high-profile inmates, such as singer R. Kelly, fallen cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, rapper Ja Rule —even Al Sharpton served a brief stint— who were held at the same federal detention center.
Notorious for its horrible conditions —inmates won a $10 million class action settlement after enduring frigid conditions during an 8-day blackout in 2019— the waterfront industrial complex, MDC Brooklyn, houses 1,200 inmates.
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images
Violence and corruption have long plagued the facility; U.S. District Judge Gary R. Brown of the Eastern District of New York wrote the detention center had “dangerous, barbaric conditions” in a recent sentencing opinion. Two inmates were stabbed to death in recent months and several correction officers have been convicted for smuggling contraband and accepting bribes.
Combs joins a list of high-profile personalities that have landed at the MDC Brooklyn, partly because the city’s other federal detention center, MDC New York, closed in 2021, also due to horrible conditions. The disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in his cell there in 2019. “Numerous and serious” instances of misconduct among corrections staff gave Epstein the opportunity to kill himself, a subsequent federal watchdog investigation found.
Kelly sued the federal detention center in 2022 for wrongly putting him on suicide watch after his sentencing. Kelly sought $100 million because he said the detention center knew he wasn’t suicidal after he was convicted in 2021 for racketeering and violating the Mann Act, which bars transporting people across state lines for prostitution.
Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Former crypto billionaire Bankman-Fried survived on bread, water and sometimes peanut butter when he was in the MDC Brooklyn, his attorney said, because the detention center continued to serve him a “flesh diet” despite requests for vegan dishes.
Ja Rule stayed at the MDC Brooklyn for a brief time before being released after serving most of his two-year sentence for illegal gun possession. Most of his prison time was spent in a state prison in New York.
Sharpton served a 90-day sentence in 2001 and went on a hunger strike for protesting the U.S. Navy bombing of the island of Vieques, in Puerto Rico.
Combs was taken into custody on Monday and according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday he was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution.
His attorney Marc Agnifilo told CBS News, “It’s impossible to prepare for a trial from where he is,” after a first federal judge denied Combs bail on Tuesday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky agreed with prosecutors who argued the hip-hop mogul, who is accused of using his business empire as a criminal enterprise to conceal his alleged abuse of women, is a flight risk and poses an ongoing threat to the safety of the community.
Agnifilo said the part of the detention center where Combs is being held is “a very difficult place to be.”
contributed to this report.
