The Man Who Replaced Gov. Walz on the Battlefield Claims He Started a Political Career off a Position He Didn’t Earn in the Military Because He Quit

BEHRENDS: “The public needs to know how pathetic his leadership was as a National Guardsman.”

COLLIN: “On a 150-year-old farm in Brewster, Tom Behrends hopes his tell-it-like-it-is style will finally get the attention he believes it deserves in Minnesota’s race for governor. In a way, he’s back again to wage a public war of words against Tim Walz.”

BEHRENDS: “He abandoned us. What the hell kind of leader does that? As soon as the shots were fired in Iraq, he turned and ran the other way and hung his hat up and quit.”

COLLIN: “We’ll get to Behrends’ new message for voters in a moment, but this all starts years earlier, when Behrends says Walz’s misleading statements about his military service first led him to come forward in the fall of 2018. So you try to get this message out, but Minnesota’s largest newspaper checks it out, says it’s 100 percent true, but yet refuses to print?”

BEHRENDS: “When I hung the phone up, I said, ‘What the hell, is this North Korea?’”

COLLIN: “Back in 2005, a warning order went out to the First Battalion, 125th Field Artillery to mobilize for a mission to Iraq. At the time, Walz served as the unit’s highest non-commissioned officer. But months later, Walz would retire from the Guard, avoid the deployment and run for Congress. Tom Behrends was next in line for the position and was asked to take his place.”

BEHRENDS: “I was like well, for Pete’s sake, if this guy quits, if I say I’m not going to do it, I mean, what the hell kind of leadership is that? If a company would say that we’re going to deploy to Iraq, or somewhere, and you’re going to be gone for whatever amount of time, and then the foreman just says, ‘no, I’m not going,’ what does that say to the 500 people that work in that factory?”

COLLIN: “Behrends would go on to serve in Iraq on a nearly two-year deployment as a command sergeant major. All while Walz began using that title as a congressman. Behrends says he first contacted Walz with his concerns, sending these letters to Washington. They all went unanswered. But then we fast forward to the election in 2018 in Minnesota and you try at that time to get people’s attention with this story and also with what seems to be a very misleading statement that he continued to make about his service.”

BEHRENDS: “It kind of just sat there, you know, when he was a congressman. He bragged that he was a retired command sergeant major and the highest-ranking person ever in the House. And, you know, all this lie that he was telling. The state of Minnesota came out after 2018 after this was exposed and they said, well, he can say that he served as a command sergeant major, but he can’t say he’s a retired one because he’s not.”

COLLIN: “And that’s what he was saying.”

BEHRENDS: “And he was saying that and there was lots of public, you know, lots of cards coming in the mail, you know, for him to be elected. They said, right on there, he’s a retired command sergeant major. Just tooting his own horn, just hanging on the coattails of people that actually are command sergeant majors that went through all the process and put all the time in.”

COLLIN: “A spokesperson for the Minnesota National Guard said Walz wasn’t able to retire as a command sergeant major since he failed to complete coursework and requirements related to the rank. Verified documents show the Army corrected his service record. Walz was reduced in rank to an E8 Master Sergeant after retirement and his conditional promotion. Alpha News again asked Governor Walz if he’s using the command sergeant major rank on his campaign website for political gain this year. A spokesperson said this has been in the news before and pointed us to a past story where Walz said, quote: ‘Normally, this type of partisan political attack only comes from one who’s never worn a uniform.’”

BEHRENDS: “It’s stolen valor, is really what it is. I don’t know if anybody else has done what he’s done. But we call it the truth about Tim Walz.”

COLLIN: “In 2018, Behrends gave the story the full-court press.”

BEHRENDS: “We, retired command sergeant majors of the Minnesota National Guard, feel it as our duty and responsibility to bring forth the truth as we know it, concerning his service record. I put together information on it and I sent it out to every single radio station and newspaper and TV station I could in the state. The bottom line in all of this is gut-wrenching and sad to explain. When the nation called, he quit.”

COLLIN: “Twin Cities TV stations and the Star Tribune were silent even after Behrends says the newspaper checked it all out. The Star Tribune endorsed Walz in 2018 for governor. Between lockdowns, riots, unchecked crime and a charred police precinct, Behrends felt he had no choice but again to come forward.”

BEHRENDS: “Allowing that to be burned down was just like having the Alamo get burned down. It’s like, no, you said you would defend that until the last man. You know, if he would have went to Iraq, he’d still be hiding under his desk over there. Because that’s just, you know, just the cowardice that I’ve seen portrayed with him.”

COLLIN: “So how about when he also comes out and he calls you guys 19-year-old crooks?”

BEHRENDS: “I’d take any 19-year-old crook before I’d go to war with him. I don’t know how he could even utter such a statement. I mean, it’s just, it’s just absolutely sad.”

COLLIN: “So this election year, it’s all built up again to Behrends’ new green bin message.”

BEHRENDS: “He called Jacob Frey an abject failure. So I was like, you know, that’s what he is.”

COLLIN: “‘Walz is a traitor’ also made a return.”

BEHRENDS: “And the last one I put together, he said it himself too, as well. If they don’t like my job, they can vote me out. So I wrote we got to vote him out, we need to vote him out.”