J.D. Vance: ‘I Would Be Ashamed’ if I Lied About My Military Service Like Tim Walz Did

Reporter: “Last night, Governor Walz suggested that because of your Ivy League education and the Silicon [Valley] backing your political career, that you yourself are part of the elite. What are your first impressions of them trying to frame you this way to the American public?”
Vance: “Well, look, I came from a family where nobody in my family had ever gone to law school. I was — I grew up in a poor family. The fact that Tim Walz wants to turn it into a bad thing, that I actually worked myself through college, through law school and made something myself. To me, that’s the American dream. And if Tim Walz wants to insult it, I think that’s frankly pretty bizarre. Now look, what I — what — what really bothers me about Tim Walz, it’s not even the positions that he’s taken, though certainly he has been a far left radical. You know, what really bothers me about Tim Walz as a Marine who served his country in uniform? When the United States Marine Corps, when the United States of America asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did it. I did what they asked me to do it and I did it honorably, and I’m very proud of that service. 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 that he served with. I think it’s shameful to prepare your unit to go to Iraq, to make a promise that you’re going to follow through and then to drop out right before you actually have to go. I also think it’s dishonest. Something — again, if you guys ever get an opportunity to ask Tim Walz or Kamala Harris some questions, he made this interesting comment that the Kamala Harris campaign put out there, and I bet they’re regretting they put it out there now because he said that we — and he was making a point about gun control — he said, we shouldn’t allow weapons that I used in war to be on America’s streets. Well, I wonder Tim Walz, when were you ever in war? When was this — what was this weapon that you carried into war, given that you abandoned your unit right before they went to Iraq and he has not spent a day in a combat zone? What bothers me about Tim Walz is the stolen valor garbage. Do not pretend to be something that you’re not. And if he wants to criticize me for getting an Ivy League education, I’m proud of the fact that my mamaw supported me, that I was able to make something of myself. I’d be ashamed if I was him and I lied about my military service like he did. Sir.” (Applause)