Walz’s biography falls apart under the spotlight

It might be easier for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to list the parts of his biography that he hasn’t fabricated or exaggerated.

Mr. Walz was relatively unknown nationally when Vice President Kamala Harris tabbed him as her presidential running mate. On the surface, his background seemed impressive. He’s a sitting governor. He was a National Guard veteran who served overseas. He worked as a teacher and coach. Even his family’s fertility struggles seemed to provide a natural path to talk about IVF, which Democrats are trying to turn into a campaign issue.

But the spotlight on the national stage shines much brighter than it does in Minnesota. And Mr. Walz’s past claims haven’t held up well.

Start with his military record. The Kamala Harris campaign initially stated that Walz was a “retired command sergeant major.” His official Minnesota governor biography still calls him “Command Sergeant Major Walz.” In a 2018 post on X, which was then Twitter, he wrote that he was “a retired Command Sergeant Major.”

Mr. Walz did briefly obtain the rank of command sergeant major in 2004. He was promoted conditionally, which meant his new title came with new responsibilities. That included a service obligation. National Guard duty is normally a part-time job, but in 2005 his unit received word that it was going to deploy to Iraq. That presented a challenge for Mr. Walz, who was also running for Congress.

“As Command Sergeant Major I have a responsibility not only to ready my battalion for Iraq, but also to serve if called on. I am dedicated to serving my country to the best of my ability, whether that is in Washington, D.C., or in Iraq,” Mr. Walz said in an archived March 2005 campaign press release.

He didn’t fulfill that responsibility. Shortly afterward, he retired. The National Guard reduced his rank to master sergeant.

The Harris campaign obliquely acknowledged this. His biography on her campaign site now states he rose “to the rank of Command Sergeant Major.”

There’s more. In 2018, Mr. Walz argued for gun control by saying, “We can make sure that those weapons of war that I carried in war is the only place where those weapons are at.”

He never served in a war zone.

But he’s portrayed his service in such a way that many people believed otherwise. In 2004, he held a sign that read “Operation Enduring Freedom Veteran 4 Kerry” at a protest of then-President George W. Bush. That’s the name of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. Mr. Walz endorsed a 2008 book titled, “Winning Your Election the Wellstone Way.” The book described Mr. Walz as a “longtime National Guardsman who served in Afghanistan.” Another video shows him nodding along as a TV host introduced him as having “served with his battalion in (Operation) Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.”

There’s more. “Today’s IVF day. Thank God for IVF, my wife and I have two beautiful children,” he said in a July interview on MSNBC. In April, Mr. Walz’s gubernatorial campaign sent out a fundraising letter. The envelope said, “My wife and I used I.V.F. to start a family.”

But his wife later said they used IUI or intrauterine insemination to have a family.

In 1995, Nebraska police pulled Mr. Walz over for driving 96 mph in a 55-mph zone. The officer smelled alcohol on him. A blood test showed he had a blood alcohol level of 0.128. During his 2006 congressional campaign, his campaign wasn’t honest about him driving drunk. Campaign officials claimed he wasn’t drunk. One even blamed the incident on hearing loss from his military service.

On Thursday, the Washington Free Beacon reported another discrepancy. As of 2011, Mr. Walz said in an official biography that he was close to completing a doctorate in education at St. Mary’s University in Minnesota. But the school said its records show Mr. Walz wasn’t an active student after 2004.

Now, Mr. Walz isn’t on the top of the ticket. But if he and Ms. Harris win, he would be a heartbeat away from the presidency. His selection also reveals something about her judgment.

Voters should know he routinely and apparently deliberately used distortions and falsehoods for political gain.

This commentary initially appeared in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.