When Exactly Did Walz File His Retirement Paperwork?
I am relieved that there is a Harris-Walz ticket this year instead of a Biden-Harris one. As I noted before, all signs are pointing to a Harris victory in November. My projection is that Harris will pull out to a 10–15-point lead just before the election. This is why the conspiracy folks, that Pillow guy, are putting so much effort into fake election claims, even though the United States has had the most secure and safe election system of almost any nation.
Yet, I have some concerns. There is that yucky fly in the Harris-Walz celebratory ointment. Tim Walz did lie about his service in plain sight. It was quoted on his website and repeated by CNN that he carried weapons in war. That is not “misspeaking.” That is not a misquote. That is a lie. I can forgive that lie in that he served his nation honorably for 24 years. But there is another looming problem. Why can’t Walz tell us when he filed his retirement paperwork? Remember that I am a liberal. I am a democrat voting for Harris and Walz, but I want a clear, not a BS answer.
I prance around or near military complexes and occasionally run into military personal. Everyone knows that it takes often months for retirement paperwork to go through the military’s wonderfully bureaucratic system. Walz seems like a pretty organized guy. He coached football. That takes organizational skills. He was a teacher. That takes organizational skills, and he is a governor. I would think being governor would take organizational skills?
Such an omission and silence around this omission makes me very suspicious that Walz got a favor somehow through the military where his application was hurried along. I am speculating because Walz is not speaking. I don’t know that he got a favor. I pray not, and I don’t want to believe it. I really do like this guy and I think I like Harris, too. But those vetting screwed up because this is such an obvious thing.
If one of Walz’s qualities is his military service, then why would those vetting not read his website? Why not question what deployment meant? If they knew he was in Italy because he said he was in Italy, why wouldn’t those vetting him ask what carrying weapons into war meant since he never carried weapons into war? Duh!
And I am the guy that can’t pay rent.
When Walz and the Harris make JD Vance look right, they have a big problem. Vance is so good and making statements that hurt the Trump campaign but even he is getting this message across that Walz is in fact lying. At the very least, it appears that Walz is hiding something. But when exactly did Walz file his retirement paperwork? Why the silence? This gives Vance and Trump a way to attack the Harris-Walz ticket and slow down momentum.
Though Walz may not have abandoned his unit, one cannot tout their military service if they decided to retire because they knew or could guess that their unit would be deployed. I think this is what happened. He thought, “Oh crap, I better get out when I can.” Now, this is a very human thing, of course, even for soldiers. Who wants to have mortars dropping on their heads? Who wants to fight in rich men’s wars? Fair enough, Walz served honorably like Vance did, knew that call is going to come, and decided to get out. Vance did not have a choice, and Vance did carry weapons in war.
Cover your ass, but do it ethically. If the Harris-Walz ticket wants to differ from the Trump-Vance one, then don’t make the mistakes that give pathological liars out there substance to use on your ticket. That has a way of legitimizing all their previous lies. If Trump and Vance are right about Walz, then why aren’t the right about everything else?
Earl Yarington (LMSW) is a social worker and school bus driver. He taught literature and writing for nearly 20 years and spent 3 years working in forensic social work internships with offending populations, including work at Delaware Correctional facilities and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. He has a PhD in literature and criticism (feminism/women writers) from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Master of Social Work from Louisiana State University, and an interdisciplinary Master of Liberal Arts from Arizona State University, where he studied the impact of visual image and girlhood in media/social media. He also has an MA and BS in English from SUNY College at Brockport. The opinions and analyses that Earl writes are his own and are not necessarily the positions or views of his employers, the agencies he supports, or that of his colleagues. Reach out with comments or questions.