Footage shared to social media has recently gone viral in which Vice President Kamala Harris’ newly chosen running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, seemingly ignores reporters asking him about allegations of stolen valor. Accusations have emerged that Walz has misled the public about his former military service and dodged deployment.

In the footage, a reporter asked Walz, who was posing for a picture with children on the tarmac alongside Kamala Harris, “Governor! Vance accused you of stolen valor.  You response?”  The governor refuses to acknowledge the question, turning to walk away.  The reporter asked the same question a second time to no avail, as he and Harris walked away.

According to reports, Walz had previously served in the Minnesota National Guard before retiring as a master sergeant.  For years, he has faced accusations of quitting the National Guard right as they received a warning to prepare for deployment in Iraq.  JD Vance, who served in the Marine Corps,  addressed these claims, slamming Walz for touting his supposed veteran status.

“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, and I did it honorably.  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,” Vance said.

Former President Donald Trump’s running mate continued, “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.”  Reportedly, Walz’s excuse for dropping out was that he needed to run for Congress instead of going to war.

“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,” Vance stated.

Vance also addressed moves from Democrats to paint the Yale Law School graduate as a member of the elite instead of the Ohio native with humble beginnings.  He outright refuted that narrative, illustrating that he worked hard despite his circumstances to be successful and achieve the American dream.  Vance suggested it is “bizarre” that Walz would attack that.

“I came from a family where nobody in my family had ever gone to law school. 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,” Vance said

Watch Walz’s refusal to address the claims of stolen valor below: