COLUMBUS, Oh. — The Vance campaign hit back at CNN Sunday following a tense exchange the GOP vice president pick had with anchor Dana Bash over rival Tim Walz’s military record — accusing the journalist of ignoring her own network’s reporting.
During the sitdown interview that aired Sunday morning, Bash defended Kamala Harris’ running mate, pointing out that Walz filed his retirement paperwork a month before the National Guard announced public plans to deploy to Iraq.
Walz, 60, has been accused of retiring from a commanding role in his National Guard unit in 2005 to avoid being deployed to active war zones in Iraq.
Vance, 39, quickly hit back — pointing to CNN’s own reporting.
“But on CNN last night, Dana, one of the people who was actually in charge with him said they knew they were going to deploy to Iraq in Fall of 2004. So he knew he was going to Iraq and he decided to quit,” the Ohio lawmaker responded.
The Vance campaign has now accused CNN of trying to obscure the facts in favor of Walz.
“CNN ignoring its own scoop from the evening before shows how far the mainstream media is willing to go to cover up for Kamala and the Democrats,” Team Vance National Press Secretary Taylor Van Kirk told The Post Sunday.
“But voters aren’t stupid, and they’re sick and tired of the mainstream media lying to them.”
On Saturday night, CNN aired an interview with retired National Guard Sgt. Major Doug Julin — who was Walz’s superior and is a longtime critic of the Minnesota governor — claimed Walz knew about his scheduled deployment to Iraq before applying for his honorable discharge.
“People don’t really understand the sequence of events here,” Julin claimed. “In 2005…we were notified that we were going to Iraq. Get your team ready. Get your people together.”
Julin described a February 2005 meeting including National Guard commanding officers, at which Walz was present, where those plans were discussed further.
Julin then claimed Walz informed him of his plans to run for Congress “immediately” after that meeting and with full knowledge of the plans for combat.
Walz filed paperwork saying he was exploring running for Congress on Feb. 5, 2005.
Soon after the CNN interview, the caption “Not Being Tim Walz” began trending on X where current and retired service members post photos of themselves in combat areas during active duty.
“One of my brothers and I, filthy from combat and not being Tim Walz,” wrote Florida Representative Brian Mast.
Retired US Army Veteran Tim Hollingsworth added that “at 58 years old, [I was] fighting beside my son, not being Tim Walz. I was a 45-year-old grandfather when he and I joined together.”
