Morning Wire - Stolen Valor: The Truth About Tim Walz's Military Record | 8.17.24

Episode Date: August 17, 2024

VP Nominee Tim Walz's military service has been scrutinized, with claims that he exaggerated his rank and role. Thomas Behrends, who replaced Walz and deployed to Iraq, has led efforts to finally set the record straight. Get the facts first on Morning Wire. Black Rifle Coffee: Drink America's coffee at https://www.blackriflecoffee.com/ Birch Gold: Text "WIRE" to 989898 for your no-cost, no-obligation information kit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The military record of Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walls has come under intense scrutiny amid accusations that he's engaged in stolen valor. Walls has claimed to have retired at a higher level than he did, and that he had carried weapons of war in war, despite resigning before his battalion was deployed. Thomas Barron's has drawn attention to this issue for years. Barons became the command sergeant major of the battalion after Walls left his unit, after learning that he was being deployed to Iraq. In this episode, we sit down with the retired command sergeant major

to discuss his years-long effort to set Wall's service record straight. I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's August 17th, and this is a Saturday edition of Morning Wire. Hey guys, producer Brandon here. Black Rifle Coffee helps you wake up each morning feeling dialed in and ready to make the most of your day. And now's your chance to get 20% off your purchase using code DailyWire at Black RifleCoffee.com. All of their explosive coffees are roasted right here in the USA by a veteran-led team of expert roasters obsessed with crafting the perfect cup of coffee.

Every black rifle purchase makes it possible for Black Rifle Coffee Company to help provide funding, training, and equipment to our nation's military and first responders. Head to their site now for 20% off your purchase with Code Daily Wire. Joining us to discuss questions about Tim Wall's military record is retired Command Sergeant Major Thomas Barron's who actually filled the void left by Walls after he announced. his retirement from the force in 2005. Tom, thank you so much for joining us and thank you for your service. You are welcome. Thank you. Let's start with what prompted your involvement in this entire story, which is really taken over the national headlines. By 2016, you'd begun to call attention to the fact that Tim Walls was mischaracterizing his military service. What was he saying and what did you initially do about it? Well, you know, it originally started even way before that. I mean, when we actually

he got deployed. He got elected to Congress. I mean, he was retired command sergeant major this and that. And I'm in the first district where he was our congressman and he early did see this advertising out there and be a flyer in a mail, you know, and I just threw away. And, you know, I brought it up to my colonel. I said, what are we going to do with this guy? I mean, he keeps lying about his rank. He says he's the highest ranking member in Congress. And he got pinned, he got acting command sergeant major. He acted in that position for a few months, but he was never a bona fide one. He didn't get it for retirement. He retired as a master sergeant. For him to say he retired command sergeant major was wrong. So this went on and on,

you know, for literally almost 10 years. And then 2016 rolled around and he was the speaker here in Lake Veterans Memorial. And he was, you know, I'm command sergeant major. This is right up in the paper about him, you know, all of his accolades and how wonderfully he was and everything. And that's just like, you know, is this ever going to end? I mean, and then my neighbor, he sang a star spangled banner that day. And he goes, well, I got to meet another command sergeant major. And I got to shake his hand. And he was just like, boy, I know two of you command sergeant majors now. And I said, well, he's not one. I said, he didn't retire as one. He's lying about his record. I said he didn't finish the school. He didn't do two years after the school. And

he's like, well, we don't know that as civilians. Somebody needs to bring this forward. And I'm like, well, I was battalion. I said, the division or the state or somebody else should bring it up. And nobody had. And I did the right thing. I wrote a letter, personal letter as a constituent to him in Congress. I said, thank you for your 24 years of service. Thank you for doing what you do for veterans, you didn't achieve the rank of Command Sergeant Major. Please refrain from doing that from now on. You'll just set the record straight, tell everybody that, well, I made a mistake, whatever you've got to do, but just come clean and don't do this anymore.

I mean, it's starting to get under people's skin. And I never heard a response. I sent up to all of the people that were, you know, on the committees that he was on it, like the Armed Services Committee because he was the highest-ranking guy in the House, so of course he's on Armed Services. Never heard a word back from anybody. And then two years later, he's running for governor and it was like August. It was like feet sake.

I mean, can you just go crawl under a rock so we don't have to deal with this crap? I mean, you're spewing all this out again now. And now I got to get off my tractor and go make a banner to put up my bin and do whatever. They're trying to get the public out there knowing that you're a fraud. And it got suppressed by the media then. It got brought out more in 2022 and got out there. But, you know, now it's where it's at. So you initially reached out to him personally, got no response back.

And then you started to feel when he ran for governor that maybe you had to take this up a notch in terms of public awareness. And the media, you say, just ignored your claims. Well, they not only ignored it. I mean, the Star Tribune reporter, I sent this to him. He got a hold of me. He's like, these are very serious accusations. And I said, well, here's the people you need to contact to verify this. And I said, vet it?

vet the story. If it's true, publish it. If it's not, then sue me for slander because I said, he's a sitting congressman. These are pretty serious allegations. He got back to me. He said, well, I vetted your story. It's true. We're looking at publishing an article. And this was like late October of 18. Then he got back to me and he said, well, my editor mixed it because they said it's too close to the election and they didn't want to influence the election. And maybe not exact words, but pretty close. And I talked to myself. sell, what the hell is this, North Korea? I couldn't believe it. I was like, you know, this is a true story. This should influence the election. People should be able to read this and determine if this

is who they want to vote for governor. And they just hid it. And so it has been absolutely confirmed that he did not retire as a command sergeant major, but instead one level below that, correct? He's a master sergeant. He's a EA. Yeah. So that's been confirmed. One of the questions that's been raised by the legacy media is whether or not Wall's new for sure. that you were going to deploy to Iraq or not at the time he decided to retire. Can you walk us through the timeline of that year, 2005? Yes, I can. And it's really ironic that this came out in the last few days. But he actually filed with the FEC for running for Congress on February 10th of 2005.

According to an article that was right on CNN. And in that article, so on the 17th of March, then the warning order came on. I knew it was in March sometime, but that's what they're saying. I was 17 March. And then on 20th of March, his campaign put out statement that basically said, no, I do not know if it's my artillery unit that's going to go on this mobilization. But I can't comment any further on it. But he said, you know, as command sergeant major, I have responsibility not only to ready my battalion for Iraq, but to also serve it called on. I'm dedicated to serving my country to the best of my ability on and on and on.

And at the end, you know, he said that he has enthusiastic supporters and a very dedicated and intelligent wife and both major part of my campaign, whether I am in Minnesota or Iraq. Two months later, he walks out of the armory and quits. His statement, in March, himself states that he knew. No doubt, absolutely zero. The legacy media, that's been the question. When did he know? And it's coming out now that he probably even knew in late 2004 because the state knew in the summer of 2004,

they were already starting to plan. And more than likely, the battalions of the senior leadership found out some tidbit back in 2004. But we don't have a document. This document right here is two months before he quit. He knew. damn well, we were going. Now you've characterized this as him abandoning his men.

What was the impact of him leaving? How did that impact these particular men? There's a lot of them, hundreds of them, under his command, correct? Man and women. I mean, soldiers across the board. I think it's like a depleting balloon when something like that happens. It's like your dad died unexpectedly from a heart attack or from a car wreck or something. The wind is taken out of the sails.

Everything is like, okay, we're full steam ahead. We're getting ready. leadership in place. We're going to get ready. We're preparing for war. And all of a sudden, the sails are straight up and down with no wind in there. I mean, that's it. You're just done. Everybody was in just shock. Who does that? Who leaves their kids hanging on something like this? And so you filled that role. You took over and led that battalion. Can you tell us about that? What was that experience like? Well, it was an absolute honor to you. even have that brought out to me. It was like, now I can serve my country in a greater capacity.

I mean, if they would have asked any other CSM that I know in my career, they'd have snapped up on that right now. If you're offered a position like that, no, I honestly said, well, I got talked to my family because I had to volunteer to do it. But, I mean, I don't know a hell of a lot of them that would, they had to said yes in a heartbeat, and they didn't want to home and told her wife, I got asked to go to war. And that's what they would have done. And their wife would have probably told them what I've heard some of them say, like, there's no way you're not going on that before. I don't know what is. I can't read their mind. I have no idea what happened with them. But I mean, that's really how it was. And, you know, they needed to get somebody in there

reasonably soon because, you know, the warning orders in March. That just means there's going to be another order coming out, which is going to finalize things more, which was the alert order in July. but they needed me to make a decision quick. It was like three weeks or a month later, early June when I was like, okay, I'm on board now. And I went around to the unit, said, well, he's gone. I'm here. Let's get ready and let's go.

And you served for it was about a two-year deployment in Iraq, correct? Well, it was 22 and a half months total. I mean, we trained six months at Camp Shelby, and then we went to Iraq, and we got extended in the surge, and we ended up over there for 17 months, whatever it was, damn near a year and a half. How do you believe Walsh representation of his military service has influenced his political career? Has it helped his political career?

Immensely, his line and saying he was a command sergeant major is a big thing. I mean, it's a big thing for the military, and I think the general public that watches movies, and when they hear Command Sergeant Major, they think of, you know, a supreme leader person, basically. It's a very prestigious rank. I mean, it isn't just handed to you. You've got to do the United States Army Sergeant Vajors Academy where they educate you on everything under the sun, you know, and leadership is a big part of it.

And then you've got to serve two years after that because they put all this taxpayer money into you. And it's a big deal. And some of the innuendos he's put out there about, you know, we were going here in supportive operation and during freedom him and maybe throws out in Afghanistan or throws Iraq and sent somewhere. And the general public looks at it like, well, yeah, he was in support of being in Afghanistan or Iraq. It's just weird how, you know, he spins those things, but it's all for political gain.

And that's a sad part about where I came out with the stole of valor side of it. It's like, you know, he's doing all this for extra recognition and to get further ahead. So you're saying this is really driven by ambition. Do you think his decision not to go was cowardly? I honestly do. Cowardly on political. When I listened to Jesse Ventura talk, you know, on CNN the other night, and I kind of had that suspicion before, too,

because back in our day, Iraq war starting and different things, you know, it kind of started to divide the nation a little bit where we had one side, say, in Afghanistan was the real war and just war. And Iraq was, you know, maybe not. It was Bush's war. You know, they know al-Qaeda there. you know, why are we there? Or is that kind of weird division in there?

That's the question. I'd like to debate him and say, if the order would have said Afghanistan, would you have went? And see if maybe he would. I have no idea of it. It seems to me, like after, you know, Jesse said, different things, you know, and then Bush made an executive order to activate the guard and whatever,

that, you know, it seems like it's got to be politically driven, too. I don't think he could fight in Bush's war, It's kind of my feeling. But on the other hand, it was cowardly to just be like, I'm not going to go. I mean, you can't pick and choose where your nation wants you to go. If that would have been the case in World War II, how many of our ancestors would have went to Germany? Germany didn't attack us. Japan did.

So, okay, if I got deployed to go to Germany, do I not go because it's not a just war? They didn't attack. I mean, you can't make that choice. When it comes down, you go. And then you go home and you attend your garden and run for Congress and do whatever the hell you want to happen. So you've reached out to him personally in the past trying to get a response from him. What would you like him to answer right now? I think I would like him to come to Brewster to our Veterans Memorial and sit down on one of the benches in front of Kyle Miller, who was 19 years old,

and went on a mission that he had a dream that he was in a diet. and he would not allow somebody else to take that position because he told the chaplain at that point, if somebody else gets injured or dies and they took my place, I wouldn't be able to live up myself. I'd like him to sit right there and tell that kid, this is why I did not go on that mission that I should have went on and just say it right there. And maybe even have Kyle's mom standing her so she can hear it too. That's the sad part about it. That 19-year-old kid, he made the right decision. He got in that seat.

He went up to get equipment to make the world safer, to make his unit safer, to put radar jamming stuff on vehicles. He went and got training. They hauled gear back and they rolled over a roadside bomb. He got killed. And that's what Tim Walz did not do. What are you hoping comes of this? What do you hope that the American people take away from this politically,

but also in terms of the importance of service. Well, that's what I think needs to get brought out of this whole thing, is that, you know, this is just not right to embellish your career, to try to make yourself better than you are militarily. If you do this, you're going to get a happen. And I think that's what needs to come out is that you don't put the uniform on and put a combat infantry badge on it and a silver star and a bunch of combat ribbons and go walk around

and act like you are actually, somebody that was there. I mean, we got freedom of speech here, but I think there ought to be a line where that's not even, that's not even allowed anymore, where you get tarded and feathered down here at that point and grated down the street that you're a traitor. I mean, that's a sad part about what went on here. And then to vellish your career at the level, he should have never really even probably been a voted governor. I mean, I think if the public would have known what this makes veterans and soldiers feel like. And if that would have been brought out at the state level, I don't think we'd be having this conversation today. You know, but it got suppressed and it got

hidden. And then now here we are on a national stage. And it's just a, it's a big firestorm now because a lot of people realize it's wrong. The mainstream or whatever media that's out there, you know, they're trying to cover and they're trying to make different innuendos and excuses and saying that he misspoke and whatever. It's like, if you tell me you misspoke, I'm just like, well, okay, did you even know what the hell you were saying? I'm, or was it a lie? If you're supposedly running for vice president, you've got to have the person running for president cover you and say that you misspoke and be your spokesperson behind me. Is that who we really want to be in power? I mean, that's a sad thing on that whole level, too. It's like, what the hell was she thinking

picking this guy? I mean, did she have a vetting team? What does her team even think? You've got three people you're looking at, one of them in a glowing clown suit. And he's the one you pick. I mean, honestly, it's just, it's incompetent. You've mentioned Walls serving as a governor. What do you think about his record as a governor? Well, it follows in what he's always done, where he's maybe not the highest ranking member of the Chameleon Party, but he is very far up there where he, you know, he'll land on your arm and he'll be the color of your shirt and land on mine and it'll be this.

he'll go do whatever. And he did that in the first district here. You know, he was a member of the NRA. I'm wearing my black and red flannel and I'm doing this and that. But then, you know, when he got to be governor level and he got the trifective, you know, I mean, then his true colors came out. And I told people, this guy's way more liberal than you think. I mean, his voting record was to close get vote to be, get out of the Iraq war, you know,

you know, all left policies. And when he got here into the state, he basically became a complete left-word dictator. They talk like he reaches across the aisle. He reaches across the aisle and tries to pull you over to his side. He doesn't shake your hand and say, let's work on this together. It's my way or the highway. And that's the sad part about what he did here. I mean, he literally let the cities burn and the documentary of the fall of Minneapolis.

I mean, those things came out because the people in the cities, they were in a war zone up there. And he wouldn't call the guard out because I honestly think he did want it to just burn down and just let it go. It's just pathetic. Three days it took the call regard. You know, mentioning him in leadership together, you shouldn't even do it. I mean, it's lack of leadership.

And it was just a horror. You know, the state's in disarray right now. We're not united at all. We're more divided we ever do. Final question. Is there anything that you feel is not being emphasized enough by the media about this story? Or you feel like it's just not gotten enough attention in general? I think it's one of these things that's building.

And, you know, it's like a prairie fire. I mean, it starts out. just spark. And it's getting bigger and bigger as the wind blows behind it. And you guys out there in the media keep investigating all this stuff that's in his past. Like I listened to this morning, the guy was like, this is tip of the iceberg of the whole situation. But let's dig into his 31 trips to China. What is the relationship there? No, I don't know. I mean, he's got some skeletons in the closet that go deeper than this. And, you know, I think this is exposing the first layer of his chameleon skin. And as we dig deeper, we're going to find out way more things.

You know, his character, to me, means there is more dirt. Because if you're a liar, you're probably a liar at even more levels. And for him to be this way with his military service, I mean, I think he's going to have some other things come out that are going to shock the American public. Well, again, thank you so much for making the hard decision and putting your life on the line for all of us and thank you for sitting down with us. Thank you. Stay on touch. That was retired command sergeant major Thomas Barron's and this has been a Saturday edition of Morning Wire. During this polarizing political season, security is top of mind for many Americans. Security for our country, security for our leaders and security for our families. But what about

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