In a devastating development, current Kamala Harris running mate Tim Walz’s former superior appeared on CNN and completely blew up the scandal surrounding the abandoning of his unit before its deployment to Iraq.
For days, the mainstream press has claimed that Walz did not know about the deployment before deciding to retire early and run for Congress. Command Seargent Major Doug Julin, who was the now-Minnesota governor’s direct report, went through the timeline with Laura Coates. Not only did Walz know about the deployment, but he had committed to go. It was only after he went around Julin that he was able to secure his retirement, leaving his unit hamstrung just months before they shipped out.
RELATED: MN Gov. Tim Walz Accused of Cowardice and Embellishment of Army Service Records
The CNN host did her level best to push back at points and offer “clarifications” in Walz’s favor, but Julin held his ground and gave the facts, inconvenient as they may be for the Harris campaign and the press:
The full video is fairly long, but here are some of the key excerpts courtesy of Newsbusters.
Julin recalled a March 2005 meeting where Walz “came in, we sat and talked, he told me, he says, I have not been nominated, I am going forward with the battalion. I said, ‘Good, let’s go.’ We got the team built, and we’re starting to build the team out there.”
Fast forward to June and, “I walked into the team, the meeting hall, and Tom Behrends was there, and I asked Tom what he was doing there. And that’s when he informed me that he had quit. The issue that came out of this was, first of all, how did Tim Walz quit without discussing with me, because I was his next level of leadership, or responsibility, or supervisor.”
Coates interrupted, “Excuse me, you’re using the word ‘quit.’ I don’t want to cut you off, sir, but — excuse me, Sergeant Major, I just want to be precise in the language. You’re using the word quit. You mean that he had opted to retire still, is that right? He had not somehow gone AWOL or been dishonestly discharged in some way. He opted to retire.”
Julin would go on to explain that the proper procedure was for Walz to come to him to request authorization to retire. Instead, he went around Julin and found someone further up the chain of command to back his play. That left his unit high and dry as they were fully expecting him to be there to help lead on the deployment.
By this point, the testimony being shared was crushing for the current talking points so Coates tried to redirect. Julin wasn’t having any of it, though.
Coates was not convinced any of that matters for the current political controversy surrounding Walz, “But in the way that he has handled how he decided to retire, I do wonder what you make of the way his retirement is being characterized now by political figures and others who are saying that, somehow, he has stolen valor, number one, or that his retirement was an abandonment of his duties. How do you feel about the experience that you are describing to us right now being described as political talking points?”
Julin held firm and insisted Walz knew better, “Tim Walz knew the processes and the procedures. He went around me and above and beyond me and went — and basically went to get somebody to back him, to get him out of there without — it was just a backdoor process that he handled against me or against the battalion out there.”
Again, Coates tried to gloss over what was being said, suggesting that Walz’s retirement wasn’t an issue. Julin then directly said, “No, he did something wrong in service.” He also noted that Walz went around him because had he come to Julin, the answer would have been no. It was just too late in the game to let Walz skip out on his men.
Julin claimed the former, “No, he did something wrong in service, as I stated before. He knew the policies and procedures and how we go to leadership and address issues or discuss issues and concerns out there. Again, backing up, he had told me, ‘No, I’m going forward, we’re going to go with the battalion, and go from there.’ So, I’m under the belief; he told me he was going forward…He went around me, which he should have addressed it with me so he could help me with some things out there.”
He also theorized that Walz went around him because there was a possibility he would say no, “the fact is that there’s a possibility he probably would have realized I would have probably said, ‘no, it’s too late, you’re going forward,’ because we’d already received our notification of sourcing. And there’s one other little point out there that people say, well, he hadn’t been notified yet. Yes, he had been notified.”
Coates was scrambling for a way out by that point in the interview. She interjected and ended the interview, not allowing Julin to finish. That’s unfortunate, but enough of the truth was told to still be a bombshell. This counters all the excuses being made, including the idea that Walz was oblivious to the coming deployment when he put in his retirement papers.
Further, because Julin was there and part of the command structure, his credibility is unimpeachable. If the Harris campaign and its supporters want to keep pushing this issue, they will now have to call a soldier who served with and led Walz a liar. If that’s what the Democratic Party and its media allies would like to do, let’s see them do it.
Keep in mind, this is a different issue than Walz’s alleged stolen valor, which has also been a damning indictment of his past. That is a story that keeps gaining momentum as well.
Editor’s Note: This article was updated post-publication for clarity.
