Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) went after Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) on Wednesday for attacking Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s (D) military record. .
“Hey @JDVance, did you forget what [United States Marine Corps] taught you about respect? Tim Walz spent DECADES in uniform,” Kelly said in a post on the social platform X.
“You both deserve thanks for your service,” continued Kelly, a retired Navy captain who served in Operation Desert Storm. “Don’t become [former President] Donald Trump. He calls veterans suckers and losers and that is beneath those of us who actually served.”
Vice presidential nominees from both major parties spent years serving in the military, with Vance in the Navy and Walz in the National Guard.
Vance lashed out at his opponent on Wednesday, accusing him of “stolen valor” because he abandoned service before being deployed to Iraq and claiming he served in the war when he didn’t.
“I wonder, Tim Walz, when have you been to war?” Vance said. “He didn’t spend a day in a combat zone. … I would be embarrassed if I were him and lied about my military service like he did.”
The Republican vice presidential nominee appeared to be talking about a clip of Walz posted by the Harris campaign on social media. In the clip, Walz talks about gun control and says, “We can ensure that the weapons of war I carried in war are only carried in war.”
Vance said he did not see actual combat, but was deployed to Iraq in 2005 as a reporter in the Marine Corps public affairs unit.
Kelly was among the leading candidates to become Harris’ running mate, but was ultimately passed over by Walz. He became a NASA astronaut after leaving the Navy and launched a surveillance balloon venture before being elected to the Senate.
The Hill reached out to a spokesperson for Vance and the Trump campaign.
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