How a candidate's military service can help or hurt their campaign
Consider This from NPR
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🗓️ 12 August 2024
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
But there is one caveat to that — controversy over how vice presidential nominee Tim Walz described his military service.
A spokeswoman for the Harris-Walz campaign has said in a statement that the Democratic vice-presidential nominee "misspoke" when talking about his military service.
Walz, who served for 24 years in the National Guard, had made a comment that sounded like he had been to war.
Walz's Republican opponent, JD Vance, pounced on that comment to accuse Walz of what's called "stolen valor," a serious charge among veterans.
But there's also a history of playing politics with military service – one that's been used in past elections.
Is Tim Walz guilty of deliberately misrepresenting his military record or the victim of a familiar political smear tactic?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, this is Tim. It's Kamala here and good morning Governor. On Tuesday |
| 0:06.5 | it will be just one week since Minnesota Governor Tim Wall's was named the |
| 0:10.7 | Democratic Vice Presidential nominee. |
| 0:13.0 | Listen, I want you to do this with me. |
| 0:16.0 | Let's do this together. |
| 0:17.5 | Would you be my running mate and let's get this thing on the road? |
| 0:21.0 | I would be honored, Madam Vice President. And so far the newly minted |
| 0:26.4 | Harris Wall's ticket has been met by large enthusiastic crowds. as well as lots of cash. |
| 0:35.0 | Democratic endorsements are continuing to roll in for Vice President Kamala Harris. |
| 0:40.0 | She begins her... |
| 0:41.0 | The surge in donations for Vice President Kamla Harris. |
| 0:43.6 | The spigot has turned back on in my oh my it's been really really overwhelming. |
| 0:47.9 | And rising poll numbers. |
| 0:51.1 | The polling shows Kamala Harris has pulled ahead in crucial swing states just |
| 0:55.2 | re-estell the Washington Post. |
| 0:56.7 | Trump has grown increasingly upset about Harris's surging poll numbers and media. |
| 1:03.0 | Look in Pennsylvania a four point advantage. |
| 1:05.0 | Wisconsin a four point advantage. |
| 1:06.0 | Michigan a four point advantage. |
| 1:08.0 | But this pretty wildly successful rollout of the Vice presidential nominee or Honeymoon, as the Trump campaign is calling it, |
| 1:15.0 | also has had a couple bumps, most notably perhaps, when the Harris campaign released this 2018 tape of walls discussing gun control. |
| 1:25.0 | I've been voting for common sense legislation that protects the Second Amendment, but we can do background checks. |
... |
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