What’s a political race without vice presidential candidates attacking each other?

Transcript

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

It hasn't taken long for the two vice presidential candidates to start attacking each other. What's a little different this time is that both JD Vance and Tim Walz are military veterans, and one is attacking the other's military service. NPR's Quil Lawrence looked into the claim.

QUIL LAWRENCE, BYLINE: JD Vance served in the Marines and did a six-month deployment to Iraq. He didn't see combat. Tim Walz served 24 years in the National Guard and did mostly disaster relief and one deployment to Italy in support of operations in Iraq. Also, no combat. Neither man has ever claimed otherwise. But the day after announcing Walz as her pick for VP, the Harris campaign put out a video. It's the Minnesota governor talking about gun control.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TIM WALZ: I've been voting for common sense legislation that protects the Second Amendment, but we can do background checks. We can do CDC research. We can make sure we don't have reciprocal carry among states, and we can make sure that those weapons of war that I carried in war is the only place where those weapons are at.

(CHEERING)

LAWRENCE: So Walz said he carried a weapon of war in war, and Vance jumped on it.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JD VANCE: Well, I wonder, Tim Walz, when were you ever in war? When was this - what was this weapon that you carried into war, given that you abandoned your unit right before they went to Iraq? And he has not spent a day in a combat zone. What bothers me about Tim Walz is the stolen valor garbage.

LAWRENCE: Stolen valor in military circles is a serious charge. It means wearing medals you didn't earn or claiming to have served where you did not. A spokesman for the Harris campaign responded that Walz did serve 24 years and then advocated for veterans while in Congress, adding, quote, "Governor Walz would never insult or undermine any American service to this country - in fact, he thanks Senator Vance for putting his life on the line for our country." The allegation that Walz resigned to avoid going to Iraq, that's been around since he ran for governor in 2018. Two senior sergeants claimed that Walz quit when his unit was going to deploy.

According to the Minnesota National Guard, though, Walz submitted his resignation months before the unit was alerted it would go to Iraq. A former senior member of the Minnesota Guard told NPR that Walz was torn by the choice but wanted to run for Congress that term. Walz was critical of the Iraq war in Congress. JD Vance says his time there also made him doubt the war. Partisan groups on both sides have been attacking Walz and Vance for not being combat veterans. Veterans organizations, though, say anyone who served honorably deserves respect for it, and it should not be politicized.

Quil Lawrence, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.