Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota addressed the lefty Center for American Progress and said, unabashedly, that he hoped that rain would spoil the 250th birthday celebration of our military. He denounced the idea of a military parade as the kind of spectacle you might see in Pyongyang, calling the celebration “horrific.”
“Cowardly and Dishonest”: Gov. Tim Walz Slammed by Veterans After Trashing 250th Army Birthday Parade https://t.co/jDjty5exJG pic.twitter.com/GAkd35d9Kx
— Liz Peek (@lizpeek) June 16, 2025
Who are the people he disrespected as unworthy of our respect and celebration?
For one, a 98-year-old WWII 11th Airborne Division Paratrooper Veteran named Warren Richard, of Grand Island, NY, who, courtesy of a TV reporter in DC for the festivities, had the opportunity to meet up with members of the current 11th Airborne. Here’s a clip of this touching moment:
INCREDIBLE moment here in DC.
98-year-old WWII 11th Airborne Division Paratrooper Veteran Warren Richard, of Grand Island, NY, meets the current 11th Airborne.
They’re based in AK. We randomly met a lieutenant jogging yesterday, who told his Major General. They came to our… pic.twitter.com/boEpPWRaZq
— Michael Schwartz (@MSchwartzTV) June 14, 2025
More broadly, the parade and festivities on Saturday celebrated our armed forces, commemorating the 250th anniversary of the creation by the Continental Congress of the Continental Army, founded to defend liberty. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis – another sort of governor — put out a proclamation saying:
“Today, we celebrate the 250th birthday of the US Army and honor the heroes whose sacrifices have made the United States the greatest country in the world. As Americans, we carry the sacred duty to remember, to reflect, and to protect the freedoms that generations of our countrymen have fought to secure.”
That seems like a more fitting tribute, but then DeSantis, who graduated from Harvard Law School, served his country with distinction as a Naval officer in Iraq and elsewhere, earning a Bronze Star, a Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal and other awards, as he engaged in “special operations, special reconnaissance, intelligence and foreign internal defense operations”, according to Navy records.
Walz had a different kind of military career. After he became Kamala Harris’ running mate in 2020, he had to walk back claims about his military involvement included in his official bio after fellow soldiers accused him of “stolen valor.” Colleagues accuse Walz of resigning from a prestigious multi-year army program just as they were about to be deployed to Iraq, where, you know, he might have encountered fighting. Walz adorned his bio with the rank of “Command Sergeant Major”, the highest non-commissioned position in the U.S. Army, even though he forfeited that honor by prematurely ditching his battalion, when they were ordered overseas. He retired as a Sergeant Major but has continued, illegitimately, to use the loftier title.
This does not sit well with fellow soldiers. Even the chaplain of his unit spoke out, saying “In our world, to drop out after a WARNORD [warning order] is issued is cowardly, especially for a senior enlisted guy.” He accuses Walz of having a “very loose commitment to the truth.”
No wonder Walz doesn’t like the idea of a military parade; most likely, he would not have been welcome.
