CNN guest Bryan Lanza criticized the Harris campaign Thursday for scrubbing part of Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Democratic Minnesota governor Tim Walz’s bio, leading to a response from one of the panelists.
Lanza appeared on “The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer” alongside former Hillary Clinton campaign senior advisor Karen Finney, where the two discussed how the Harris’ campaign quietly removed “retired command sergeant major” from their website after receiving a wave of backlash from Republicans over the mention. Lanza began by discussing Trump’s press conference Thursday afternoon before noting how he had not heard Trump discuss how the biography was edited, stating Walz “sort of admitted that he lied.”
“No, listen, I think he stepped into the conversation in a way that he actually felt he had control over. You had the media covering a bunch of things, and he probably didn‘t feel his narrative was pushing through. So he‘s always felt that he’s his best messenger, and he went in to deliver that,” Lanza said. “So what I heard is President Trump wanting three debates, not one. What I heard Vice President Kamala saying was, ‘Maybe we‘ll have the debate. Let‘s see how the first one goes.’”
“What I didn‘t hear though, which Trump‘s press conference sort of stepped on, was the fact that Governor Tim Walz had to edit his biography. He sort of admitted that he lied on his biography for the past 20 years, and then Kamala Harris and her campaign had to correct it today. That is a huge backpedal; that‘s an embarrassment. 24 hours into this, you’re dissecting the guy‘s military record, and you’re finding huge discrepancies that they have to change their biography,” Lanza continued.
After referring to himself as a retired command sergeant major, Walz’s bio was scrubbed after the Minnesota National Guard released a statement to Just the News on Wednesday correcting the record on how the governor was only conditionally promoted to the rank. After the conditional promotion, Walz notably failed to perform the required training in order to permanently hold the title and instead retired as a master sergeant in 2005, according to the statement.
Following Lanza’s statement, Finney could be seen shaking her head as she attempted to jump into the discussion before CNN host Wolf Blitzer asked for her response.
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“Bryan, that‘s just simply not true. The man served honorably just 24 years, and the comment that he made was about carrying a weapon of war in war, he was deployed, he did not say he was in a combat zone, he did not say he was in active combat. But here‘s the point that I think Adam Kinzinger made so beautifully earlier today,” Finney said. “The measure should not be about whether or not you thought you were in combat. The point is, did you put on the uniform of the United States of America? Tim Walz did for 24 years.”
Walz additionally was called out on CNN over a video promoted by the Harris campaign on Tuesday, in which Walz could be heard stating he wanted to ban the type of weapons he “carried in war.” CNN correspondent Tom Foreman stated Wednesday there was “no evidence” to back up Walz’s statement that he “carried weapons in a fighting situation.”
The Harris campaign later released a statement to CNN saying Walz “would never insult or undermine any American’s service to this country,” noting how he “carried, fired and trained others to use weapons of war innumerable times.”
“Let me just tell you if this is the way they want to distract from the fact that Donald Trump used his wealth and his privilege to be able to actually skirt his responsibility to our country and not wear the uniform of our country. That’s fine. Let‘s have that conversation. Let‘s ask more questions about why Donald Trump felt that he was too good to serve in the Armed Forces of the United States of America,” Finney concluded.
Featured Image: The White House
