{"id":2321956,"date":"2024-08-09T13:24:01","date_gmt":"2024-08-09T17:24:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/highest-rank-enlisted-vet-ever-in-congress-blasts-walzs-lies\/"},"modified":"2024-08-09T13:29:49","modified_gmt":"2024-08-09T17:29:49","slug":"highest-rank-enlisted-vet-ever-in-congress-blasts-walzs-lies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/highest-rank-enlisted-vet-ever-in-congress-blasts-walzs-lies\/","title":{"rendered":"Highest-Rank Enlisted Vet Ever In Congress Blasts Walz\u2019s Lies"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhighest-rank-enlisted-vet-ever-in-congress-blasts-walzs-lies%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2321956&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>In the 117th Congress, \u2062Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) learned\u2064 that Tim Walz, the governor \u2064of Minnesota, inaccurately claimed\u2062 to be the &#8220;senior-most <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/survey-americans-with-high-confidence-in-u-s-military-drops-11-percent-under-biden\/\" title=\"Survey: Americans with High Confidence in U.S. Military Drops 11 Percent Under Biden\">enlisted service member<\/a> to have been \u2063elected to Congress&#8221; due to\u200b his rank as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-admin-ignored-warnings-about-withdrawing-troops-from-afghanistan-military-leaders-say\/\" title=\"Military leaders say the Biden administration disregarded Afghanistan troop withdrawal warnings.\">command sergeant major<\/a> (E9). Gonzales, a retired <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/4-examples-of-wokeness-infecting-the-united-states-military\/\" title=\"4 Examples Of  \u2018Wokeness\u2019 Infecting The United States Military\">master chief<\/a> petty \u2064officer (E9), felt that this misrepresentation undermined the integrity\u2064 of \u2062military \u2064service. He expressed \u2064his concerns in a phone interview, stating, &#8220;In \u2062my eyes, that\u2019s stolen valor,&#8221; emphasizing \u200bthe significance of accurate titles within the military context. \u2062 <\/p>\n<p>Gonzales took to Twitter to assert his own service record, declaring that he is the highest-ranked\u200c enlisted member to serve in Congress and calling\u200b for Walz\u2063 to withdraw as the presumptive Democratic vice presidential nominee. He criticized\u2063 Walz for his perceived dishonesty, suggesting that if Walz\u2062 could misrepresent his military rank, it raises questions\u200d about his honesty on other issues. Gonzales also\u2063 highlighted that military honor and titles are not \u200bonly important in a political context but \u2064also \u2064in recognizing genuine sacrifice\u2064 and commitment. \u200b <\/p>\n<p>The discussion touches upon the \u2064broader concerns regarding the portrayal of military service in politics, with Gonzales urging clarity and honesty, \u200cespecially regarding combat\u2063 experience and military ranks, as they represent significant personal and professional milestones in \u2062a service member\u2019s career.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>When Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, entered the 117th Congress in 2021, Tim Walz was already serving as governor in Minnesota after his six terms in Congress. But on many occasions, Gonzalez heard about Walz&rsquo;s claim to be the &ldquo;senior-most enlisted service member to have been elected to Congress&rdquo; based on his service as a command sergeant major (E9).<\/p>\n<p>The discussion never really bothered Gonzales, himself a retired master chief petty officer (E9), but he recalls hearing about it. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not really the type that cares about this sort of title or brags about my service,&rdquo; he told me in a phone interview. But in recent days, as more disclosures about Walz&rsquo;s service have come to light, it dawned on Gonzales and his team that he was the elected representative actually entitled to that particular honorific. &ldquo;I was under the impression that he was an E9, so when I learned the truth, I was like, &lsquo;Are you kidding?&rsquo;&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TonyGonzales4TX\/status\/1821693372727206178\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">tweet Thursday evening<\/a>, Gonzales said, &ldquo;I proudly served 20 years in the U.S. Navy, with multiple deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq &mdash; retired as a Master Chief. Yes, that makes me the highest ranked enlisted service member to EVER serve in Congress. A claim Gov. Walz has falsely paraded around. It&rsquo;s important to call out DISHONESTY.&rdquo; He went on to call for Walz&rsquo;s withdrawal as Democrats&rsquo; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/vice-president-kamala-harris-chooses-tim-walz-to-be-her-running-mate-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"Vice President Kamala Harris chooses Tim Walz to be her running mate - Washington Examiner\">presumptive vice presidential nominee<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In our interview barely an hour before sending the tweet, Gonzalez minced even fewer words: &ldquo;In my eyes, that&rsquo;s stolen valor,&rdquo; an affront to the honor and distinction of those who have legitimately earned their stripes through years of dedicated service.<\/p>\n<h2>Veterans Understand the Importance of Clarity on This<\/h2>\n<p>In Congress, titles and honors typically reflect a history of service that is sometimes embellished by campaign consultants to better market their candidate. But in the military &mdash; where titles and honors represent sacrifice and sacred commitment &mdash; the precision of the words used is extremely important. When these two worlds collide, a fierce debate can erupt.<\/p>\n<p>And that is where the criticism is most pointed, &ldquo;What upsets me, is how it shows a pattern of dishonesty. If he&rsquo;s gonna lie about something like his rank and service, what else is he lying about? It&rsquo;s part of the culture of being in uniform. To erode that integrity, and the fact that he&rsquo;s willing to do that? It makes my skin crawl when you have politicians that will say and do anything,&rdquo; Gonzales said.<\/p>\n<p>He also emphasized that the rank of E9 is &ldquo;just different.&rdquo; As the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/kamala-harris-vp-pick-leaks-minnesota-governor-tim-walz-chosen-as-running-mate\/\" title=\"Kamala Harris\u2019 VP Pick Leaks: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz Chosen as Running Mate\">highest enlisted rank<\/a>, making E9 represents a huge turning point in your career. It&rsquo;s not something you receive, get revoked, and forget the details of your real rank. No, &ldquo;this promotion is a huge hurdle &mdash; a life-changing deal and a very proud moment,&rdquo; Gonzales added.<\/p>\n<h2>Nobody Who Served Forgets His Duty History<\/h2>\n<p>He continued, &ldquo;Anyone who served, three years or 30 years, knows exactly what they did and didn&rsquo;t do. I did 20 years in, I remember all my deployments, commands, and final pay grade.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Asked whether Walz&rsquo;s remarks about &ldquo;weapons of war that I carried in war&rdquo; were proof that Walz was claiming to have served in combat, the congressman was only slightly more forgiving, saying, &ldquo;It upsets me because you know if you carried a weapon in combat or not. It&rsquo;s OK that not every service member goes to war. Let you record be your record.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Gonzales was also deeply concerned about the <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TheMattBeebe\/status\/1821640232577466835\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">continuing revelations<\/a> that Walz had accepted the conditional promotion to command sergeant major and then retired after his unit&rsquo;s pending deployment to Iraq became known to him. Harris-Walz surrogates have hotly contested this accusation online, but <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20050420004957\/http:\/www.timwalz.org\/pr.php?pr=1\">a March 2005 press release from his official campaign site<\/a> clearly establishes that Walz knew of the pending deployment while still in the National Guard and before his retirement. Worse for Walz is his own quote saying, &ldquo;I have a responsibility not only to ready my battalion for Iraq, but also to serve if called on.&rdquo; Fifty-seven days later Walz retired.<\/p>\n<p>An animated Gonzales observed, &ldquo;He was supposed to be their leader, and he failed them. It&rsquo;s disqualifying.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Calls on Walz to Withdraw<\/h2>\n<p>Ironically, a review of congressional records suggests that even as a master sergeant (E8), Walz would have qualified to be considered &ldquo;the senior-most enlisted service member to have been elected to Congress&rdquo; until Gonzales was sworn in since Sen. John Tower <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smu.edu\/dedman\/research\/institutes-and-centers\/tower-center\/about\/john-goodwin-tower\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">retired<\/a> as a chief boatswain&rsquo;s mate (E7). Likewise, most voters would easily excuse Walz&rsquo;s decision to retire with war looming and a toddler at home. But Walz chose to accept the conditional promotion and retire before he fully earned it and could be shipped overseas to combat operations with his home unit.<\/p>\n<p>In both cases, Walz chose to stretch his integrity and misrepresent the facts over the past two decades instead of coming clean. Gonzales considers this a &ldquo;fireable offense&rdquo; and believes, &ldquo;Tim Walz lied to us all; he clearly lied to Vice President Harris.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>It remains to be seen if Harris will reconsider her running mate, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2024\/08\/08\/harris-walz-military-credentials-00173236\">as Politico reported Thursday<\/a>, the campaign has already &ldquo;tweaked&rdquo; its biography of Walz.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      For nearly 20 years, Matt Beebe served as a countermeasures engineer in the Air Force and a contractor in the intelligence community before launching an IT and computer security firm in San Antonio, Texas. He is active in Texas politics and can be found on Twitter @theMattBeebe.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, joined the 117th Congress in 2021, Tim Walz was already the governor of Minnesota after serving six terms in Congress. Gonzales frequently heard Walz assert that he was the &#8220;senior-most enlisted service member to have been elected to Congress&#8221; due to his role as a command sergeant major (E9). Although this claim didn&#8217;t particularly bother Gonzales\u2014who is a retired master chief petty officer (E9)\u2014he did take note of it. In a phone interview, he stated, \u201cI\u2019m not one to care about titles or boast about my service.\u201d However, recent revelations regarding Walz&#8217;s military background led Gonzales and his team to realize that he himself held that title legitimately. \u201cI thought he was an E9; when I found out otherwise, I was shocked,\u201d he remarked.<\/p>\n<p>In a tweet on Thursday evening, Gonzales asserted his own credentials: \u201cI proudly served 20 years in the U.S. Navy with multiple deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq \u2014 retiring as a Master Chief. That makes me the highest-ranked enlisted service member ever to serve in Congress\u2014a claim Gov. Walz has falsely promoted.\u201d He called for Walz\u2019s withdrawal as the presumptive vice presidential nominee for Democrats.<\/p>\n<p>During our interview just before sending out his tweet, Gonzales expressed strong feelings: \u201cTo me, that&#8217;s stolen valor,\u201d which undermines the honor of those who have genuinely earned their ranks through dedicated service.<\/p>\n<p>Veterans recognize how crucial it is to be precise about titles and honors since they signify sacrifice and commitment within military culture\u2014something that can lead to intense debates when mixed with political discourse.<\/p>\n<p>Gonzales criticized what he sees as a pattern of dishonesty from Walz: \u201cIf he&#8217;s willing to lie about something like his rank and service record, what else might he be lying about? It erodes integrity within uniformed services.\u201d He emphasized that achieving E9 status is significant; it&#8217;s not easily forgotten or revoked\u2014it represents an important milestone in one&#8217;s career.<\/p>\n<p>He continued by stating that anyone who has served knows their duty history intimately: &#8220;Whether you served three years or thirty years, you remember your deployments and final rank.&#8221; When asked if Walz&#8217;s comments regarding &#8220;weapons of war&#8221; implied combat experience, Gonzales responded cautiously but firmly: &#8220;It bothers me because you know whether you&#8217;ve carried a weapon in combat or not.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Gonzales also expressed concern over revelations indicating that Walz accepted conditional promotion while knowing about an impending deployment for his unit before retiring from the National Guard\u2014a point contested by Harris-Walz supporters online but supported by evidence from press releases at the time.<\/p>\n<p>Gonzalez remarked animatedly on this issue: \u201cHe was meant to lead them but failed; that&#8217;s disqualifying.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly enough, congressional records indicate that even at E8 rank (master sergeant), Walz would have qualified as &#8220;the senior-most enlisted service member elected&#8221; until Gonzales took office since Sen. John Tower had retired at E7 rank. While many voters might understand why someone would retire with war approaching and young children at home\u2014Walz chose instead to accept promotion conditions without fully earning them before potentially being deployed alongside his unit.<\/p>\n<p>In both instances over two decades past where integrity could have prevailed instead of misrepresentation\u2014Gonzalez views this behavior as grounds for dismissal\u2014and believes Tim Walz deceived everyone including Vice President Harris.<\/p>\n<p>It remains uncertain if Harris will reconsider her running mate following these developments; however Politico reported Thursday that adjustments had already been made regarding how they present information on Walz\u2019s biography<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2120,"featured_media":2321957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/240125-ND850-2001.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[4402,6866,27318],"class_list":["post-2321956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-congress","tag-vet","tag-walz"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/240125-ND850-2001.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2321956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2321956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2321956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2321957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2321956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2321956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2321956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}