Walz’s 2012 reference to Afghanistan trip misrepresented | Fact check

A Sept. 2 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) includes a video of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz delivering a speech about troops serving overseas.
The caption reads, “‘When I was in Afghanistan,’ says the man who was never in Afghanistan. It is impossible to ‘misspeak’ about this. Nor is it a question of ‘incorrect grammar.’ This is a stolen valor involving a habitual liar.”
The post was liked more than 60,000 times in nine days.
More from the Fact-Check Team: How we pick and research claims | Email newsletter | Facebook page
Walz did not embellish his military record in the speech. The post mischaracterizes comments from Walz, who made clear he was talking about a trip he took to Afghanistan as a congressman.
Walz’s past statements about his military service record have come under scrutiny by some Republican critics who say the vice presidential nominee has been prone to exaggeration. Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign said Walz “misspoke” in 2018 when, in remarks about addressing gun violence, he said, “We can make sure that those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is the only place where those weapons are at.”
Walz served 24 years in the Army National Guard and retired in 2005. He deployed to Italy in 2003 in a support role for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan but was never in a combat zone himself, the Associated Press reported. Walz also has acknowledged he never saw combat, Minnesota Public Radio reported in a 2018 profile.
But contrary to the post’s claim, the clip of Walz saying he was in Afghanistan is not an instance of “stolen valor” or Walz misrepresenting his military record. The post mischaracterizes remarks Walz delivered at the American Legion’s annual Washington Conference in February 2012. Walz, then a Minnesota congressman, was referring to his trip to Afghanistan four months earlier, in October 2011, when he visited U.S. service members in Kandahar as part of a congressional delegation.
Walz’s trip was documented by the U.S. Army and military photographs.
The full video of Walz’s conference appearance starts with an American Legion official introducing the then-congressman and mentioning his trip the previous fall “to visit our service members overseas.”
Fact check: Tim Walz didn’t post this attack on Ann Coulter. Image is doctored
Walz’s remarks focused on supporting veterans and protecting their benefits. He referenced his trip overseas and mentioned talking to his constituents in Minnesota about the troops’ concerns.
“When I tell them, ‘When I was in Afghanistan, you know what our troops were worried about?'” Walz said in the speech. “They were worried about their family’s health care, and they were worried about their pensions. I said, ‘Do you think that’s really what you want them to be worrying about when their friends and colleagues are being shot on a daily basis?’ And yet, at the end of the day, they have to worry about that.”
At no point in the video does Walz say or suggest he deployed and served alongside troops in Afghanistan.
USA TODAY reached out to the Harris-Walz campaign and the Instagram user who shared the post but did not receive responses.
AFP also debunked the claim.
Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or e-newspaper here.
USA TODAY is a verified signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network, which requires a demonstrated commitment to nonpartisanship, fairness and transparency. Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Meta.