CNN guest Brian Lanza on Thursday criticized the Harris campaign for removing portions of the biography of Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and one panelist responded.
Lanza appeared on “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer” with Karen Finney, a former senior adviser to Hillary Clinton's campaign, to discuss how the Harris campaign quietly removed the phrase “retired Army Sergeant Major” from its website after receiving intense criticism from Republicans. Lanza began by talking about Trump's press conference on Thursday afternoon, then said he hadn't heard Trump discuss how the biography was edited and that Waltz “kind of admitted that he lied.” (RELATED: Harris campaign quietly removes 'retired Army sergeant major' from Waltz's biography)
“No, listen, I think he came into the conversation actually feeling like he was in control. The media was reporting a lot of stuff, but I don't think he thought his point was going to go through. So he always thought he was the best messenger, and he went in to get that across,” Lanza said. “So I've heard President Trump wants three debates instead of one. I've heard VP Kamala say, 'Maybe we'll do a debate. Let's see how the first one goes.'”
“But what I didn't hear is the fact that Governor Tim Walz, who was trampled by Trump's press conference, had to edit his biography. He sort of admitted that he lied on his biography for the last 20 years, and then Kamala Harris and her campaign had to correct that today. This is a huge step back and it's embarrassing. In the last 24 hours, we've analyzed this man's military record and found inconsistencies so major that his biography has to be changed,” Lanza continued.
Waltz described himself as a retired Army sergeant major, but his biography was removed after the Minnesota National Guard released a statement. News only On Wednesday, the governor corrected the record that he had been conditionally promoted to the rank. According to a statement, after his conditional promotion, Walz failed to complete the training required to officially hold the rank permanently and instead retired as a sergeant major in 2005.
Following Lanza's remarks, Finney was seen shaking his head to join the discussion before CNN host Wolf Blitzer asked for his response.
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“Brian, that's simply not true. He served honorably for only 24 years. What he said was that he carried a weapon in a war, he was deployed, but he never said he was in a combat zone, he never said he was in combat, but that's a point I think Adam Kinzinger made very well today,” Finney said. “The test here is not whether you thought you were in combat. The test is whether you wore the uniform of the United States of America, and Tim Waltz did that for 24 years.”
Walz also came under fire on CNN over a video promoted by the Harris campaign on Tuesday in which Walz was heard saying he wanted to ban the types of weapons “carried in war.” CNN correspondent Tom Foreman said Wednesday there was “no evidence” to support Walz's statement that he would “carry a weapon in a combat situation.”
The Harris campaign then release In a statement to CNN, Walz said he would “never disparage or undermine any American's service to this country,” noting that he has “carried and fired weapons of war and trained others to use them countless times.”
“If their way of doing this is to distract from the fact that Donald Trump has used his wealth and privilege to avoid responsibility to his country and to avoid having to wear his country's uniform, then so be it. Let's talk about that. Let's ask more questions about why Donald Trump felt he was too good to serve in the United States military,” Finney concluded.
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