Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was seen fleeing at a brisk pace when a reporter asked him about reports that he has misrepresented his military service record.

The exchange came shortly after Walz and Vice President Kamala Harris touched down in Wisconsin for the second in a series of swing state campaign rallies after Walz was formally selected as the Democratic vice-presidential candidate on Tuesday. As Walz and Harris mingled with a hand-selected group of supporters on the tarmac, a reporter could be heard asking questions about the Minnesota governor’s service record.

“Governor, Vance accused you of stolen valor. Your response?” the reporter shouted. After he failed to receive a response, the reporter once again asked the same question as Walz was turning to leave the tarmac.

At that point, the governor’s pace picked up significantly as he quickly darted towards an awaiting Secret Service vehicle.

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Walz has been under increasing scrutiny not only from the Trump-Vance campaign, but left-leaning media outlets such as CNN as questions continue to surround his military service record.

In a 2018 endorsement letter to the West Central Tribune, retired Command Sergeant Majors Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr shared their lengthy experiences with Governor Walz during their time in the Minnesota National Guard.

“Tim Walz has embellished and selectively omitted facts and circumstances of his military career for years,” the men wrote. “We, retired Command Sergeants Major of the Minnesota National Guard, feel it is our duty and responsibility to bring forth the truth as we know it concerning his service record. So, we have put together a timeline of his service post 9/11.”

The retired veterans further accused Walz of abandoning his unit just before they were deployed to a combat zone in Iraq. In 2005, one year after he had been promoted to Command Sergeant Major of the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion, Walz left his soldiers “hanging” at the crucial time, the men wrote.

“His excuse to other leaders was that he needed to retire in order to run for congress,” reads the letter.  “Which is false, according to a Department of Defense Directive, he could have run and requested permission from the Secretary of Defense before entering active duty; as many reservists have.

“If he had retired normally and respectfully, you would think he would have ensured his retirement documents were correctly filled out and signed, and that he would have ensured he was reduced to Master Sergeant for dropping out of the academy. Instead he waited for the paperwork to catch up to him. His official retirement document states, SOLDIER NOT AVAILABLE FOR SIGNATURE.”

As a result, Walz was demoted to master sergeant, the two retired veterans continued. This, they claim, contradicts his claim that he was the highest-ranking enlisted man ever elected to Congress.

On Wednesday, Republican nominee for vice president J.D. Vance accused Walz of stolen valor over the claims.

“As a Marine who served his country in uniform when the United States Marine Corps, when the United States of America asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did it. I did what they asked me to do, and I did it honorably,” he said. “When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did? He dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him, a fact that he’s been criticized for aggressively by a lot of the people that he served with.”

Vance continued, “I think it’s shameful to prepare your unit to go to Iraq, to make a promise that you’re going to follow through, and then to drop out right before you actually have to go.”

He went on to point to a past statement from Walz in which he seemed to suggest that he carried weapons in a combat zone. “I’ve been voting for common sense legislation that protects the Second Amendment, but we can do background checks. We can do CDC research. We can make sure we don’t have reciprocal carry among states,”  Walz said while addressing a group of supporters about gun control.

“And we can make sure that those weapons of war that I carried in war is the only place where those weapons are allowed.”

The claim that Walz “carried weapons of war” in a war zone has drawn heavy criticism from a number of media outlets, including CNN.

“There is a significant difference between being stationed in a combat area during wartime and being under direct enemy fire,” noted CNN. The network’s fact-check pointed out that no evidence supports Walz’s implications of facing direct combat, labeling these assertions as “absolutely false.

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