A prominent Democratic figure and surrogate for Harris' presidential campaign has exaggerated his military record and other facts from his past, as has Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz.
The New York Times reported this week that Maryland Governor Wes Moore, who said he received a Bronze Star medal for serving in Afghanistan and claimed to be a member of the non-existent University of Maryland Football Hall of Fame, also claimed to have grown up in Baltimore.
These allegations are false, The Times reported.
The revelation is yet another blow to the Harris campaign, which was rocked in early August after being forced to admit that Waltz had not served in combat, as he had claimed, and that he had not retired as a master sergeant from the Minnesota National Guard, as he had also claimed.
Moore, a key supporter of Harris and a possible vice presidential candidate, will now have to defend his case.
No Bronze Star, no paperwork completed
The Times' scathing reporting will do little to benefit the Harris campaign, whose past evasions of Waltz are already plaguing it.
“When Wes Moore ran for Maryland governor in 2022, questions hung over his campaign about whether he claimed to have been awarded a Bronze Star for Army service in Afghanistan,” the Times report began.
For reasons that remain unclear, two television interviewers, Gwen Ifill and Stephen Colbert, mistakenly presented Moore as a recipient several years ago, and Moore never corrected himself, despite claims that he and his aides had never told anyone that he had received a Bronze Star.
Moore claims he received the award when he applied for a White House fellowship during the Bush 43 administration in 2006. He was 27 years old at the time.
“For my service, the 82nd Airborne Division awarded me the Bronze Star and Combat Medal,” The Times quoted from the filing, which it obtained through a Freedom of Information request.
“But at the time Moore submitted his application in January 2006, he had not been awarded either the Bronze Star or the Combat Action Medal,” the Times continued.
An Army spokesman said he was decorated in May 2006 for the events of the previous December, but there is no record of him ever receiving a Bronze Star.
Moore's past allegations came to light as his national profile grew. Vice President Kamala Harris selected him in the first round of running mates. Moore said he wasn't asked about his Bronze Star medal, and Harris' campaign declined to comment. He also delivered a high-profile and well-received speech at the party's convention last week.
Republicans also accused Harris' eventual pick as running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, of exaggerating his military record, and the vice presidential campaign sent Moore to defend him on cable television.
Moore told The Times that his claim was an “honest mistake” and that he should have corrected the statements of the two interviewers, and he also shifted the blame to his close friend and boss, who told him to claim he had won the award.
“Mr. Moore was initially opposed to mentioning the Bronze Star,” Lt. Gen. Michael R. Fenzel said, according to the Times.
The general said he told Moore that he and others approved of the award, that it would be appropriate for the award to be included on the application, and that the process would be completed by the time the fellowship began.
“'Make sure you put that in,'” General Fensel recalled advising Moore. “'If you are selected as a White House Fellow, you will be wearing it whenever you are in uniform.'”
Fenzel told The Times he was unaware that Moore did not receive the award and said he plans to resubmit his nomination.
Still, according to a Times report, the general
According to “the letter of the absolute law,” the Bronze Star should not have been included on the application. He said he never doubted at the time that the award would be approved. “I had never seen an application not processed even though everyone involved had signed it,” he said.
Falsely claiming to have received a military medal is called “honor theft” and is illegal.
Other questions
But the allegations about the Bronze Star medal Moore stands to receive if Fenzel's resubmission papers go through are not the only questions about Moore's past.
Though he was born in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, Moore “repeatedly said he was from Baltimore” during the 2022 campaign, though he actually grew up in the Bronx in New York City and didn't live in Baltimore until he enrolled at Johns Hopkins University.
“He also drew attention that year after failing to correct an interviewer in 2006 who told him he had been inducted into the Maryland Football Hall of Fame (which does not exist),” the Times continued.
The Football Hall of Fame claim was featured in his biography on his application for a White House Fellowship in 2006. Moore wrote that he was “inducted into the University of Maryland Football Hall of Fame.”
Moore has not been inducted into any football halls of fame.
According to the New York Times, Moore blamed the lie on another mentor, Chris Ogeneski, the football coach at Johns Hopkins University.
“I made these edits myself,” Ogeneski told The Times, “for the sake of brevity.”
The Times did not explain why Ogeneski edited Moore's application.
Waltz Fives
Moore's story adds to the embarrassing truth the Harris campaign has revealed about Waltz.
Shortly after Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris selected Waltz as her running mate, two of Waltz's former colleagues published paid letters to newspapers exposing that Waltz had falsely claimed he had retired from the Minnesota National Guard as a master sergeant, when in fact he did. The two retired master sergeants also revealed that Waltz had retired just before his unit was deployed to Iraq.
To make matters worse, in his tirade about gun control, Walz said, “I can ensure that the weapons of war that I carried in war are only carried in war.”
Waltz has never been to a war, never delivered anything in a war, and he and his campaign claim he “blundered.”
Maybe so, but he retired from the National Guard just before his unit was deployed to Iraq.
“When have you ever been in a war?” asked Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance.
When was this… What weapons did he bring to the war when he abandoned his unit right before going to Iraq? He never spent a day in a combat zone. What bothers me about Tim Waltz is this “stolen heroism” rubbish phrase. Don't pretend to be something you're not. …I'd be embarrassed if I were him and lied about my military service like he did.
Waltz also lied about his 1995 DUI arrest and, bizarrely, about the method he used to conceive his wife and children.
H/T: The Daily Caller
