How a candidate's military service can help or hurt their campaign

By most measures, the new Democratic ticket has had an impressively smooth launch. But there is one caveat to that — controversy over how vice presidential nominee Tim Walz described his military service. A spokeswoman for the Harris-Walz campaign has said in a statement that the Democratic vice-presidential nominee "misspoke" when talking about his military service. Walz, who served for 24 years in the National Guard, had made a comment that sounded like he had been to war. Walz's Republican opponent, JD Vance, pounced on that comment to accuse Walz of what's called "stolen valor," a serious charge among veterans. But there's also a history of playing politics with military service – one that's been used in past elections. Is Tim Walz guilty of deliberately misrepresenting his military record or the victim of a familiar political smear tactic? For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for C onsider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org . Email us at considerthis@npr.org . Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy