Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz brushed off questions about his inaccurate descriptions of his military service record during an interview with CNN on Thursday.
“My record speaks for itself, but I think as people get to know me, I talk like them,” Walz said, deflecting the question. “I speak my mind, I wear my emotions on my sleeve.”
In 2018, Walz said he carried “weapons of war” into battle, during a discussion about the need for gun control.
“We can make sure that the weapons of war that I carried in the war are the only place they are,” he said, even though they were never deployed overseas.
He then addressed the criticism he received from his wife when speaking publicly about his record.
“My wife, the English teacher, tells me that my grammar is not always correct,” he added.
He then went on to talk about other issues on which he felt some supporters of former President Donald Trump unfairly attacked him.
“If it’s not this, it’s an attack on my children for showing me love or it’s an attack on my dog,” she said.
Bash also questioned Walz about his misstatements that he and his wife used IVF to have their children when they actually used a different treatment and about misreporting details of a 1995 drunken driving arrest.
Walz said his students and fellow military personnel would “vouch” for him.
“I certainly own up to my mistakes when I make them,” he said.
He again focused on Republican efforts to restrict abortion rights, noting a contrast between his views and those of former President Donald Trump.
“I will not apologize for speaking out so passionately, whether it’s about guns in schools or protecting our reproductive rights,” she said.