Despite lobbing the same questions at Tim Walz, J.D. Vance lost it when pressed about his own military service.
Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance seems perfectly happy to dish out criticism of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz over his military record, but he just can’t take it.
Vance blew up at CNN anchor Brianna Keilar on Thursday, after she called Vance an “imperfect messenger” to criticize Walz over his military service.
“At what point did military service become a liability?” Keilar asked rhetorically on CNN’s Inside Politics. “I also think that J.D. Vance as a messenger on this may be an imperfect messenger.”
Vance served a single four-year enlistment in the public affairs section in the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, and according to his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, the Republican nominee was “lucky to escape any real fighting.” Still, that hasn’t stopped Vance from accusing Walz, who served with the Army National Guard for 24 years, of exiting the service before his unit was deployed to Iraq.
Also, 4 years is a pretty standard enlistment period for the guard. He did an extra 4 years after finishing his 20, and instead of doing 28 years he retired and ran for Congress, which also required him to retire due to the Hatch Act.
Guard can actually extend for any arbitrary amount up to 6 years, and initial contracts are 6. It’s possible he just did 3 6 year extensions. If he really did a 6 year at his 18 year mark that’s pretty fuckin patriotic. Like goddamn.
Initial contacts are always 8 years with a period served in active service and the remainder as inactive. 6/2 is the most common but I’ve also seen 4/4 and 3/5.
6/2 is normal for guard/reserve and 4/4 is normal for active (which I’m sure is what vance did). Never heard of 3/5 but it’s probably for when numbers need to go up.