After Nancy Pelosi won the office of Speaker of the House in 2007, she held a press conference with a group of young Democrats, one of whom she described as a retired National Guard “command sergeant major” who had served his country “on the battlefield.”

“He will speak for himself, but I want him to know how much we all appreciate his service to our country, whether in the classroom or on the battlefield,” Pelosi said of new lawmaker Tim Walz.

Walz, now the Democratic vice presidential nominee, took the podium at the Feb. 16, 2007, press conference, thanked Pelosi for her remarks, and then moved on to the topic at hand. Walz failed to mention that in his 24 years of service in the National Guard, he had never seen a war zone.

“Well, thank you, Madam Speaker, and thank you to the leadership here,” the Minnesota congressman told Pelosi, who years later would privately urge Kamala Harris to select Walz as her vice presidential candidate. C-SPAN, which filmed the press conference, called Walz a “veteran of the Afghan war,” according to a video of the event released by the Washington Free Beacon.

It comes to light as Republicans and some military veterans accuse Walz of whitewashing his service record. Walz, now governor of Minnesota, has never been deployed and has never been deployed to a war zone. He has served in Norway in support of NATO forces and in Italy in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, the war in Afghanistan.

But Walz claimed he was a “veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom” on a political poster he carried in 2004 and on his campaign website in 2006. Free Beacon reported. And in a video released by the Kamala Harris campaign this week, Walz called for a ban on the kind of “weapons of war” that “I carried in war.” In 2006, Walz’s campaign website touted articles from the Wall Street JournalThe Atlanticand others who falsely identified Walz as a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Like Pelosi, Walz has not corrected these stories.

Some of Walz’s critics have accused him of “stolen valor,” in which individuals invent or embellish their military status for personal gain. The Harris-Walz campaign denies that charge.

Walz also exaggerated his rank by claiming he retired in 2005 as a command sergeant major, making him the highest-ranking soldier ever to serve in Congress.

That was the title Walz used to describe himself in a press conference with Pelosi held to push legislation to increase pay for soldiers. “As someone who spent his entire military career as an enlisted soldier, my job as a command sergeant major or first sergeant was solely to take care of those troops,” Walz said.

However, the National Guard said Walz officially holds the rank of Sergeant Major, E-8. He has not completed the required courses to maintain the rank of Command Sergeant Major, E-9.

However, Walz claimed the rank of “Command Sergeant Major” in numerous speeches and interviews and at least six hearings before the House Veterans Affairs Committee, on which Walz served throughout his congressional career. Free Beacon found.

“I sit here as a freshman member of Congress who was once a Command Sergeant Major and has dedicated his entire life to taking care of these soldiers,” he said at a hearing on March 13, 2007.

Walz was also accused of resigning from the Minnesota National Guard after learning that his battalion would be deployed to Iraq. A former Minnesota National Guard member told the Free Beacon the timing of Walz’s departure “left a bad taste in many people’s mouths.”

Media outlets have claimed that Walz was unaware that his battalion might be deployed to Iraq when he resigned from the National Guard to run for Congress. However, an archived copy of a March 20, 2005, press release from Walz’s campaign indicates that Walz expected his unit would soon be sent to Iraq.

“As Command Sergeant Major, I have the responsibility to not only prepare my battalion for Iraq, but to serve when called upon,” Walz said in the campaign statement. Free Beacon reported.

How Pelosi came to believe Walz had served on the battlefield is unclear. However, Walz’s aides have acknowledged in the past that Walz’s description of his military service at the time confused some of his constituents in southern Minnesota. When an Iraq War veteran confronted Walz’s aides in 2009 with his claims that he was an Afghanistan veteran, one aide acknowledged that it caused confusion.

“I know people have come to me as an employee and thought that, so I corrected them,” the Walz employee said.