‘Do You Find That Shameful Too?’ Dana Bash Presses Vance Over Trump’s Military Deferment After Calling Out Walz

CNN anchor Dana Bash pressed Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) over Donald Trump’s military deferments after he called out Vice President Kamala Harris running-mate Tim Walz over the Democratic governor’s claims about his service in the National Guard.

During the Vietnam War, Trump received military draft deferments five times, including once for bad feet and four times for college. Walz attacked Trump over it at a rally over the weekend after facing criticism from the right over his past claims, including in a resurfaced clip from 2018, that he carried weapons “in war” – he did not.

Walz served in the Army National Guard for 24 years but left in 2005 to run for Congress. Before leaving, he was deployed to Italy to help out with the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan but never deployed to combat during his service.

Bash pressed Vance during an interview on Sunday on whether he finds Trump’s military deferments “shameful too.”

BASH: Donald Trump didn’t serve in the military. He received a medical draft deferment for bone spurs to avoid serving in the Vietnam War, reportedly as a favor to his father. Do you find that shameful, too?

VANCE: I think that Donald Trump didn’t serve in the military, but he didn’t lie about it. Dana, I’ve known Donald Trump for a long time. You don’t think he honors or you think he had been for my service? Donald Trump didn’t lie about serving in the military. He didn’t say that he went to Vietnam when he didn’t. This is the problem. I don’t criticize anybody whether they served our country or not. I think it’s honorable to serve. But obviously a lot of people have reasons for not serving. I criticize somebody for embellishing their record for lying, saying, I went to war. Did it. Do you think that it’s a problem that he said, I went to war, but he didn’t? Actually, that seems to be a problem to me.

Watch the clip above via CNN.

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