At the vice presidential debate on Tuesday, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz laid into former President Donald Trump’s assertion that traumatic brain injuries suffered by dozens of American troops in 2020 were exaggerated.
Earlier in the day in Milwaukee, Trump disparaged U.S. soldiers who were left with traumatic brain injuries after Iranian strikes on an Iraqi base in January of that year, accusing the troops of going home “because they had a headache.”
Walz condemned the comments during the vice presidential debate, questioning why the ex-president, who reportedly called dead American troops “suckers” and “losers” would dismiss troops’ concern.
“When Iranian missiles did fall near U.S. troops and they received traumatic brain injuries, Donald Trump wrote it off as headaches,” Walz said.
Walz, who spent 24 years in the National Guard, laid blame for instability in the region partially at Trump’s feet. He noted that the former president pulled out of a nuclear deal with Iran, severing U.S. diplomatic ties and ratcheting up tension.
Walz noted that Trump’s leadership was not the “steady leadership” that Americans needed in the hours after Iran launched a widespread missile barrage at targets throughout Israel.
“A nearly 80-year-old Donald Trump talking about crowd sizes is not what we need in this moment,” Walz said.
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