Retired National Guard member alleges Walz left his unit in CNN interview: 'He went around me'

Tim Walz’s former military superior made claims that called into question the Minnesota governor’s conduct in the U.S. National Guard during a CNN interview.

During his interview with CNN, former Minnesota National Guard Command Sgt. Maj. Doug Julin appeared to bolster criticism that Walz abandoned the unit with his account of the former Guardsman going around him to leave the National Guard before his team went to Iraq. 

He relayed to CNN anchor Laura Coates that Walz and the whole unit – "including my boss, commander, and the command team" – had multiple meetings to discuss deployment months before Walz sought retirement. 

According to the former sergeant major, Walz was at each of these meetings. Julin also asserted that in the lead up to deployment Walz assured him that he was going to join the battalion in Iraq.

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However, he told Coates that in June 2005, he found out that Walz had quit without telling him, having gotten permission to retire from a higher-level officer - a break in protocol, according to Julin.

"Tim Walz knew the process and procedures, he went around me and above and beyond me… basically went in there to get somebody to back him… it was just a backdoor process," he told Coates. 

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Walz’s 24-year National Guard career has been heavily scrutinized since Vice President Harris announced him as her running mate. Critics have accused Walz of abandoning his unit just before it went to Iraq.

In a statement recently given to Fox News, the Minnesota National Guard said that Walz's unit was not given deployment orders to Iraq until July, and he had put his retirement papers in five to seven months prior to his retirement in May 2005.

Other former Minnesota National Guardsmen allegedly familiar with Walz’s time in the guard asserted similar things. 

Command Sgt. Maj. Paul Herr (Ret.) told Fox News on Thursday, "He subverted the chain of command, and he went around the chain of command. The brigade [sergeant] major had no clue. These are all important facts, and he did it to continually feather his own bed… That was the shameful part of it."

As Julin continued with his account of Walz’s alleged actions, Coates appeared to stop him in his tracks, point out some rough patches in audio quality, and indicate they were out of time.

"Well, Sergeant Major – I do want to hear what you have to say, Sergeant Major. I know I want to be sensitive of your time, and your audio is beginning to break up just a little bit. But I do want to thank you because I think you clarified a lot for people and given more information. The question now is how voters will evaluate it." 

She then thanked him and ended the interview.

Billionaire and CEO Bill Ackman shared the clip on Saturday morning and slammed the CNN anchor, stating, "If people question whether there is bias in media, you should watch this clip."

In a post shared to X on Friday, Ackman – the CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management ­– accused Coates of making excuses and ending the interview with Julin, because he stated that Walz rejected protocol in retiring before their battalion was deployed to Iraq.

"When the answers given by the subject of the interview do not match the narrative which the network would like to advance, the anchor terminates the interview using as an excuse that the subject’s time is valuable and the connection is choppy," Ackman wrote, in addition to sharing a clip of Coates appearing to end Julin’s interview abruptly.

After accusing Coates of making up excuses to end the interview because she was hearing stuff she didn’t like, he urged viewers, "Watch to the end and see for yourself whether these reasons are a pretext or whether this is good journalism and fairness in media."

When asked about Julin’s claims, the Harris campaign pointed Fox to a quote from Joseph Eustice, a former National Guard member that served under Walz’s in their battalion.

He said, "‘From what I know of the situation, they’re lying. He was as good as a solider as you’ll find… What I’m trying to do is defend someone who served his country. I’m not voting for him… But I don’t think it’s fair to characterize his service the way they have."

Fox News Digital has reached out to CNN for comment.

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