Battenfeld: Tim Walz already a drag on the Democratic ticket

Democratic VP nominee Tim Walz is showing signs of being a drag on the ticket and a gaping omission by Kamala Harris’s vetting team – led by former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh.

Walz was rushed through the vetting process without any apparent red flags despite past criticism of his embellishment of his military service and other missteps from his past.

Will she now be saddled with the liberal Minnesota governor for the rest of the campaign?

Walsh, head of the National Hockey League players’ union, was among three Harris confidantes charged with interviewing and vetting the VP candidates, according to Politico.

How they could have missed such troubling red flags as Walz falsely claiming he served in combat and retired as a command sergeant major is not a good sign for Harris’ campaign, which this week had to scrub Walz’s bio to correct the misrepresentation.

Another member of Walz’s National Guard unit came forward Friday to criticize the Minnesota governor for bailing on their unit to run for Congress just two months before it was deployed to Iraq.

“Running for Congress is not an excuse,” retired Capt. Corey Bjertness, the chaplain of Walz’s field artillery regiment, told the New York Post. “I stopped everything and went to war. I left my wife with three teenagers and a 6-year-old and I was gone for 19 months.”

Thomas Behrends, who replaced Walz as command sergeant major, told the Post “He had the opportunity to serve his country and said ‘screw you’ to the United States.”

Walz and Harris have yet to hold to a formal news conference since he was named as her running mate – staying in the bunker and avoiding numerous questions about Walz’s military service. They appear to be sticking with the Biden strategy of reading from teleprompters at rallies and fear answering direct questions about the new running mate.

Walz has also been a staunch supporter of left wing Squad member Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a fierce critic of Israel and a defund the police advocate.

“When I’m having a tough day….I think Ilhan Omar is in Congress, and I smile,” Walz said of the congresswoman.

Somebody who hates America brightens your day?

Walz has also taken more than 30 trips to China, working there as a teacher and later traveling there as a member of Congress and governor.

The Wall Street Journal reported one China trip doubled as a honeymoon for Walz.

The mounting Walz resume goes against the Harris campaign’s attempt to frame him as a moderate Midwestern everyman father figure. In fact Walz is a classic left winger – further to the left than Harris.

The Trump campaign has already raised enough questions about Walz in an attempt to define him first, before the Harris campaign does it.

How relatable is a guy who put tampons in boys bathrooms and travels to China 30 times and heaps praise on an extremist congresswoman?