'Coward' and 'habitual liar': Veterans who served with Tim Walz dismantle his military record in a scathing interview with Megyn Kelly

Four military buddies of Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz branded the Minnesota governor a "coward" and "habitual liar" in a scathing interview with SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly.

In particular, Walz's colleagues accused Kamala Harris' running mate of retiring just before his unit was deployed to Iraq and lying about his actual military rank for personal gain.

The four veterans who appeared on Kelly's show were retired command sergeant major Tom Behrends, retired sergeant first class Tom Schilling, retired command sergeant major Paul Herr and Rodney Town, retired staff sergeant and Walz's former partner.

"He's a habitual liar," Herr said of the Democratic candidate. "He lies about everything. He lies about stuff that doesn’t make sense."

Later, the sergeant major accused Walz of stealing his military colleagues' merits.

"We have stolen valor [because] people make decisions that are cowardly, and they come back and they try to live vicariously by robbing … all the other soldiers of all the benefits … and all the sacrifices," Herr told Kelly. "They want a piece of that — they feel slighted."

"He’s a military impersonator," said Sgt. Major Behrends for his part. "He took his uniform, and he literally turned it inside out and went off into whatever other realm he did, which was vote against anything that went on in Iraq, vote against Gitmo, vote against whatever."

"And by the way, Gitmo would be a good place for him to end up at," Behrends joked, eliciting laughter from the other three veterans.

Behrends, in fact, was one of the toughest veterans on Walz and his military record, accusing the Democratic governor of submitting his discharge so he wouldn't go to war with his buddies.

Host Kelly, at one point, asked the veterans if Walz knew he was being deployed to Iraq in the spring of 2005. All agreed that the governor knew about the deployment.

Behrends added: "That's a morale crusher. It screws away at the fabric of the military and its ability to do its mission ... It may not legally be wrong. It is morally indefensible."

Kelly later asked the veterans what they thought of Walz at the time, when they were his partner. Town responded, "I don't know how he could live with himself after he did that to his soldiers (...) That military unit that is the same thing as a family, that's your military family."

"We’re all long in the tooth. We could’ve retired," added Herr, who served 34 years in the National Guard. "We didn't (...) And that’s the position that he was in."

His comrades also said Walz had promised them to count on him to go to war.

"He told me and other sergeant majors in the meetings that, ‘You can count on me. I will deploy with my unit,'" Herr said. "His words to my ear and others."

According to multiple reports, Walz has a controversial record as a politician, often misrepresenting his military record and making questionable policy decisions for veterans. For example, in 2009, he voted in Congress in favor of closing the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay.

He also repeatedly claimed that his position was "command sergeant major," but in reality, he retired before completing the courses he needed to officially earn the rank. In September 2005, after officially launching into Congress, he was demoted to sergeant major, unlike his fellow sergeants Herr and Behrends, who did retire as command sergeants major.

As a result, the sergeants accused Walz of "stealing" the merits of his comrades, saying he lied about "taking the guns" to war.

"I mean, what he said, about going into combat, that's sacred. Because people lose their lives, limbs. Sometimes they have kids at home," he told Schilling during the interview.

One of the comrades finally questioned harshly Walz's decision to abandon his battalion to launch his political career before being mobilized to Iraq.

"The word went all across the state that he had quit. Who the hell does that? Just, unbelievable that a CSM abandoned his troops, 500 soldiers, and a thousand parents out there who expect that person to lead them into combat."

"Walz has made the wrong decision," said another of his fellow soldiers. "He’s not brave. I call him a coward because he is."