Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who was chosen by Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday as her running mate, has faced criticism for making false claims, including one about the rationale for banning so-called “assault weapons.”

Walz claimed to have carried such weapons “in war” during his tenure in the Army National Guard, as shown in a video released by the Kamala Harris campaign on Tuesday. However, there’s a glaring issue with his statement.

Walz served in the Army National Guard for 24 years but did not experience combat, as stated in his résumé. His primary duties involved responding to natural disasters in Minnesota and Nebraska, as he mentioned in an interview with Minnesota Public Radio.

Although Walz had various overseas assignments, such as supporting the European security force in Italy during the war in Afghanistan and participating in joint training exercises with NATO forces in Norway, he was stationed away from active conflict zones.

According to Minnesota Public Radio, Walz affirmed that he reenlisted in the National Guard in response to the 9/11 attacks, but he did not engage in combat before retiring in 2005.

“I know that there are certainly folks that did far more than I did. I know that,” Walz told the outlet in 2018. But Walz gave a much different impression of his military service at a town hall event, which the Harris campaign highlighted shortly after his selection as VP.

“I spent 25 years in the Army, and I hunt,” Walz says at the beginning of the clip. He goes on to say he supports “common sense legislation” that “protects the Second Amendment,” but said he favors extensive background checks. “We can make sure those weapons of war that I carried in war is [sic] the only place that those weapons are at,” he said.

On Wednesday, the Minnesota National Guard revealed that the governor, who has long claimed to have retired as a command sergeant major, was actually demoted from that rank. This disclosure contradicts years of statements made by Walz and his official gubernatorial biography.

According to Lt. Col. Kristen Augé, the Minnesota Army National Guard’s State Public Affairs Officer, Walz briefly held the title of command sergeant major but “retired as a master sergeant in 2005 for benefit purposes because he did not complete additional coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy,” as reported by Just The News.