Maryland Gov. Wes Moore defended his false claim of receiving a Bronze Star as an "honest mistake," while expressing regret for not correcting the record—an issue drawing parallels to scrutiny over fellow Democrat Tim Walz's military service.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore claimed Thursday that his false statement about receiving a Bronze Star on a 2006 White House fellowship application was “an honest mistake.” Moore, who was 27 at the time, blamed his Army superiors for the error and explained that he didn’t correct the record because he was eager to move on to the next phase of his life.
In a statement released after the *New York Times* report on the embellishment, Moore explained that his deputy brigade commander encouraged him to include the award on his application, believing it had been approved by senior officers. “In the military, if a senior officer tells you something is approved, you trust it as fact,” Moore said, attributing the error to his commander’s mistaken impression that the medal for heroic or meritorious service had already been approved.
Moore admitted that he learned he hadn’t received the Bronze Star by the end of his deployment but never revised his application. He also failed to correct the record during media interviews when credited with the award during his 2022 gubernatorial run. Moore expressed regret over not fixing the mistake, calling it an oversight.
The revelation comes as Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, faces scrutiny over his own military service. Walz has been accused of embellishing his record by falsely claiming to have carried weapons in combat during his National Guard service. He’s also been criticized for misrepresenting his rank and stepping down just before his battalion was deployed to Iraq in 2005.
In an apparent reference to the controversy surrounding Walz, Moore concluded his statement by addressing the criticism of veterans: “True patriots who have worn our country’s flag and put everything on the line don’t get shaken. We put our heads down and do the work, and that’s what I will continue to do.”
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