Van Jones suggested Wednesday night that Tim Walz may have been "loose with his language" about his service record and said the Kamala Harris campaign ought to "clean it up."
The GOP has attacked Walz's military record following his selection Monday as Harris' running mate.
Bryan Lanza, former deputy communications director for Trump's 2016 campaign, told CNN's "AC360" that Walz's record is fair for criticism.
"There's a lot of issues," he said. "I'll tell you what there's a photo of him, a 2004 photo of him, where he refers to himself as an Enduring Freedom veteran for [John] Kerry. The problem is, the Department of Defense does not qualify him as someone who is a recipient of an Enduring Freedom title."
Lanza said Walz either "misrepresented himself" to run for office, or the correction is now.
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"He can't have it both ways," said Lanza. "He can't claim he served in combat and then 20 years later say, 'Oh it's just no big deal.' It goes to character. And that's a problem for the campaign. The fact that we're talking about it and more and more people are talking about it, it's not what Kamala Harris wants to be talking about."
Jones said the campaign needs to address the discrepancy, acknowledging that while "people are human beings" on the campaign trail," Walz is now running for a "major position."
"The reality is if he said one or two things that turned out to be maybe a little bit sloppy, fix it. Because he's got a gazillion people willing to stand up for his character."
Among those willing to vouch for Walz: Gay students and people he served with, noted Jones.
"If this comes down to a character contest between this ticket and Donald Trump, we're going to win 50 states," he said. "LEt's just get this cleaned up and move on."
Watch the clip below or at this link.
