CNN's Brianna Keilar has really been bending over backwards to defend Tim Walz from criticism of his military service. To start with, she appeared on CNN's Inside Politics where she talked about her interview with Joe Eustice, a person who served with Walz and who defended him from his critics, even calling them liars. Here's Keilar's recounting of the interview, you can skip forward a bit to get to her part:

Today on @InsidePolitics

Joe Eustice served in the Guard with Gov. Walz for more than a decade:

“I’m not voting for him. I’ll campaign against him, but I don’t think it’s fair to characterize his service the way they have.”

“He was as good a soldier as you’ll find.” pic.twitter.com/pWukQxBmH2

— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) August 8, 2024

How convenient that Keilar and CNN were able to talk to one person who is willing to defend Walz. Where did Keilar hear about Joe Eustice anyway? I can't say for certain but I'd be willing to bet she got his name from this Washington Post story published a day earlier. Here's what Eustice told the Post:

Joe Eustice, who served in the National Guard with Walz for at least a decade, said he vehemently disagrees with Walz’s politics but described him as a good soldier. In an interview, he rejected assertions that Walz avoided combat duty. In late spring 2005, when Walz said he wanted to pursue politics and decided to retire, there was only speculation of a combat deployment on the horizon, Eustice said.

Again, I'm not certain but I think it's a safe bet Keilar or her producers read about Eustice in the Post, decided they liked what he had to say (defending Walz) and then arranged for their own interview. If that's the case, Keilar was clearly cherry-picking and then presenting one side of the story.

Apparently not content with that, Keilar went further and attacked J.D. Vance by suggesting that his own service record was somehow misleading and therefore he shouldn't be criticizing Walz.

DISGUSTING: CNN's @brikeilarcnn attacks JD Vance's military service in a despicable effort to defend Tim Walz's stolen valor lies.

Brianna — the difference is that @JDVance never lied about his rank or his service, and when his unit deployed to Iraq, he didn't abandon them. pic.twitter.com/mQ8DMc2XRJ

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 8, 2024

The whole point Vance was making was that he has not lied or exaggerated his service. He did serve in a combat zone but he never claimed he had been part of a firefight. The issue with Tim Walz is that he not only never was in a firefight, he never deployed to a combat zone at all. His one deployment was to a base in Italy. His second deployment would have been to Iraq but he resigned after it became clear his unit would be going. As both Ed and I have pointed out, he didn't just resign, he went over the head of his supervisor and found a backdoor way out after previously telling that supervisor he planned to deploy with the unit.

Vance himself responded to Brianna Keilar on X, calling her comments "disgusting."

Brianna this is disgusting, and you and your entire network should be ashamed of yourselves.

When I got the call to go to Iraq, I went.

Tim Walz said he carried a gun in a war. Did he? No. It was a lie. https://t.co/kt0oxzZb83

— JD Vance (@JDVance) August 8, 2024

As you can see, Vance's reply happened Thursday. Friday, Brianna Keilar devoted a little segment of her show to lecturing those who would dare to question J.D. Vance's honorable service. Notice she never says that she was one of those people or mentions that Vance himself had called her out for her. She's not apologizing she's correcting others. "JD Vance served honorably in Iraq, a combat zone where anything can happen and frequently does," she said. 

But the twist here is that Keilar's secret apology to Vance is all just a set up. The payoff is her claim that no one should question Walz service either. "Many service members haven't seen combat. That doesn't make them or their service less admirable or less necessary. Nor does retiring from the National Guard after 24 years."

The Trump campaign is swift boating Tim Walz.
Attacks on JD Vance’s service are also offensive.
In a country where so few shoulder the burden, military service should be an asset, not a liability. pic.twitter.com/BUD63JyLiU

— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) August 9, 2024

This is textbook false equivalence which seems purely designed to cover Keilar's own rear end after she overstepped Thursday in her comments about Vance. Vance's service and Walz service were not the same. Vance went to a combat zone when ordered to do so. Walz retired within months of learning a deployment to combat was likely. As Ed pointed out earlier, the chaplain from Walz' unit called it "cowardly" for a person of his rank and said running for office was no excuse. But Brianna Keilar didn't bother to interview him.

There's really no excuse for this. CNN has already documented two instances where Walz clearly misstated the nature of his service (first claiming he served "in war" and second claiming he retired as a Command Sergeant Major, neither of which are true). Trying to draw a line on it there and saying no other criticism is justified or allowed isn't reporting it's playing politics. 

I don't know Keilar or really know her history at CNN but in this instance she clearly blew it and then failed to own up to it, turning what should have been a correction of her own misguided comments into a lecture about everyone else. If she apologized more directly somewhere else, I haven't seen it. The only thing about this on her X account is that clip above.