Gov. Wes Moore, in a file photo from February, said Friday he has been attacked over claims made in a 2006 application that he had been awarded a Bronze Star. File photo by Danielle J. Brown
Gov. Wes Moore said he has been attacked over his military service record, including recent revelations that he claimed a military honor for which he had been recommended but never received.
Moore’s comments came during an hour-long interview Friday at the Texas Tribune Festival with NPR host Michele Martin. Moore said he was “recently attacked because, 20 years ago, on an application” he claimed he was awarded a Bronze Star — a medal he ultimately did not receive.
“The way I deal with it is I don’t. I don’t have time for foolishness,” Moore told Martin. “I don’t have time to play these games. I’m too busy trying to make the lives of Marylanders better. I’m too busy trying to make sure that our veterans are taken care of.”
Moore, who served as an Army lieutenant in the 82nd Airborne in Afghanistan, has faced questions about that medal since his campaign for governor. Most of those questions focused on his failure to correct interviewers who described him as a Bronze Star recipient.
The governor has faced similar criticisms over statements about growing up in Baltimore and a football award that does not exist.
Moore and his surrogates repeatedly claimed that while the candidate, now governor, failed to correct others on the medal, he himself never claimed to have received it. But the New York Times reported last week that Moore did make such a claim on a 2006 application for a White House fellowship.
Since then, Moore has repeatedly apologized for not correcting the record, saying he forgot about the nearly two-decade old application. He also said that the detail was added to the application at the insistence of a commanding officer who said Moore had been recommended for the medal and assured him it would be approved.
It was not approved.
In a statement after the Times article came out, and again in Texas on Friday, Moore said he had little use for those who would attack a veteran’s integrity “for political gain.”
So, I think the way that we deal with it, and the way that I deal with it, is I don’t have time for foolishness. I never have. I never will.
– Gov. Wes Moore
Moore’s conversation with Martin, the host of NPR’s “Morning Edition,” was billed as a look at his first two years as governor of Maryland and at the presidential campaign as it enters its final two months.
Martin never asked Moore directly about the Times story. He raised the issue as part of a discussion about how military service has become the focus of partisan criticism in the presidential campaign.
Moore has been called on to defend Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, who has been criticized for misstatements about his more than two decades of service in the National Guard. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), the GOP vice presidential nominee, has also seen his record in the Marines — he was a public affairs officer for four years, spending six months in Iraq in 2005 — come under increased scrutiny.
“I don’t have patience nor tolerance to be lectured by anybody, particularly for people who have no idea what they’re talking about and have no idea about the emotions that are going through that soldier or sailor or airman or Marines mind as they’re getting ready to say goodbye to their family, not knowing that that’s the last thing they’re going to be able to say to them,” Moore said.
“We know that the next vice president of the United States will be someone who has worn the uniform of this country, no matter who wins this thing,” Moore said.
Martin asked Moore how candidates should respond if “attacked” for their military service record.
“So, I think the way that we deal with it, and the way that I deal with it, is I don’t have time for foolishness. I never have. I never will,” he said. “And so, I think the thing that we do, what real patriots do, we keep our heads down and we do the work. And that’s exactly how I respond to this.”
A few minutes later, Martin asked Moore if a double standard exists “for elected leaders like yourself, people who meet certain sort of, it could be demographic, it could be philosophical, it could be ideological” qualities.
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“There’s 100%a double standard, but frankly, there’s always been a double standard. I mean, the thing, the things that will take up a three-week news cycle in our life are things that is like a Tuesday for other people,” said Moore, adding that his solution is to “just try not to worry about that. I can’t.”
“I think if I were to be consumed by the amount of double standards that exist, I literally would not be able to function. If I were to be consumed by the fact that the goalpost just ironically, just keeps on moving for us, I don’t know if I could ever perform, because you’re asking yourself to shadowbox with a ghost.”
Moore pointed to recent polling that showed 64% of Maryland voters surveyed approved of the job he has done.
“No matter what can come in or arrows or the complaints or the trolls on social media, the reason that they don’t get at me is I don’t pay attention to them,” he said
“And I try to live by this philosophy of, you know, don’t let people that don’t matter too much, matter too much,” Moore said. “And if we allow these folks to get in our heads, then they win, because that’s their goal. That is their aspiration. And I just refuse to let them win.”