How a candidate's military service can help or hurt their campaign

By most measures, the new Democratic ticket has had an impressively smooth launch.

But there is one caveat to that — controversy over how vice presidential nominee Tim Walz described his military service.

A spokeswoman for the Harris-Walz campaign has said in a statement that the Democratic vice-presidential nominee "misspoke" when talking about his military service.

Walz, who served for 24 years in the National Guard, had made a comment that sounded like he had been to war.

Walz's Republican opponent, JD Vance, pounced on that comment to accuse Walz of what's called "stolen valor," a serious charge among veterans.

But there's also a history of playing politics with military service – one that's been used in past elections.

Is Tim Walz guilty of deliberately misrepresenting his military record or the victim of a familiar political smear tactic?

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