U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s response to Ohio Senator JD Vance’s criticism of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s military service went viral on social media on Sunday.

In the wake of this year’s presidential election, military service was a hot topic in the Republican and Democratic campaigns last week, with Donald Trump’s running mate Walz, Kamala Harris’s running mate, heavily criticizing him for lying about his military service after comments Walz made in 2018 about his combat deployments resurfaced.

Although the governor, who previously served 24 years in the Army National Guard, never went to war, Walz, who spoke about gun control in the resurfaced 2018 clip, said, “We can make sure that the weapons of war that I carried in war are the only place those weapons are.”

Walz has previously admitted that he never served in combat in the National Guard. Speaking to MPR News in 2018, he said, “I know there are certainly people who have done a lot more than I have. I know that. I like to say that I got a lot more out of the military than they got out of me.”

In response to the resurfaced comments, the Harris-Walz campaign team said the Minnesota governor had “misspoken” at the time.

Vance, who served in the Marine Corps for four years, also never deployed. Between August 2005 and February 2006, he worked as a combat correspondent in Iraq. However, Vance reiterated his comments about Walz on CNN Sunday, saying, “That’s the problem. I’m not criticizing anyone. It doesn’t matter whether they served our country or not. I think it’s honorable to serve, but of course a lot of people have reasons not to serve. I criticized someone for embellishing his record and lying by saying, ‘I went to war.'”

In an interview with CNN’s On the state of the nation On Sunday, Buttigieg, a Democrat who also served as a U.S. Marine officer in Afghanistan, responded to Vance’s remarks on CNN.

“The fact that a veteran would want to disparage another veteran certainly goes against everything I learned during my time in service. I think in many ways it’s the exception that proves the rule. The only thing they could complain about to Tim Walz is disparaging his military career, and that is clearly honorable,” Buttigieg said.

He added: “There is something much bigger at play here. I have watched JD Vance suddenly present himself very precisely in terms of precision of speech and honesty. He is running with Donald Trump, who has set records for lying in public life,” referring to Trump’s recent press conference at Mar-a-Lago, where he made many statements that were later verified.

Newsweek has emailed Vance’s campaign spokesman, the Harris-Waltz campaign team and the Trump campaign team for comment.

A video of Buttigieg’s response has made its way to X (formerly Twitter); a clip posted by journalist Aaron Rupar had over 315,000 views as of Sunday afternoon.

In addition, Buttigieg reiterated his stance on Vance’s criticism to X.

“JD Vance is terribly concerned about precision in speech and honesty in policy. He also wants you to vote for Donald Trump,” he wrote in his X-post, which had over 500,000 views by Sunday afternoon.

Earlier on Sunday, Vance was confronted by CNN’s Dana Bash about Trump’s evasion of military service in the Vietnam War.

In a recorded interview on On the state of the nation On Sunday morning, Bash Vance asked, “Donald Trump did not serve in the military. He received a medical deferment from the draft for bone spurs to avoid serving in the Vietnam War, supposedly as a favor to his father. Do you also find that shameful?”

Trump has been criticized for his medical deferment from the Vietnam War, which he attributed to bone spurs in his heels. In 2018, the daughters of the podiatrist who diagnosed Trump, then 22, said the diagnosis was made as a favor to his father, Fred Trump, according to a New York Times Report.

Vance responded to Bash: “I believe Donald Trump did not serve in the military, but he did not lie about it, Dana. I have known Donald Trump for a long time. He really honors our veterans, he honors me for my service.”