Alabama native Casey Wardynski has come out in support of U.S. Rep. Barry Moore (R-Enterprise) in his bid for the U.S. Senate.
Wardynski, the former Assistant Secretary of the Army, West Point graduate and longtime Pentagon official, also recently defended Moore against questions about his veteran status amid recent attacks.
Moore faces former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson on Tuesday’s Republican primary runoff to determine who will be the party’s nominee going into the November general election to replace U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn), who has secured the Republican nomination for governor.
Things between the pair have heated up since the primary. Most recently, Hudson has joined public speculation, calling into question Moore’s claims of having previously served in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Hudson has accused Moore of intentionally lying to voters by misrepresenting the nature of his service in the National Guard, despite Moore producing a veteran ID card.
RELATED: Barry Moore campaign pushes back against 'truly offensive' claims questioning his military service
SEE ALSO: Hudson presses attack on Moore's veteran status ahead of next week's U.S. Senate GOP runoff election
Wardynski was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Army by President Donald Trump and confirmed in 2019. He resigned when Trump left office in 2021. He then vied for Alabama’s fifth congressional seat in the 2022 election cycle.
This week, Wardynski announced his full support for Moore in the runoff, citing his commitment to free speech, the Second Amendment, and other freedom-minded policies Moore has already advanced in Congress.
“I'm a pretty conservative guy, and Barry is probably one of two conservatives who are representing us in Washington. The other one was Senator Tuberville,” Wardynski told 1819 News. “He's running to replace Tuberville because [Tuberville] is coming home. But you have a lot of these so-called Republicans putting a lot of money up against Barry. And the reason is, they usually vote to the left, and Barry votes to the right, and they don't like it."
He continued, “The Bill of Rights is pretty damn important, and Barry has stuck up for it. That's number one in my book. I don't need to send anybody to Washington who's going to give away my rights, and that would be almost every one of these other characters we send to Washington, not Barry, and he's done it time and time again.
Wardynski simultaneously defended Moore’s status as a veteran, citing the National Guard’s pervasive role in wartime, disaster relief and other operations worldwide.
“I was Assistant Secretary in Trump 1.0, and Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs,” Wardynski said. "The Army has the largest reserve component, it has the National Guard. Marines and Navy don't have a National Guard. The Air Force and Army do. They all have a reserve, and Barry served in the guard and the reserve, and I'll tell you there's no defending this country without the guard and reserve.”
“It's very simple. There's a law. I think it was in 2015, Congress passed a law [and] the president signed it to clarify this issue. Part of that law is they issue guardsmen and reservists who have served appropriately an ID card that says they're a veteran. So it's really a bogus debate. There's nothing to debate," he added.
Wardynski further stated it was a bad look for a veteran to question someone else’s service in this manner.
“I think it's disappointing. When veterans attack veterans over this kind of crap, it just diminishes my opinion of the guy doing the attack,” Wardynski continued. “This other guy has to, I guess, build himself up by tearing other people down who've served, and I frankly don't like it. And I'd imagine, you know, he didn't make any friends for himself doing that. If I was a guardsman and reservist, and then somebody's – for political gain – trying to say, guardsmen and reservists apparently aren't veterans, I think I'd show up for the polls for sure, and I'd vote against that guy.”
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