The governor of Maryland, who presents an impressive and imposing personal appearance, has real cracks appearing in his (what now appears to be carefully constructed) compelling personal story.

Westley Watende Omari (aka Wes) Moore has a made-for-Hollywood background with the good looks to match it. I mean, he wasn't a pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps story, but for sure whatever advantages life had handed him, he made sure to take advantage of instead of slacking along as so many children of privilege do. I will fully give him credit for that.

...Moore was born in Maryland and raised primarily in New York. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University and received a master's degree from Wolfson College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar. After several years in the U.S. Army and Army Reserve, he became an investment banker in New York. Between 2010 and 2015, Moore published five books, including a young-adult novel. He served as CEO of the Robin Hood Foundation from 2017 to 2021.[1] Moore authored The Other Wes Moore and The Work. He also hosted Beyond Belief on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), and was executive producer and a writer for Coming Back with Wes Moore on PBS.[2]

Moore is a member of the Democratic Party. He won the 2022 Maryland gubernatorial election against Dan Cox, becoming Maryland's first black governor and the third black person elected governor of any U.S. state.[a][4][5] He was re-elected to a second term in 2026, again defeating Cox in the general election.[6]

Maybe some of that discipline came from what sounds like his no-nonsense mother who, according to his Wiki bio, dumped him into Valley Forge Military Academy after he started turning into a petty criminal. He completed the Army's early commissioning requirements after graduation and went into the Army Reserve, eventually doing a year in Afghanistan.

Moore made it into Johns Hopkins, played football for them, excelled in school, won the Oxford scholarship, and was politically active on campus. 

There is so much for Moore to be proud of, but I guess Moore must have felt it wasn't shiny enough. What they are politely calling 'mischaracterizations' have been dogging him for a bit now, which is a problem for a fellow with presidential aspirations.

Recommended
Seattle School Board Votes to Fight Trans Athlete Ban in Court John Sexton Everything Is Stupid Now, Version II David Strom

The story of his off-again, on-again Bronze Star stinks to the high, holy heavens. Particularly the circumstances of how it finally wound up officially on his record.

...Moore's resume looks like a dream, even though he's had a hiccup or two with keeping his own military record straight.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said Thursday he made "an honest mistake" in failing to correct a White House fellowship application 18 years ago when he wrote he had received a Bronze Star for his military service in Afghanistan though he never ended up receiving it, after the New York Times obtained a copy of the application and reported on it.

The newspaper, which obtained the document as part of a Freedom of Information Act request, reported that Moore made the claim on the application in 2006 when he was 27....

And then there's the little matter of the Oxford scholar's thesis.

It's sort of a 'Where's Waldo' search in a sea of subterfuge and obfuscation.

...That same White House fellowship application - the one that tripped him up on the Bronze Star he hadn't received - has now snared Moore in a web of graduate studies contradictions and what look to be prevarications, if not outright untruths aka lies.

Last month, a reporter for the Washington Free Beacon asked Rhodes Scholar Moore (I told you he was smart - Johns Hopkins grad, too) for a copy of his Oxford University master's thesis. This thesis is the basis of Moore's claim on that application that he was considered a 'foremost expert on radical Islam.'

Well. Things get really squirrely after that.

Neither Moore nor the Bodleian Library at Oxford has this thesis. And his 'graduation dates' are all over the map...

And it would be remiss of me if I didn't call you a racist for asking.

YOU RACIST, YOU

...That's just the beginning of the peculiarities and inconsistencies surrounding Moore's graduate studies, which a spokesman for the governor, Ammar Moussa, dismissed—after several off-the-record conversations—by saying the Washington Free Beacon is not "engaged in journalism" and is "doing what they always do: manufacturing doubt about the accomplishments of a Black veteran, Rhodes Scholar, and public servant because it fits their narrative."

In June of this year, an investigation by the no-longer liberal friendly Baltimore Sun revealed even more disturbing circumstances about Moore's claims concerning his military career.

...The brigade’s commander, then-Col. Patrick J. Donahue, trooped the line, presenting military medals and badges to soldiers and officers. Each award citation was read aloud by an announcer.

When Donahue stopped in front of Moore, the award presented to him was not a Bronze Star Medal.

As I said in that post on what should have been a bombshell, I was literally gobsmacked at the lie.

The lie about his service record that Governor Moore went along with. He's shameless.

...And the man who later became a general and then hotfooted it up to SecWormuth to get Moore the Bronze Star he claimed he had?

It very much sounds as if he was massaging Moore's resume rather than righting a wrong.

...The ARCOM revelation also creates a problem for retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael R. Fenzel, Moore’s friend and mentor, who arranged Moore’s deployment to Afghanistan and led the effort with the Army to orchestrate Moore’s retroactive Bronze Star award in 2024....

And he got reelected last week, more's the pity.

This week, another person from Wes Moore's past has stepped forward to further clarify their version of the governor's time in Afghanistan, and it really doesn't jibe with the recounting of his heroics at all.

In fact, it's pretty embarrassing.

..That story, and Moore’s other grandiose tales of leading soldiers in combat, are not true, according to his commanding officer, retired Lt. Col. James A. Gottschling, who oversaw Moore’s daily activities during his brief deployment to Afghanistan in 2005 and 2006.  

Gottschling told Spotlight on Maryland that Moore was never a paratrooper and was instead assigned to a desk job working in noncombat information operations.

According to Lt. Col. Gottschling, Moore was less Henry V and more like Henry the phone watch. 

And Moore's combat action ribbon didn't come from active engagement with the enemy outside the wire. He got it because three rockets landed inside the base perimeter.

Holy smokes - that is frickin' weak.

...That story and Moore’s other grandiose tales of leading soldiers in combat are not true, according to his commanding officer, retired Lt. Col. James A. Gottschling, who oversaw Moore’s daily activities during his brief deployment to Afghanistan in 2005 and 2006. Gottschling told Spotlight on Maryland, a coalition of local news outlets, that Moore was never a paratrooper and was instead assigned to a desk job, working in non-combat information operations, which involved analyzing reports and working with Afghan officials to provide civilian assistance. Gottschling, who signed Moore’s 2006 officer evaluation report, said Moore sometimes left Forward Operating Base Salerno to coordinate with Afghan officials, but those trips "never resulted in any hostile action."

"When you’re talking about direct combat, leading soldiers that are under hostile fire, and leading them and supporting them, that’s not truthful," Gottschling said. "It’s disingenuous to say that you led paratroopers in combat or that you did what would be direct action activities in a combat zone."

Moore received a "Combat Action Badge" for an on-base incident of "indirect fire" in 2005, when three rockets struck the base when he was in the area. No one was injured in that event. There is no verification beyond Moore’s own accounts of him coming under fire, with bullets coming close enough that he could hear them whizzing by his ears, while he was off-base.

Indeed, Gottschling’s account that Moore was never involved in "direct action" contradicts stories Moore has told about experiencing combat firsthand in Afghanistan, further tarnishing his gold-plated résumé, which includes incredible claims about his family history, his place of birth, and his athletic, academic, and military achievements, many of which have crumbled under scrutiny...

Walter Mooretty is sticking to his truths.

...Moore has not been dialing down his claims of valor. In May of this year, he gave an address at Valley Forge Military Academy, where a cadet introduced him as having "led troops in combat." Moore did not correct the cadet. The governor has used his stories of seeing combat in Afghanistan to bolster his public image and justify the decisions he’s made as Maryland’s governor since 2023. He told CBS News in 2025 that he "served my country in combat" to justify his opposition to what he called President Donald Trump’s "disrespectful" proposal to deploy troops to help reduce violent crime in Baltimore. In 2022, he posted on X that he "led soldiers into combat in Afghanistan." In 2021, Moore told Baltimore Orioles owner David Rubenstein on a podcast that he "led a group of paratroopers" and participated in a firefight within days of his arrival in Afghanistan.

But no documentary Army evidence exists corroborating any of those incidents or of the dramatic account Moore wrote in The Work, Spotlight on Maryland reported. The only available evidence that Moore was ever in danger during his tour (of about seven months) in Afghanistan was the Combat Action Badge for the rockets landing on his base.

Although he does admit to being inartful in his language choices at times.

..."There’s maybe ways I could have articulated things differently, but it still doesn’t take away from what we experienced and what we did, and what, frankly, I’m still dealing with," Moore said.

A guy who claims he's got a doctorate (or is still working on one - still unclear) from Oxford can't speak clearly?

OKAY

The Moussa fella who earlier called everyone a racist over the missing Master's thesis at Oxford tried some damage control, and was being shredded in the comments under his defense to within an inch of his life.

The man has obviously never read a fitness report.

And Moore would have been better served not having put that out there.

YOICKS

There's a question.

What doesn't make any sense to me is that Moore doesn't have to, but still did.

Embellishments is a kind word for what he does. For what he's been doing.

And he wants to be president.

He is a Democrat, so he's already got that going for him. They don't seem to mind that sort of thing.

But there are enough phonies and crooks in this world without elevating a stolen valor fabulist. 

I don't care how polished he looks on the outside.

It's the rotten core I want nothing to do with.