July 25, 2015: When Gov. Scott Walker delivered his presidential campaign kickoff speech, he gave a friendly shout-out to Kevin Hermening, crediting the financial planner from Wausau with helping him form his policies on Iran.
“He knows that Iran is not a place we should be doing business with,” Walker said during the July 13 speech. “Iran hasn’t changed much since he and the other hostages were released on President Reagan’s first day in office.”
Hermening, a Marine guard at the time, was among the 52 Americans held hostage in the American embassy in Tehran for 444 days between 1979 and 1981.”
“ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has a reason for aggressively opposing the nuclear deal with Iran — and it’s personal.
Neither his foreign policy adviser nor a member of his inner circle has shaped the Republican presidential candidate’s position. Walker’s deep distrust for Iran instead comes from his long friendship with one of the Americans held hostage for 444 days more than three decades ago.
Kevin Hermening was a 20-year-old Marine sergeant stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 when militant Iran students overran the building and captured him and 51 others. Thirty-five years after his release, Hermening has become the face of Walker’s foreign policy, as the two-term governor works to build credibility on a high-stakes issue heading into the 2016 presidential contest.
Hermening was in the crowd as Walker formally launched his presidential campaign this past week, and the candidate acknowledged him by name with a salute and a nod.
“He knows that Iran is not a place we should be doing business with,” Walker said in his speech. “We need to terminate the bad deal with Iran on day one, put in place crippling economic sanctions and convince our allies to do the same.”......
Um...ok. Relevance to the question of ACTUALLY getting those hostages freed?