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President Donald Trump attacked Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., for misleading voters, making some false claims of his own in the process.
“Senator Richard Blumenthal must talk about his fraudulent service in Vietnam, where for 12 years he told the people of Connecticut, as their Attorney General, that he was a great Marine War Hero. Talked about his many battles of near death, but was never in Vietnam. Total Phony!” Trump tweeted.
The president has made similar remarks on Blumenthal’s admitted falsehoods—we fact checked another claim last year—but the president exaggerated them even further today, saying the senator had once claimed to be a war hero.
Blumenthal did lead voters to believe he was a Vietnam veteran when, in fact, he was never deployed to Vietnam. He obtained at least five deferments and later served in the Marine Reserve in the Washington, D.C. area, according to the New York Times’ 2010 expose.
There’s no evidence Blumenthal boasted of near-death experiences, or claimed to be a war hero—his documented false claims were vague lines about returning back from war or serving in Vietnam.
He later apologized for misrepresenting his service, saying he regretted saying he’d served “in” Vietnam instead of “during” Vietnam.
The Times found instances of Blumenthal mislead on his war service dating back seven years to 2003 and instances where the press reported that Blumenthal was a Vietnam veteran for at least a decade; it’s unclear if the senator’s false claims extended over 12 years back, though.
Blumenthal was in the spotlight this week as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He questioned Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh over his past remarks about partying and women, arguing that they were inconsistent with his present testimony and cited a legal principle often given to jurors, that they can disbelieve a witness if they find them to be false in one thing.
“The core of why we’re here today really is credibility,” Blumenthal said.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., attacked Blumenthal for those remarks, saying he should reconsider his line of questioning because of his past false claims about Vietnam. Cotton served in Afghanistan and Iraq.