Trump attacks Dem senator on Twitter

President Donald Trump on Monday lashed out at Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, calling him a “phony Vietnam con artist” after the lawmaker expressed strong support for a special counsel’s probe of Russia meddling in the election and possible collusion with Trump campaign officials.

In a series of tweets from his vacation site in New Jersey, Trump dismissed the “hoax Russian collusion” and revived a 2010 embarrassment for Blumenthal. The Connecticut lawmaker, a Marine Corps reservist during Vietnam, had to apologize for saying he had served in the war.

Blumenthal later responded to Trump on Twitter, saying: “Mr. President: Your bullying hasn’t worked before and it won’t work now. No one is above the law.”

Nine hours after the tweetstorm, Trump was back at it again, with a new broadside against Blumenthal via Twitter: “I think Senator Blumenthal should take a nice long vacation in Vietnam, where he lied about his service, so he can at least say he was there.”

Trump’s own military history has come up before. During the Vietnam War, Trump got four draft deferments for being a college student that allowed him to avoid compulsory military service.

After that, he received a fifth deferment for bone spurs in his heels. He called the condition “temporary” and “minor” in an interview last year with The New York Times.