Trump tweet tweaks Blumenthal over Vietnam

The Tweeter in Chief has dredged up an 8-year-old issue against U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal that state voters thoroughly ignored in 2010 when he defeated Linda McMahon, and again in 2016, when the senator was re-elected with a million votes.

President Donald Trump, whose Vietnam-era service was precluded by a doctor’s diagnosis of bone spurs, late Thursday attacked Blumenthal in a tweet that contained at least three factual errors and — arguably — a spelling mistake:

“How can “Senator” Richard Blumenthal, who went around for twenty years as a Connecticut politician bragging that he was a great Marine war hero in Vietnam (then got caught and sobbingly admitted he was neither a Marine nor ever in Vietnam), pass judgement (sic) on anyone? Loser!”

Blumenthal, whose resistance — along with U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy — to many of Trump’s political ploys and policies, from immigration to gun safety, has helped lead Democrats in Congress, replied to the president with criticism of his own.

In an interview Friday with Hearst Connecticut

Media, Blumenthal, who served with the Marine Corps Reserve from 1970 until 1976, dismissed the president’s charge.

“He’s not going to silence me with his ridiculous attacks,” said Blumenthal who before reaching the Senate was a state senator and longtime state attorney general. “He’s not going to silence former CIA director) John Brennan or silence the press. This is a democracy. I will continue to speak out.”

During the 2010 campaign, Blumenthal apologized for saying in 2008 that he served in Vietnam. Later, his commanding officer came to Blumenthal’s defense, saying that the slip was minor and that Blumenthal served honorably in the reserves.

So factually, Trump’s tweet is wrong about Blumenthal’s “bragging that he was a great war hero in Vietnam.” He did not tout “for 20 years” that proposition. He was indeed a Marine Corps reservist and thus, was in the Marines.

Finally, “judgment” is not usually spelled with an ‘e’ in the middle. The Oxford English Dictionary says it’s wrong: “In British English the normal spelling in general contexts is judgement. However, the spelling judgment is conventional in legal contexts, and in North American English.”

Contributed photo During a late-night tweet on Thursday, President Donald Trump, who avoided military service during the Vietnam War after he was diagnosed with bone spurs, attacked U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who served with the Marine Corps Reserves during that era.

Blumenthal

Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media Richard Blumenthal, then Connecticut’s Attorney General, speaks at a news conference at the Hannon-Hatch VFW, in West Hartford on May 18, 2010, where he was joined in support by members of the Marine Corps League. At the event, Blumenthal addressed accusations that he had previously said he had served in the Vietnam War.

Evan Vucci / Associated Press During a late-night tweet on Thursday, President Donald Trump, who avoided military service during the Vietnam War after he was diagnosed with bone spurs, attacked U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who served with the Marine Corps Reserves during that era.