Just before 7 am this morning, President Donald Trump decided to launch an attack on Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a low-key liberal Democrat with a safe seat who committed the crime of praising Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, appellate Judge Neil Gorsuch.
Trump: No, my Supreme Court nominee didn’t criticize me. (Nominee’s spokesperson: Yes, he did.)
The Vietnam War also comes up.
Specifically, Blumenthal told the Wall Street Journal that he had discussed some of Trump’s attacks on the federal judiciary with Gorsuch, and Gorsuch told him that the attacks “were demoralizing and disheartening — those were his words.”
Trump fired back, calling Blumenthal a liar and launching into an unrelated disparagement of Blumenthal’s Vietnam-era military service.
Sen.Richard Blumenthal, who never fought in Vietnam when he said for years he had (major lie),now misrepresents what Judge Gorsuch told him?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2017
It is true that Blumenthal secured a position as a Marine reservist during the Vietnam War, did not deploy overseas, and at times in the past spoke about this service in a misleading way.
Donald Trump did not serve in the military in any capacity. He graduated from college in 1968, and received a 1-Y medical exemption from the draft on the basis of bone spurs in his heels. Up until graduation day, Trump had been apparently healthy — playing football, tennis, and squash in college — but things apparently took a turn for the worse once he was no longer eligible for education deferments.
Watch: How to cover a lying president
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By Daniel Hemel and David Herzig
