Richard blumenthal vietnam lies snopes

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has issued a formal apology for inaccurately portraying his military service during the Vietnam War -- nearly a week after the Democratic candidate for Senate was first confronted with allegations of misleading voters.

Blumenthal said in an e-mail to The Hartford Courant late Sunday that he has taken "responsibility" for his statements.

"I have made mistakes and I am sorry.

Richard blumenthal vietnam lies snopes More Contact Us. That's the sort of phrasing that lets people think he was in Vietnam without actually crossing the line into being a falsehood. After checking an archive of Connecticut newspapers, we confirmed two separate statements in which Blumenthal either claimed or strongly implied that he had played a role in combat operations in Vietnam. Claim: Senator Richard Blumenthal misrepresented his record of military service during the Vietnam War.

I truly regret offending anyone," he said. "I will always champion the cause of Connecticut's and our nation's veterans."

Blumenthal is under fire for saying, on several occasions, that he served in the Vietnam War when he was a Marine reservist who never left U.S. soil. He held a press conference last Tuesday to express regret for the claims.

But he did not formally apologize at the time and claimed that public misstatements about his Vietnam service, first published in The New York Times, were unintentional and rare.

Since the Times report was published, local newspapers have unearthed more statements showing Blumenthal claiming he served "in" the Vietnam War, as opposed to during it.

Republican candidate Linda McMahon, former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, called Blumenthal's apology on Sunday "hollow."

"The statement Dick Blumenthal released in the dead of night yesterday cannot be construed as an apology because it ignores what is at the heart of the controversy surrounding him: false and misleading statements designed to deceive," she said in a written statement.

Still, the top official in charge of electing Democrats said Sunday the controversy won't mar his reputation.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine said Sunday that Blumental was wrong to say that he had served in the Vietnam War, but that he's a known and reliable official for Connecticut voters.

"The interesting thing about Connecticut pretty intimate state.

Richard blumenthal wife But Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said Blumenthal, who got five deferments to avoid going to war, can't possibly have an excuse for claiming he was in Vietnam when he wasn't. This nomination would forever stain the Supreme Court in a way that I think may well be irreparable. There was one problem: Mr. As the New York Times first reported, Blumenthal, who got at least five deferments that kept him out of the war, has made reference to "the days that I served in Vietnam.

People tend to know their political leaders. And Attorney General Blumenthal has served for a lengthy period of time, got a very strong track record on military and veterans issues, for example," Kaine told "Fox News Sunday."

"What the voters of Connecticut will wrestle with as the attorney general, somebody that they've known -- he's been in office a long time.

I think they have a sense of who he is," Kaine added.

But Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said Blumenthal, who got five deferments to avoid going to war, can't possibly have an excuse for claiming he was in Vietnam when he wasn't.

"The statements were knowingly wrong. I mean, you know what you did and when you did it and how you did it," Steele said.

"He knowingly misrepresented what he did. And that's a serious concern for a lot of voters out there."

Video and newspaper articles showed him several times suggesting he had served in country during the war, including in a Connecticut Post article in which he was quoted saying, "When we returned from Vietnam, I remember the taunts, the verbal and even physical abuse we encountered."

The attorney general did win the endorsement of the state Democratic Party over the weekend.

Sen richard blumenthal vietnam lies In a May investigation , the Times reported that Blumenthal, then Connecticut's attorney general, had on a handful of occasions given a misleading or inaccurate picture of his military service during the Vietnam War, including stating that "I served in Vietnam":. Even serving in the Reserves, Blumenthal could plausibly claim to have remembered the taunts that greeted troops. It doesn't make sense to the American people," he said. Blumenthal is under fire for saying, on several occasions, that he served in the Vietnam War when he was a Marine reservist who never left U.

World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon, who took credit for finding the misstatements, won GOP backing. Both the Democratic and Republican primaries are in August.

Kaine said he thought Blumenthal had occasionally gotten away from himself in the moment of speech-making but had corrected the record.

He said veterans had not been misled into thinking he had served in Vietnam with them, and voters will "weigh this in the grand scheme of things" and find his record is reliable.

But Steele said Blumenthal holding a press conference to clarify his remarks won't stop people from questioning his credibility.

"You can't say, well, you know, on the one instance, I lied to you, but on the other, since I made up for it by explaining why I lied to you.

It doesn't make sense to the American people," he said.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, added that Blumenthal damaged his reputation as trustworthy not only by misrepresenting his record but by then trying to patch up the situation.

"The only worse thing, I think, is then coming on and saying, 'Oh, I misspoke,' after you've been caught red-handed," Cornyn said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "It's as if he shot himself in one foot, then reloaded and shot himself in the other."