Vietnam

President Trump Takes Jab at Senator Blumenthal from Vietnam

President Donald Trump is in Vietnam for his second summit with Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, and he took a jab on Twitter at U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal about misstatements the senator made years ago about serving in Vietnam. 

In May 2010, the New York Times reported that Blumenthal inaccurately portrayed his military service in several instances. The story included quotes and a video of Blumenthal saying at an event years earlier that he had “served in Vietnam” when he actually served stateside for six years in the Marine Reserve, after completing six months in Marine boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina.  

Blumenthal, who was the state's popular attorney general and running for U.S. Senate at the time the Times report came out, acknowledged he had “misspoken” and meant to say he served “during Vietnam” instead of “in Vietnam.” 

He said the statements were “totally unintentional” errors that occurred only a few times out of hundreds of public appearances. 

Months later, Blumenthal went on to defeat Republican and former WWE CEO Linda McMahon in the November election. McMahon now serves in the Trump administration as Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration. 

President Trump Tweeted early Wednesday morning that he has now spent more time in Vietnam than the senator and went on to say he spoke with Vietnam’s leaders about Blumenthal. 

This is not the first time Trump has taken a jab at Blumenthal and brought up the misstatements. 

In 2017, Trump went after Blumenthal on Twitter in response to the senator’s comments on the dismissal of FBI Director James Comey.  

Months later, the president criticized Blumenthal on Twitter for passing judgment on the Russian collusion investigation and said that Blumenthal had little right to do so.  

In October, Trump launched another verbal attack at Blumenthal during a news conference about the revised North American trade deal with Canada and Mexico when questions turned to issues surrounding the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh for the U.S. Supreme Court. Blumenthal was critical of Kavanaugh nomination. 

After that news conference, Blumenthal responded on Twitter and Tweeted, “There he goes again. I won’t be stopped or silenced by President Trump’s false personal attacks.”

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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