‘Watching Senator Richard Blumenthal Speak of Comey Is a Joke’ Says Trump
President Donald Trump and his top advisers were stunned there was outrage over Tuesday’s firing of FBI Director Jim Comey. Wholly unprepared for the criticism and pushback, the White House waited hours before dispatching administration officials to try to frame the decision.Â
But as usual, rather than speak to the American people as a leader, President Trump opted to take to Twitter to defend his firing of the man in charge of the most important investigation into his possible ties to and collusion with Russia. And by the tone of his tweets, it’s clear he is out of control.
Wednesday morning, Trump posted an attack on Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, one of the most respected Senators on either side of the aisle. Blumenthal appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Wednesday morning, and called for an independent special prosecutor. He also noted Comey had refused to say the FBI is not investigating the President, and apparently that’s what set Trump off:
What did the President of the United States have to say about this interview?
“Watching Senator Richard Blumenthal speak of Comey is a joke. ‘Richie’ devised one of the greatest military frauds in U.S. history. For years, as a pol in Connecticut, Blumenthal would talk of his great bravery and conquests in Vietnam – except he was never there. When caught, he cried like a baby and begged for forgiveness…and now he is judge & jury. He should be the one who is investigated for his acts.”
That’s a flat-out lie, pure and simple.
In 2010, when Blumenthal, was running for the Senate seat he now holds, he was accused of misspeaking about his service during Vietnam. On a few occasions he made statements like this one: “We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam.” But during that same speech he also made clear he “served in the military during the Vietnam era.”Â
Blumenthal was a Sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, serving from 1970-1976. He was also the U.S. Attorney for Connecticut, and was the Connecticut Attorney General, serving for five terms. Blumenthal also served in the Connecticut House of Representatives and Connecticut Senate.
Commander-in-Chief Donald Trump never served in the military but received five draft deferments – “Four for College, One for Bad Feet,” The New York Times reported last year:
Back in 1968, at the age of 22, Donald J. Trump seemed the picture of health.
He stood 6 feet 2 inches with an athletic build; had played football, tennis and squash; and was taking up golf. His medical history was unblemished, aside from a routine appendectomy when he was 10.
But after he graduated from college in the spring of 1968, making him eligible to be drafted and sent to Vietnam, he received a diagnosis that would change his path: bone spurs in his heels.
But Trump calls Blumenthal’s less-than-specific characterization of his six to seven years serving the Marines “one of the greatest military frauds in U.S. history.”
Some responses via Twitter:
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