Free Daily Headlines :

  • COVID-19
  • Money
  • Election 2020
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Health
  • Justice
  • More
    • Environment
    • Economic Development
    • Gaming
    • Investigations
    • Social Services
    • TRANSPORTATION
  • Opinion
    • CT Viewpoints
    • CT Artpoints
DONATE
Reflecting Connecticut’s Reality.
    COVID-19
    Money
    Election 2020
    Politics
    Education
    Health
    Justice
    More
    Environment
    Economic Development
    Gaming
    Investigations
    Social Services
    TRANSPORTATION
    Opinion
    CT Viewpoints
    CT Artpoints

LET�S GET SOCIAL

Show your love for great stories and out standing journalism

Blumenthal says he ‘misspoke’ about military service

  • by Mark Pazniokas
  • May 18, 2010
  • View as "Clean Read" "Exit Clean Read"

WEST HARTFORD – In a nationally-televised news conference, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal denied Tuesday that he lied about his military service or pulled strings to avoid the draft during the Vietnam War.

Blumenthal, who was a stateside Marine Corps reservist during the war, acknowledged that he “misspoke” in 2008 when he told an audience in Norwalk, “We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam.”

“I may have misspoken — I did misspeak — on a few occasions out of hundreds that I’ve attended, whether events or ceremonies,” said Blumenthal, a U.S. Senate candidate whose official biography correctly lists his service as a reservist.

Blumenthal was responding a New York Times story that described him as frequently leaving audiences with the impression he served in Vietnam and, on two occasions, explicitly referring to being in or coming home from Vietnam.

blumenthal and vets 5-19-10

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is flanked by veterans as he denies lying about his military service (Jacqueline Rabe)

He spoke on stage at a VFW Post, surrounded by veterans, at a hastily arranged press conference to limit damage from the story as he is preparing to accept the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate at a convention Friday.

A composed Blumenthal, facing a bank of more than a dozen television cameras, offered an expression of regret, but no apology.

“I will not allow anyone to take a few of those misplaced words and impugn my record of service,” Blumenthal said. “I regret that I misspoke on those occasions. I take full responsibility for it.”

He took issue with The Times’ suggestion of special treatment. The paper said Blumenthal “landed a coveted spot” in Reserves as the last of his five draft deferments was in jeopardy, exposing him to the draft while he was working in the White House for presidential counselor Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

“You want to know how I got into the Marine Corps Reserves? I looked them up in the phone book. No special help. No special privileges. I joined the Reserves by picking up a phone and signing up,” Blumenthal said, reading from a text.

Rob Simmons, a former congressman and decorated Vietnam veteran seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, said Blumenthal’s explanation was inadequate.

“I am unsatisfied with Attorney General Blumenthal’s comments. While I’m not surprised that he ‘regrets’ that his misstatements have been called to the public’s attention, what he owes is an apology to the veterans, who served and sacrificed in Vietnam,” Simmons said.

But Simmons also supported Blumenthal on one point: He said he never was under the misimpression that Blumenthal had served in Vietnam. It was the same point made by Blumenthal’s supporters at the VFW. All described hearing him always precisely note that he had been in the Reserves, not on active duty in Vietnam.

About the same time Blumenthal spoke, the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee in Washington released a list of eight news accounts dating back to 2002 in which Blumenthal accurately characterized his service as a Marine reservist.

“He has always been completely straightforward about his honorable service in the Marine Corps Reserve,” Peter Galgano of the Marine Corps League of Connecticut said at the news conference. “It is outrageous for anyone to take one quote where he misspoke and attack him on it.”

Jean Risley, the sister of an Army medic killed in Vietnam and the organizer of an effort to build a Vietnam Memorial in Connecticut, said she has heard Blumenthal speak passionately about the war and veterans.

“I have heard him speak many times of his service in the Marine Reserves, and in all that time I never once heard that he was in Vietnam,” she said.

The campaign of Simmons’ rival for the GOP nomination, Linda McMahon, fell silent.

McMahon’s communications director, Ed Patru, told The Mirror on Monday night that the campaign had found and forwarded to The Times a video of Blumenthal’s Norwalk speech in 2008.

On Tuesday, after a day of criticism about its role in the story, the McMahon forces seemed to leave the field, at least temporarily.

McMahon’s campaign web page late Monday evening posted, “In Case You Missed It: McMahon Strikes Blumenthal In NYT Article.”

The post references a blog by Kevin Rennie, a Hartford Courant columnist and former Republican legislator, that credited the McMahon campaign with two months of “deep, persistent research by Republican Linda McMahon’s Senate Campaign. It gave the explosive Norwalk video recording to The Times.”

That post has since been taken down from her web site, but the full-length video of almost 6 minutes, compared to the 58-second clip on The Times’ site, still is posted on her campaign’s You Tube Channel. In that same speech, Blumenthal did say he “served in the military during the Vietnam era.”

Blumenthal had no extensive comment on McMahon’s involvement, saying only, “I think the timing speaks for itself.”

Sign up for CT Mirror's free daily news summary.

Free to Read. Not Free to Produce.

The Connecticut Mirror is a nonprofit newsroom. 90% of our revenue comes from people like you. If you value our reporting please consider making a donation. You'll enjoy reading CT Mirror even more knowing you helped make it happen.

YES, I'LL DONATE TODAY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mark Pazniokas

SEE WHAT READERS SAID

RELATED STORIES
With limited supply, Lamont asks for patience on COVID vaccine
by Mark Pazniokas

Nearly 1.4 million Connecticut residents will be eligible for vaccination next, but the state only gets 45,000 doses a week.

Lamont: ‘I don’t want to build Killingly’ Energy Center
by Jan Ellen Spiegel

The governor hinted at slowing permitting and being able to “play some games there.”

Advocates call for closure of Northern Correctional, reinvestment in community supports
by Kelan Lyons

The coalition says the $19 million spent annually to run the prison can help provide housing services and employment.

Miguel Cardona’s ideas about education were forged in Meriden, CT. Now he will bring them to Washington, D.C.
by Jacqueline Rabe Thomas and Adria Watson

Miguel Cardona's experiences in Meriden will likely be front-of-mind as he coordinates policy as U.S. Secretary of Education.

State Rep. Scanlon launches tax fairness debate with proposed $450M break for poor, middle class families
by Keith M. Phaneuf

A new proposal Tuesday would give middle class families with children their largest state income tax break in a decade.

Support Our Work

Show your love for great stories and outstanding journalism.

$
Select One
  • Monthly
  • Yearly
  • Once
Artpoint painter
CT ViewpointsCT Artpoints
Opinion The change in leadership must not lead to complacency
by Jenna Van Donselaar

We are beginning 2021, and most people are far done with election talk. Sure, the polls are closed, and the results are in, and it is time to move on. I am weary from the hours I spent texting voters this fall, and I’d like to think all my efforts were worth it. But the work is far from done.

Opinion Treason is in the air
by David Holahan

Abraham Lincoln had been elected but had yet to assume the presidency when southern states started seceding from the Union in the months before his March 4, 1961 inauguration. Four others would follow that spring. American soldiers —like Robert E. Lee, who had taken an oath of loyalty to the nation that he had served since 1825— defected to the Confederacy. By joining the rebellion Lee and fellow travellers became, in effect, traitors.

Opinion Trump’s reaction to defeat further confirms urgency for school focus on social emotional skills 
by Sandra M. Chafouleas 

Imagine what would happen if a preschooler didn’t “use their words” when they got upset about sharing, instead stomping around yelling while adults simply observed in silence. Think about what the school climate would feel like if a student punched another during recess while others watched without seeking help.  Now consider the actions – and inactions – by Trump Jan. 6 as the electoral vote counts occurred at the U.S. Capitol.

Opinion Is Trump leading a cult?
by Elena Sada

My experience as a former cult member and researcher in the field of Social Sciences earned me the ability to identify narcissism and cultish tendencies. Furthermore, as a former  New York City resident who kept abreast of interviews with the city’s apparent “movers and shakers,” I often questioned Trump’s qualifications as a leader, let alone as national presidential leader.

Artwork Grand guidance
by Anne:Gogh

In a world of systemic oppression aimed towards those of darker skintones – representation matters. We are more than our equity elusive environments, more than numbers in a prison and much more than victims of societal dispositions. This piece depicts a melanated young man draped in a cape ascending high above multiple forms of oppression. […]

Artwork Shea
by Anthony Valentine

Shea is a story about race and social inequalities that plague America. It is a narrative that prompts the question, “Do you know what it’s like to wake up in new skin?”

Artwork The Declaration of Human Rights
by Andres Chaparro

Through my artwork I strive to create an example of ideas that reflect my desire to raise social consciousness, and cultural awareness. Jazz music is the catalyst to all my work, and plays a major influence in each piece of work.”

Artwork ‘A thing of beauty. Destroy it forever’
by Richard DiCarlo | Derby

During times like these it’s often fun to revisit something familiar and approach things with a different slant. I have been taking some Pop culture and Art masterpieces and applying the vintage 1960’s and 70’s classic figures (Fisher Price, little people) to the make an amusing pieces. Here is my homage to Fisher -Price, Yellow […]

Twitter Feed
A Twitter List by CTMirror

Engage

  • Reflections Tickets & Sponsorships
  • Events
  • Donate
  • Newsletter Sign-Up
  • Submit to Viewpoints
  • Submit to ArtPoints
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Commenting Guidelines
  • Legal Notices
  • Contact Us

About

  • About CT Mirror
  • Announcements
  • Board
  • Staff
  • Sponsors and Funders
  • Donors
  • Friends of CT Mirror
  • History
  • Financial
  • Policies
  • Strategic Plan

Opportunity

  • Advertising and Sponsorship
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Use of Photography
  • Work for Us

Go Deeper

  • Steady Habits Podcast
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Five Things

The Connecticut News Project, Inc. 1049 Asylum Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105. Phone: 860-218-6380

© Copyright 2021, The Connecticut News Project. All Rights Reserved. Website by Web Publisher PRO