The New York Times says a longer video of the March 2008 speech in which Richard Blumenthal said he “served in Vietnam” — and in which he also also correctly says he served “during Vietnam” — doesn’t change its story about Blumenthal lying about his record. A Times spokesman also urged Blumenthal to come clean to voters.
“The New York Times in its reporting uncovered Mr. Blumenthal’s long and well established pattern of misleading his constituents about his Vietnam War service, which he acknowledged in an interview with The Times,” said Diane McNulty, a spokesman for the Times. “The video doesn’t change our story. Saying that he served ‘during Vietnam’ doesn’t indicate one way or the other whether he went to Vietnam.”
“Mr. Blumenthal needs to be candid with his constituents about whether he went to Vietnam or not, since his official military records clearly indicate he did not,” she said.
The Times published a story earlier this week reporting that Blumenthal, Connecticut’s attorney general and the frontrunner for Chris Dodd’s Senate seat, has misrepresented his military record, telling voters he served in Vietnam. In fact, he served in the Marine Corps Reserves during the war, but was never deployed overseas.
Although the Times had several examples, its strongest was the 2008 speech when Blumenthal plainly says he “served in Vietnam.” But he’s also described troops coming home from Vietnam using the pronoun “we,” and several Connecticut newspaper profiles have described him as a Vietnam veteran.
The attorney general defended himself, saying he misspoke unintentionally.
