Video of Blumenthal: "I did not serve in Vietnam"

Video of Blumenthal: "I did not serve in Vietnam"

Here's some video of Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who is under fire for embellishing his war record, stating clearly earlier this year: "I did not serve Vietnam."

The video, which was sent over by the DSCC, will be central to Blumenthal's damage control efforts in the wake of The New York Time's stunning report saying Blumenthal never served in Vietnam despite repeatedly suggesting otherwise. The pushback from Blumenthal, the heavy favorite to win the Senate race, will be that Blumenthal did not intend to deceive.

To be clear, the video does not get Blumenthal off the hook for his previous claims to having served. But the video, which is from a debate in March, suggests that Blumenthal was not wedded in all settings to maintaining the fiction that he did active duty:

In the vid, Blumenthal said:

"Although I did not serve in Vietnam, I have seen firsthand the effects of military action, and no one wants it to be the first resort, nor do we want to mortgage the country's future with a deficit that is ballooning out of control."

VIDEO HERE - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/05/video_of_blumenthal_i_never_se.html

Hello Tim Kaine, can you hear me?

blumenthal blatantly lied continuously about this, and did nothing to correct the record until he was caught

he doesn't deserve the nomination

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/nyregion/18blumenthal.html?pagewanted=all

He intentionally misled people

I do not like liars

This is not an embellishment, this is a premeditated effort to misrepresent

Don't worry, I have the upmost confidence that the Democrats will do nothing, and blumenthal will be the candidate

The rest are reporters who reported he served in Vietnam, or quotes where he said he served during Vietnam, which is true. So, yes, I find the article lacking in facts (he said "I served in Vietnam" rather than "I served during Vietnam", which was wrong, but hardly worth that much ink.).

The OP quotes a case where he said he did not serve in Vietnam (from a few months ago), and that the Times ignored in his article, which is basically why I find the article poorly written.

But I imagine there are other reasons you dislike Blumenthal.

the point isn't that he lied or misrepresented himself once or twice, but he continued to do it

You imply there are other reasons I don't like blumenthal. That is wrong.

First I am from California, so I know very little about him, however, I do have very strong feelings about people misrepresenting their service record especially during Viet Nam, when over 60000 Americans died

Incidently, on Bloomberg, which is the only "news/business" network I watch, Blumenthal himself says that he regrets distorting the record

Even though I don't agree with your interpretation of his record, I do appreciate that you rebuttal ed with your points

Susan Bysiewicz, the Sec of State, is running for AG, Malloy and Lamont are running for Governor, Dodd's name is poison. What candidate do we get to beat name recognition like McMahon has with her millions? She will most likely win the Rethug primary. It is Blumenthal or get a no name candidate and lose anyway. You had best hope Blumenthal weathers the storm here. He is ahead McMahon about 15 points in polling right now. Even if this draws him even with her it is better then a nothing candidate.

while she is very negative against Lieberman, I would think he is fairly popular in the State.

She said outright that she and her campaign gave info about it to the NYT. She obviously new she couldn't beat him on the issues alone. Now, this is still Blumenthal's issue and his fault. But Pro-Sense pointed out on another thread that he made the misstatement before he made the correct statement about his service in the debate in March. I will need to look more into that. The truth is, I have no idea who else we could run to beat McMahon.

Kennedy's seat, and if this is all Connecticut has in the time given, then I would have to say it is better he wins then a republican gets it. However, it is an extremely stupid thing for him to misrepresent his public record

I don't watch the MSM, but I can imagine what they are saying about it today. You have to believe also that if he runs against the republican who was a Viet Nam war vet, that they will use it against him

I guess I also hope the wrestler wins the repuke nomination

Another point, how stupid can a person be to not believe that military service would be examined?

Blumenthal may be all we have right now, mistakes and all.

especially when I think about it non-emotionally

It just really frustrates me because 2010 is going to be tough enough, and we don't need this kind of baggage

I hope the damage control works

:shrug:

He really should step down at this point. I wouldn't vote for him. Here is the video of him lying


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3KgsgRfjhQ

jump to 24 seconds.

and the best they can hope for is that damage control works

It really frustrates me why stupid things are done, when they are not necessary

He even tapped on his chest when he said it.

I don't see what's so hard to understand... he lied.

.