Attorney General Richard Blumenthal defended himself Tuesday following a front-page article in The New York Times and a widely circulated video that showed him saying that he served in Vietnam.
With veterans standing behind him at a VFW Hall in West Hartford, Blumenthal said he regrets the times that he has misspoken about his service during the war.
When he misspoke, Blumenthal said it was “absolutely unintentional” and “totally unintentional.”
“On a few occasions, I have misspoken about my service, and I regret that,” Blumenthal said. “But I will not allow anyone to take a few missplaced words and impugn my record of service to my country. I served in the United States Marine Corps Reserves, and I am proud of it.”
Regarding a statement from his campaign that The New York Times story was a distortion, he said, “The article denigrates service in the reserves. … It really implies there were some special favors or treatment involved.”
He mentioned several times that, despite his Ivy League background at Harvard College and high-profile positions at a young age, he did not receive any special treatment in the military.
Blumenthal, the front runner for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate, declined to comment about the role of Republican Linda McMahon’s campaign in providing information to the New York Times.
“I’m not going to say anything more,” Blumenthal said of the McMahon campaign.
In an uncharacteristic move, Blumenthal eventually cut off questioning from reporters and ended the news conference shortly before 2:40 p.m.
Regarding his military history, Blumenthal spoke in detail about how he came to serve.
“I volunteered to join the United States Marine Corps Reserves 40 years ago,” he said in his opening remarks at the news conference. “I went to boot camp at Parris Island.”
“I looked them up in a phonebook. No special help,” Blumenthal said. “Unlike many of my peers, I chose to join the military and serve my country. … There were no special favors.
As he has said many times in the past at veterans’ ceremonies at the state Capitol and around Connecticut, Blumenthal noted Tuesday that he reached the rank of sergeant before receiving an honorable discharge.
“I am proud of my service in the United States Marine Corps,” he said. “I am prouder still that my oldest son, Matthew, is serving in the United States Marine Corps Reserve.”
- Blumenthal’s Claims About Having Served In Vietnam Being Challenged
- What was the McMahon campaign’s role in the Blumenthal bombshell?
- Rob Simmons: Dick Blumenthal Owes An Apology To Vietnam Veterans; Says Linda McMahon Lied, Too
As one of the best-known politicians in Connecticut and a national figure as an attorney general with 20 years of service, Blumenthal has been the subject of feature articles for years.
“I can’t be responsible for all the mistakes in all the articles – thousands of them,” Blumenthal said of stories that have been written about him through the years.
Blumenthal was introduced by Peter Galgano, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who said that the allegations were “malicious” against Blumenthal.
“Every Marine Corps ball I’ve attended since 2004,” Blumenthal was there, Galgano said. “Marine Corps balls, funerals, homecomings, send-offs. … Through the hardest times, Dick Blumenthal has always, always been there for us. … He has always been completely straightforward about his honorable service in the Marine Corps Reserves.”
The incident in Norwalk in 2008 was “one quote where he misspoke,” Galgano said. “I could see where that quote could have been misread.”
During Galgano’s introduction, a veteran shouted, “Semper Fi!”
“He has always stood by us, and we are proud to stand by him,” Galgano said.
Jean Risley, chairperson of the Connecticut Vietnam Veterans Memorial who brought the Vietnam Wall to Coventry, said, “I’ve known Dick Blumenthal for many, many years. … We’ve gone to homecomings. We’ve gone to send-offs. … We’ve been at funerals. … In all that time, I never once heard him say that he was in Vietnam. I did hear him say how passionately he felt about our veterans and how we had to honor them.”
“There isn’t a nicer, more honorable, more responsive advocate for our Vietnam veterans, our veterans in general, than Dick Blumenthal,” Risley said.