The national fallout continues as Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal became a topic of conversation Sunday on “Meet The Press” in a nearly week-long string of widespread attention over comments he has made about serving in Vietnam.
The story broke last week on The New York Times web site, including a video of Blumenthal saying in 2008 in Norwalk that he served in Vietnam. He apologized for the remarks Sunday night in an e-mail to The Hartford Courant.
On NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Blumenthal was defended by Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. He noted that some veterans rallied around Blumenthal at his press conference last week in the same way “as he’s had their back” in the past on various issues.
Menendez also criticized Republican convention nominee Linda McMahon, whose campaign researched Blumenthal’s background in the Vietnam era. Menendez said that professional wrestling is “a dirty business,” and that the excesses of wrestling are done “all for the purposes of making money.”
But Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, Menendez’s counterpart for the Republicans, said Blumenthal “has damaged his reputation … by misrepresenting his record.”
“Meet The Press” is one of many national shows that have focused attention on Blumenthal over the past week.
McMahon was interviewed on the Fox News Channel by conservative host Sean Hannity, who seemed to be out of the loop by suggesting that the McMahon campaign had absolutely nothing to do with the New York Times report on Blumenthal.
“And you had no role whatsover in The New York Times breaking the story?” Hannity asked.
“No,” McMahon responded, noting that her campaign had a role in the story. “We contributed some research, you know, to the story for the New York Times, but they initiated. They did the research. They did all the verification for it.”
Earlier, Hannity asked, “How do we characterize this? Chronic liar? What’s the word you are using to describe his behavior? … This was not one time. This was multiple times.”
“He’s just not leveling with the people of Connecticut, and they sense it,” McMahon said.