Richard Blumenthal: Senate Candidate Lies About Vietnam Service

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Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal in 2002

REUTERS/Molly Riley

When you’re the attorney general of Connecticut, you may be able to get away with fibbing about military service. But when you’re running for the state’s U.S. Senate seat? Not so much.

Long-time state attorney general Richard Blumenthal found that out late Monday, when a report in the New York Times uncovered his whopper about serving in the Vietnam War. The truth? Blumenthal had five separate military deferments, avoiding being shipped out.

“My intention has always been to be completely clear and accurate and straightforward, out of respect to the veterans who served in Vietnam,” Blumenthal told the Times.

Blumenthal is the Democratic candidate for the Senate seat held by the state’s long-tenured senator, Chris Dodd, also a Democrat. Here’s some fast (and true) facts about Blumenthal.

Fast Facts
— Born February 13, 1946
— Graduated from Harvard and received a law degree from Yale
— Was a sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps reserve
— Once was a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun
— Served as the U.S. Attorney for Connecticut from 1977 to 1981
— Worked as a volunteer attorney for the NAACP from 1981 to 1986
— Elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1984 to 1987
— Elected to the State Senate from 1987 to 1990
— First elected as Connecticut’s attorney general in 1991
— Announced in January his intention to seek Dodd’s Senate seat