President Donald Trump took a break from preparations for his high-stakes meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to poke at a favorite foil on Twitter.
Trump tweeted:
"I have now spent more time in Vietnam than Da Nang Dick Blumenthal, the third rate Senator from Connecticut (how is Connecticut doing?). His war stories of his heroism in Vietnam were a total fraud - he was never even there. We talked about it today with Vietnamese leaders!"
Trump, who received five deferments from the draft for the Vietnam War, revels in mocking Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who does not publicly use the nickname “Dick,” for controversy over his Vietnam-era military service.
Blumenthal was a member of the Marine Corps Reserves from 1970 to 1976 and served in the U.S., according to the Hartford Courant, but in the past repeatedly claimed he served in Vietnam.
After The New York Times reported on Blumenthal’s false claims in May 2010, the senator acknowledged that he had “misspoken” and expressed regret.
One of Trump’s deferments from the Vietnam draft was medical, for alleged bone spurs in his feet. Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, plans to say in testimony to the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday that Trump asked him to handle “the negative press” over his medical deferment during the 2016 campaign.
But Trump never provided any medical records documenting the bone spurs to his former lawyer, according to Cohen’s prepared testimony. Cohen says Trump told him: “You think I’m stupid, I wasn’t going to Vietnam.”
The White House has called Cohen a liar, noting he pleaded guilty to lying to Congress in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.
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