President Donald Trump again took aim at Sen. Richard Blumenthal on Twitter, criticizing Connecticut’s senior senator Monday morning for passing judgment on the Russian collusion investigation and claiming that Blumenthal had little right to do so because of a previous controversy.
Trump’s tweets appear to refer to comments the senator made about the investigation into possible Russian collusion during the presidential election. Blumenthal has said that the special counsel must look into all financial dealings involving the Russians and the Trump campaign, and spoke more about it, as well as how the Trump administration is treating the Justice Department, Monday morning on CNN.
Trump soon fired back, trying to paint Blumenthal as untrustworthy based on an incident during Connecticut’s 2010 senatorial election.
"Never in U.S.history has anyone lied or defrauded voters like Senator Richard Blumenthal," Trump tweeted.
Blumenthal became embroiled in controversy when he ran against Linda McMahon for Senate in 2010 based off comments he made in 2008 suggesting he served in Vietnam.
A New York Times investigation found that Blumenthal received at least five military deferments from 1965 to 1970 and records show he enlisted in the Marine Reserve — a move that "virtually guaranteed that he would not be sent to Vietnam," according to the Times.
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Blumenthal acknowledged that he may have misspoken about his service record at the time the report came out, but denied lying about it.
Blumenthal responded to the president's tweets by calling them "bullying" and said that the issue isn't about him, but the integrity and independence of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Later Monday, Blumenthal announced legislation to protect special counsel from interference. He said he wants Congress to pass a law that prevents the president from removing a special prosecutor. He called for any attorney general or acting attorney general to submit a request to remove a special counsel to a panel of federal judges.
President Trump wasn't done with his Twitter tirade. Later in the day, the president tweeted "I think Senator Blumenthal should take a nice long vacation in Vietnam, where he lied about his service, so he can at least say he was there."
This is not the first time Trump has used the Vietnam scandal as a vehicle to disparage Blumenthal, who has been an outspoken critic of the president. When Blumenthal called for an independent special prosecutor after Trump’s firing of former FBI director James Comey, Trump tweeted that Blumenthal “devised one of the greatest military frauds in U.S. history.”
