Round two: Trump attacks Blumenthal on Twitter again
President Donald Trump on Wednesday took to Twitter to respond to those critical of his firing of FBI Director James Comey, specifically naming U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., saying that he should be investigated for misstatements he made about his military service record.
Trump abruptly fired Comey on Tuesday in the midst of an FBI investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Both Democrats and Republicans have criticized the timing of the firing.
Calling him "Richie," Trump, via Twitter, said that Blumenthal "devised one of the greatest military frauds in U.S. history."
Blumenthal responded via Twitter saying, "President Trump — Your bullying won't silence my calls for an independent prosecutor and investigation."
In a statement put out Tuesday night after Comey's firing, Blumenthal said Trump has "catastrophically compromised the FBI's ongoing investigation of his own White House's ties to Russia. Not since Watergate have our legal systems been so threatened, and our faith in the independence and integrity of those systems so shaken."
Blumenthal continued to criticize the president's decision in an interview on national television Wednesday morning. Afterward, Trump assailed Blumenthal in a series of tweets.
Blumenthal, on at least several occasions, stated that he had served in Vietnam when he actually was posted stateside with the Marine Corps Reserve during the war. Blumenthal's service record became an issue during a hotly contested race for Senate in 2010 between him and Linda McMahon, who is now head of the Small Business Administration.
This is the second time in three months that Trump has resurrected the service record issue.
In February, Blumenthal told news outlets that then Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch told him, during a meeting between the two men, that Trump's attacks on the judicial system were "disheartening and demoralizing."
Trump had criticized a federal judge in Seattle for imposing a broad restraining order on his travel ban, which temporarily bars citizens from seven majority-Muslim nations from entering the U.S. He also had accused judges of threatening national security by not reinstating the ban.
In response to Blumenthal's comments, Trump wrote on Twitter: "Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who never fought in Vietnam when he said for years he had (major lie), now misrepresents what Judge Gorsuch told him?"
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