President Trump didn’t mince words on Thursday while responding to Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who he accused of misrepresenting comments that Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch had made during a private conversation earlier this week.
“[Gorsuch’s] comments were misrepresented,” the president told reporters during a Supreme Court listening session with a bipartisan group of senators.
Blumenthal told reporters on Wednesday that Gorsuch had described Trump’s attacks on the U.S. judiciary as “disheartening” and “demoralizing” when the two met ealier in the day on Capitol Hill. Aides to Gorsuch later confirmed that he had used such terms in reference to the president’s attacks.
“What you should do is ask Sen. Blumenthal about his Vietnam record which didn’t exist,” Trump said Thursday.
The Connecticut Democrat found himself at the center of controversy in 2008 after telling a group of veterans, “we have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam,” despite having never been deployed outside the U.S. during his time in the Marine Corps Reserves.
Beyond slamming Blumenthal, Trump defended his nominee to the Supreme Court as someone with “impeccable academic and legal credentials.”
“He will apply the law as written,” the president said of Gorsuch, adding that “he’s a mainstream judge … [and] a lot of people are liking him very much on the other side.”
“I urge you all to confirm him,” Trump told Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin, Heidi Heitkamp, John Tester, Chris Coons, Joe Donnelly and Michael Bennet, and Republican Sens. John Cornyn, Chuck Grassley, Lamar Alexander and Shelley Moore Capito, who had gathered a the White House for the listening session.
