Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) ripped into Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) on Thursday for lying about his military service and then questioning Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s credibility.
“@SenBlumenthal lied for years about serving in Vietnam, which is all you need to know about his courage & honesty,” Cotton, who is not on the Senate Judiciary Committee, tweeted during the questioning. “Maybe he should reconsider before questioning Judge Kavanaugh’s credibility.”
{mosads}Blumenthal has said he served in Vietnam, when he in fact sought at least five military deferments and eventually landed a spot in the Marine Reserve, where he was essentially guaranteed not to serve in the conflict itself, The New York Times reports.
Blumenthal went after Kavanaugh’s credibility in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings Thursday of Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations that Kavanaugh sexually assault her in 1982.
The senator asked Kavanaugh if he was familiar with “Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus” which is a legal principle that dictates jurors can rule a witness to be false in everything if he says one thing that is not true.
“The core of why we’re here is really, credibility,” Blumenthal said Thursday, before drilling into a variety of things Kavanaugh said throughout the hearing Thursday, pressing him on the veracity of the statements.
A spokesperson for Blumenthal when asked to comment said Cotton’s tweet was “not worth dignifying with a response.”
“Wow – from a colleague,” former Senate aide and Democratic strategist Jim Manley shot back in response to Cotton. “The senate is imploding.”
Kavanaugh’s confirmation vote is scheduled to be held Friday, though Senate Republicans are meeting Thursday night to determine the next steps on his nomination.
The nominee has unequivocally denied Ford’s allegations and provided his calendars from the summer of 1982, which show no trace of the party at which she says he attacked her.
The three other people she has said attended the party have said they have not been to an event resembling the one she described.
Updated at 7:24 p.m.