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President Donald Trump laced into Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal over his military service record, after the lawmaker met with Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch and said Gorsuch had criticized the president’s recent statements about judges as “demoralizing” and “disheartening.”

Trump was referring to a controversy that flared six years ago, when Blumenthal first ran for the Senate. Blumenthal, then Connecticut’s attorney general had misspoken on several occasions and implied that he served in Vietnam. While he was in the Marine Corps Reserve during the conflict, he never went overseas. The president himself received five draft exemptions, five for college attendance and another for defective feet.

Gorsuch, now an appellate judge on the Tenth Circuit, has been making the rounds on Capitol Hill ahead of confirmation hearing that could prove contentious, as Democrats might use the filibuster against his nomination.

Since Trump instituted a “Muslim ban” and called out the judges who blocked it, issues of executive power and overreach have trickled into the Gorsuch nomination. The confirmation process usually figures as a kind of kabuki theater, in which nominees try to avoid giving away their opinions on explosive issues, lest they lose votes. Before his remarks to Blumenthal, Gorsuch had remained mum on Trump, leading some like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to criticize him.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at solomon@forward.com or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

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