Decorated Vietnam prisoner of war Orson Swindle Wednesday endorsed Republican Rob Simmons in the Connecticut Senate race.
The support comes at an opportune time — just two days after the New York Times reported that leading Democratic candidate Attorney General Richard Blumenthal had wrongly said he had served in Vietnam.
Swindle was Federal Trade Commissioner (FTC) from 1997 to 2005 and he also served the Reagan administration. He retired from the Marine Corp as a Lieutenant Colonel.
In a statement, Swindle praised Simmons as “my fellow Vietnam Veteran” and offered a sharp critique of Blumenthal that recalled his own days in Vietnam. Simmons is engaged in a primary battle with former World Wrestling Entertainment executive Linda McMahon.
“Having experienced Vietnam as I did and having had the honor of meeting and befriending literally thousands of real Vietnam veterans, I find the Attorney General’s distortion of his Marine Corps experience totally offensive and disgusting,” Swindle said. “He does not deserve to be in public service, much less the U.S. Senate.”
A spokeswoman for Blumenthal’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Swindle’s endorsement.
Swindle was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for seven years. He shared a cell with Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, who Swindle supported for president in 2008.
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report increased the competitiveness rating of the Connecticut Senate race on Tuesday following the report over Blumenthal’s exaggerated service record. The attorney general — who has heavily favored to win this November — later admitted Tuesday to misspeaking “on a few occasions out of hundreds of events” and defended his record on veterans’ issues.
Cook surmised that Blumenthal is likely to remain the nominee but that “there is now a very long and deep scratch in Blumenthal’s Teflon, and the tougher the Teflon, the more damaging the scratch. Voters are now likely to see Blumenthal as more of a typical politician than he’s ever been.”