TPMDC

Kirk Apologizes For Mischaracterizing His Military Record

Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL)

Senate hopeful Mark Kirk has gone the full Blumenthal and apologized for misrepresenting his military record.

“I simply misremembered it wrong,” Kirk said in a long sit-down interview with the Chicago Sun-Times. “I want to be very contrite and say that there was a casualness with which I sometimes describe military details and if it gave the impression that my military record was larger than it was, I apologize.”

Kirk took responsibility for various misstatements—both spoken and written—all of which either overstated his role or were outright false. In particular he apologized for claiming to have been named Navy Intelligence Officer of the Year when in fact he was not. Previously Kirk had acknowledged several errors but has only in the last day officially apologized for them. You can watch the entire interview below.

IL-SEN, Mark Kirk, Republicans, Senate
Brian Beutler

Brian Beutler is TPM's senior congressional reporter. Since 2009, he's led coverage of health care reform, Wall Street reform, taxes, the GOP budget, the government shutdown fight, and the debt limit fight. He can be reached at brian@talkingpointsmemo.com.

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