It was only a matter of time before this happened, but the final product is brutal: Linda McMahon is out with a new ad attacking Democratic Senate hopeful Richard Blumenthal for falsely claiming to have served “in” (as opposed to “during”) the Vietnam war.
[TPM SLIDESHOW: Bringing The Smackdown: Linda McMahon’s Campaign For Senate, And Her Colorful Pro-Wrestling Past]
The ad splices audio and video footage of Blumenthal misrepresenting his military service with a dark-toned narrator asking: “Would you lie about serving in a war? Dick Blumenthal did again and again. He covered one lie with another. He lied about Vietnam. What else is he lying about?”
Blumenthal weathered his Vietnam scandal in Connecticut when it first broke this past spring, but that was before voters really began paying attention to the election. And in the month since then, McMahon has closed what was once an enormous gap in the polls.
TPM’s PollTracker has Blumenthal leading the race 49.7-44.6. You can see the ad below.
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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