Yesterday we wrote about how Staten Island Republican Congressional canidate Michael Allegretti accussed his primary opponent Michael Grimm of passing out campaign photos of himself wearing military ribbons that he did not earn, which led Grimm to label Allegretti ” a petulant child.”
Today Allegretti doubled-down, accusing Grimm of further confusing matters by blaming his commanding officer and an army administrative mix-up on the error, instead of answering the fundamental question: why did Grimm pass out campaign photos of himself wearing the wrong ribbons?
“Michael Grimm has done something wrong, something dishonest, something that goes to the core of his integrity. It has absolutely nothing to do with his service. It has to do with his integrity,” Allegretti said in an interview. “What he has done is use a photo in which he admits that he has medals on that he is not supposed to be wearing, and he is trying to confuse the issue by saying ‘Allegretti never served, so don’t worry about it'”
He added, “I was not in the military, but I know right from wrong in life. Why did you choose to use a photo in which you were pictured with awards which you admit that you have known for a full ten years that you were not supposed to be wearing?”
He called on Grimm to name the commanding officer who awarded him the ribbons.
Reached for comment, Grimm said, “It’s very simple. At the time that picture was taken, I was authorized to wear those ribbons. It wasn’t like I made an error. That is what I was rated…What is his assertion? That I should never use photos of myself in military uniform? That is absurd.”
Grimm said that the ribbons in question on unit citations, and not medals of valor, and that it is common for them to be awarded erronously and then revised.
“This is the last bullet in his gun,” Grimm said. “He is extremely desperate. He is trying to Blumenthal me. The only problem is that I did serve, and I did serve honorably and I have the paperwork to prove it.”
Oh, and he did offer the name of his commanding officer: Major Cauldwell. He said he did not know or remember his first name.
“We called him ‘Sir.'”
