This guy was a soldier, he was an Airborne soldier, and he was Ranger qualified, and it’s not much of a slip of the tongue to say, “I was special forces” when that was normally what was the generalized term for specops way back then.
If he hadn’t done all the other stuff, then sure — call him a liar — but he had done all the other stuff AND he HAD gotten his spec ops qualification.
I’m not going to dump on McDonald other than to say he wasn’t specific enough, and it hurt him, and it was his fault for not being specific. I personally don’t consider having all the qualifications and identifying yourself in that vein as being a lie. Simply lacking in specificity.
Well, he didn’t admit he lied, but he certainly said he “misrepresented” himself....so I think we can consider it a lie. And Special Forces is Special Forces. And not is not.