Gov. Brewer claims her father ‘died fighting’ the Nazis — but he actually passed away 10 years after WWII.

TPM

It's not exactly Richard Blumenthal or Mark Kirk territory. And yet...

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) told The Arizona Republic in a recent interview that her father "died fighting the Nazi regime in Germany."

Only problem is, that's apparently not quite true.

According to the Arizona Guardian, Brewer's father, Wilford Drinkwine, died of lung disease. In California. In 1955.

During the war, the Guardian reports, Brewer's father was a civilian supervisor for a naval munitions depot in Nevada. Brewer's spokesperson told the newspaper that he inhaled toxic fumes while working there that eventually killed him -- and that the governor wasn't "embellishing the story at all." Drinkwine was on full medical disability when he died, the spokesman said.

It seems entirely possible that Brewer simply meant that her father died of an illness that was a direct cause of his employment at a wartime munitions factor.

Here's Brewer's full quote. She's referring to criticism she's taken over her state's controversial new immigration law.

"Knowing that my father died fighting the Nazi regime in Germany, that I lose him when I was 11 because of that...and then to have them call me Hitler's daughter. It hurts. It's ugliness beyond anything I've ever experienced."