Richard Blumenthal

By Greg Giroux (Bloomberg Government) -- More than a decade into his Senate career, Richard Blumenthal’s biography on his Senate website still dwells largely on accomplishments during his 20 years as Connecticut’s attorney general. That’s partly because his record as attorney general included many notable victories. And partly it’s a reflection of how difficult it is for one among 100 lawmakers to effect change in a legislative body increasingly hobbled by political polarization. Blumenthal carried with him to the Senate the consumer- focused agenda that characterized his career as attorney general, when he was known for taking on powerful industries. With Democrats taking over the Senate majority in the 117th Congress, Blumenthal became chair of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security Subcommittee, where his issues of focus include protecting children’s internet privacy. He’s gone after Facebook Inc. for misuse of personal data and allegedly scamming kids, and raised concerns about possible anticompetitive and deceptive business practices by Amazon.com Inc. He’s pursued automakers with questionable safety records and accused financial firms of misleading practices and failing to protect customers’ privacy. He took on the National Football League over its handling of domestic violence cases among its players as well as the National Hockey League over its treatment of player concussions. Blumenthal’s subcommittee conducts oversight of the Federal Trade Commission, and in the 117th Congress he called for a beefed-up FTC to combat the dissemination of medical misinformation on social media platforms during the coronavirus pandemic. “We need to bolster and support the FTC, providing more legal tools and resources where necessary to defend consumers,” Blumenthal said at a subcommittee hearing in April 2021. Bipartisan federal privacy legislation envisioned by the end of 2022 should be “very demanding” on consumer data privacy protections, Blumenthal said in May 2021. “We need to be setting the bar high on a federal statute in all of those areas where consumer privacy is at stake. It is the premier consumer protection issue of our time, and it cuts across a vast variety of different industries and subject areas. So we need to be mindful of the sweeping consequences of action if we take it.” The tobacco, gun, and airline industries have been particular Blumenthal targets. He has called for a ban on flavored tobacco products and proposed the creation of a federal program to keep youths from using e-cigarettes or vaping pens. One of his biggest victories as attorney general was against the tobacco industry. Blumenthal was one of the leaders of a 46-state lawsuit that alleged tobacco companies had long deceived the public about the dangers of smoking. In 1998, the companies reached a $246 billion national settlement with the states to be paid out over 25 years. Committee & Legislative Highlights * Curbing gun violence is an issue that gained special poignancy for Blumenthal after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in his home state in 2012. He supports expanding federal background checks for firearms purchases and banning sales of semiautomatic assault-style weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines. He’s repeatedly introduced legislation that would repeal special legal protections that prevent gun manufacturers, sellers and trade groups from being sued by gun violence victims. “Inaction has made this horror completely predictable. Inaction by this Congress makes us complicit,” Blumenthal said in March 2021, one day after 10 people were shot to death at a supermarket in Boulder, Colo. * Blumenthal has worked with Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) on legislation that would require big technology companies to make their platforms interoperable and let consumers move their data to different networks. “Google and Facebook have dug moats around their very formidable castles, trapping users from leaving the network,” Blumenthal said at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing in March 2021. * A 2021 law called the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, directing the Justice Department to award grants to state and local governments to support hate crimes reporting, included provisions from a Blumenthal bill called the NO HATE Act. * Blumenthal has long been critical of airline practices he says are detrimental to consumers. Airline fees, for example, are a “shell game in the skies,” he told USA Today, because they are “shrouded in secrecy and clouded in confusion, making it nearly impossible for passengers to price compare and make informed choices.” Working alone or teaming up with other Democrats, Blumenthal has backed requiring airlines to refund baggage fees when luggage is damaged in transit, provide more transparency about ticket fees, protect passengers and crews from toxic fumes, and halt further shrinkage of seat sizes. He’s also demanded airlines back up their computer systems and rebook consumers at no extra cost in the event of outages. Politics & Personality * Blumenthal seemed to have a special talent for infuriating Donald Trump when he was president. Trump repeatedly attacked Blumenthal in tweets, usually after the Democrat was critical of the president or one of his nominees during a cable television interview or other public forum. In 2019, Trump’s re-election campaign sent a memo to producers at all the major broadcast and cable news networks urging them to reconsider booking six Trump critics whom the campaign said had made “outlandish, false claims” regarding alleged collusion with Russia. Blumenthal’s name was first on the list. * A member of the Judiciary Committee, Blumenthal was one of six Senate Democrats who filed a lawsuit seeking government records from then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s time in the George W. Bush White House. He termed an FBI report into Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation of sexual assault a “whitewash” that “smacks of a cover-up.” Saying he believed Ford, Blumenthal called her testimony before the committee “a teaching moment” for America. Confirmation of Kavanaugh, he said, “would stain the United States Supreme Court irreparably.” * As a Jewish lawmaker from a state with a sizable Jewish constituency, Blumenthal was under heavy pressure in 2015 from opponents of then-President Barack Obama’s negotiation of a deal with Iran to abandon nuclear-weapons work in exchange for easing some economic sanctions. But he ultimately voted with 41 other Democrats to block a GOP-sponsored resolution of disapproval of the agreement. Road to Office Blumenthal has been well-connected throughout his life. He grew up in New York City, where his father headed a commodities trading firm. At Harvard he wrote editorials for the Harvard Crimson and had an internship at the Washington Post as an assistant to publisher Katharine Graham. Then he went to work with Daniel Patrick Moynihan in the Richard Nixon White House. After law school at Yale, where he was editor of the law journal, he clerked for a federal district judge and then Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun. Then he worked for Connecticut Democratic Senator Abraham Ribicoff. Ribicoff backed him for appointment by President Jimmy Carter as U.S. attorney for Connecticut, a post he held for more than three years. Blumenthal began his political career in 1984 when he won a seat in the Connecticut House of Representatives and followed that with one term in the Connecticut state Senate from 1987 to 1990. He won his first of five terms as state attorney general in 1990. Besides taking on Big Tobacco, Blumenthal made headlines as attorney general for initiating lawsuits or investigations into insurance and social-networking companies and pushing consumer causes. Working with attorneys general in 19 other states and the District of Columbia, he filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. accusing the company of abusing its monopoly power to stifle competition. In 2005, he used public nuisance laws to force power companies to reduce carbon emissions. In 2010, when longtime Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd retired, Blumenthal finally saw a chance to move up. He was unopposed in the Democratic primary, and faced a wealthy Republican opponent in Linda McMahon. His campaign ran into trouble when The New York Times reported that Blumenthal had sometimes mischaracterized his Vietnam-era military service as having served in Vietnam. Blumenthal, who was in the Marine Corps Reserves during the conflict, never went to Vietnam. Although he won the election with 55% of the vote, the issue didn’t go away. Trump suggested Blumenthal can’t be trusted to tell the truth and mocked him as “Da Nang Dick.” “Mr. President: Your bullying hasn’t worked before and it won’t work now,” Blumenthal replied to one of the attacks. Blumenthal’s re-election in 2016 was easier than his first race. He trounced Republican state Rep. Dan Carter with 63% of the vote. Updated June 22, 2021 To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Giroux in Washington at ggiroux@bgov.com To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Small at asmall@bgov.com