Richard Blumenthal

📍 Office

503 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington DC 20510

📞 (202) 224-2823

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Key Figures

On May 19, 2026, the Senate confirmed Sheria Akins Clarke to the U.S. District Court for South Carolina by a 52-38 vote, giving President Trump another lifetime judge after Clarke refused at her hearing to say who won the 2020 election. Eight Democrats joined Republicans even after Senator Richard Blumenthal called the nominees' scripted answers Orwellian and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse had mocked them as preposterous. The vote showed how the post-2017 simple-majority rule lets a party with 52 seats move a judicial nominee even when the minority argues the nominee failed a basic democratic test (Senate roll call; C-SPAN; Blumenthal; SC Daily Gazette; Post and Courier; Graham release).

The Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs held a hearing on Apr. 29 to review 25 pending bills covering veterans health care, disability benefits, appeals, workforce planning, homelessness, burial benefits, and specialty care access. Chairman Jerry Moran confronted VA leadership about the undisclosed closure of half the ICU and surgical beds at the Leavenworth, Kansas VA Medical Center. (Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, Apr. 29, 2026)

The Senate defeated Sen. Bernie Sanders's joint resolutions to block $446.8 million in US arms sales to Israel, voting 40-59 against the first measure covering $295 million in Caterpillar D9R and D9T bulldozers and 36-63 against the second covering $151.8 million in 1,000-pound gravity bombs. Forty of 47 Senate Democrats voted for the bulldozer measure, the highest Democratic support ever recorded for blocking Israel arms sales, but seven Democrats including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer voted with Republicans. Sanders filed the disapproval resolutions under the Arms Export Control Act.

On March 25, 2026, Sheria Akins Clarke appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee and declined to say that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election when Sen. Richard Blumenthal asked Trump judicial nominees the question directly. Clarke also avoided a direct judgment on January 6 by citing ongoing litigation. The hearing made election legitimacy a live test for a lifetime judicial nominee and gave senators a record to weigh before the committee and floor votes (Senate Judiciary hearing notice; Blumenthal release; South Carolina Public Radio; Alliance for Justice; Clarke QFR responses).

Senator Elizabeth Warren told reporters after a Senate classified briefing on March 4 that the Iran war was "so much worse than you thought" and that the Trump administration had launched the conflict without a plan and without an imminent threat. The briefing included Secretary of State Rubio, Defense Secretary Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Joint Chiefs Chair Dan Caine. Senator Richard Blumenthal said he was "more fearful than ever" of ground troops entering Iran, while Senator Chris Murphy called the administration's strategy "complete incoherence."