Mitch McConnell VS Richard Blumenthal
Mitch McConnell
Addison Mitchell McConnell Jr. (born February 20, 1942) is an American politician serving as the Senate Minority Leader since January 20, 2021. A Republican, McConnell is currently serving as the senior United States senator from Kentucky, first elected in 1984. McConnell is the second Kentuckian to serve as a party leader in the Senate, the longest-serving U.S. senator for Kentucky in history, and the longest-serving leader of U.S. Senate Republicans in history. McConnell was first elected to the Senate in 1984. During the 1998 and 2000 election cycles, he was chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. McConnell was elected as Majority Whip in the 108th Congress and was re-elected to the post in 2004. In November 2006, he was elected Senate minority leader; he held that post until 2015, when Republicans took control of the Senate and he became Senate majority leader. McConnell holds conservative political positions, although he was known as a pragmatist and a moderate Republican early in his political career. He led opposition to stricter campaign finance laws, culminating in the Supreme Court ruling Citizens United v. FEC that partially overturned the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain-Feingold) in 2010. McConnell worked to withhold Republican support for major presidential initiatives during the Obama administration, having made frequent use of the filibuster, and blocked many of President Barack Obama's judicial nominees, including Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. During the Trump administration, Senate Republicans, under McConnell's leadership, broke a record for largest number of federal appeals court judges confirmed during a president's first two years; among those nominees were Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, all of whom were confirmed to the Supreme Court. After the 2020 United States Senate elections, McConnell returned to the position of minority leader, as the 50–50 tie in the Senate can be broken by Vice President Kamala Harris. In January 2021, McConnell indicated that he believes the second impeachment of former President Trump is justified due to his role in inciting the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol.
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Richard Blumenthal
Richard Blumenthal (; born February 13, 1946) is an American attorney and politician currently serving as the senior United States Senator from Connecticut, a seat to which he was first elected in 2010. A member of the Democratic Party, he is ranked as one of the wealthiest members of the Senate, with a net worth of over $100 million. Previously, he served as Attorney General of Connecticut from 1991 to 2011. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Blumenthal attended Riverdale Country School, a private school in the Bronx. He graduated from Harvard College, where he was editorial chairman of The Harvard Crimson. He studied for a year at Trinity College, Cambridge, in England before attending Yale Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal. While at Yale, he was a classmate of Bill and Hillary Clinton. From 1970 to 1976, Blumenthal served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve, where he attained the rank of sergeant. After law school, Blumenthal passed the bar and served as administrative assistant and law clerk for several Washington, D.C. figures. From 1977 to 1981, he was United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut. In the early 1980s he worked in private law practice, including serving as volunteer counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. He first served one term in the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1985 to 1987; in 1986 he was elected to the Connecticut Senate and began service in 1987. He was elected as Attorney General of Connecticut in 1990, and served for twenty years. During this period political observers speculated about him as a contender for Governor of Connecticut, but he never pursued the office. Blumenthal announced his 2010 run for U.S. Senate after incumbent Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd announced his retirement. He faced Linda McMahon, a professional wrestling magnate, in the 2010 election, winning by a 12-point margin with 55 percent of the vote. He was sworn in on January 5, 2011. He was assigned to the Senate Armed Services; Judiciary; Aging; and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committees. After the retirement of Joe Lieberman in 2013, Blumenthal became senior senator for the state. He won re-election in 2016 with 63.2% of the vote, becoming the first person to receive more than one million votes in a statewide election in Connecticut.