Although Senator Richard Blumenthal says his beliefs do not line up with that of Communism, just last week he attended the Amsted Award Ceremony. He now says that he “regrets” attending the show.
On December 11, not only did Sen. Blumenthal attend the Amsted Award show, but he spoke at the event. Blumenthal also offered honorary certificates to a number of recipients. Other speakers at the awards ceremony encouraged all in attendance to register with the Communist Party.
A newspaper from Blumenthal’s home state of Connecticut contacted the Senator via telephone, and Blumenthal claims that the Amsted Awards were presented to him as a “labor event.” He also told the Hartford Courant, “If I had known the details, I wouldn’t have gone . . .Let me say emphatically, I’m a Democrat and a strong believer in American capitalism.”
Reports show that not only did Blumenthal speak at the event, but he also took his time on stage to state the merits of the Build Back Better bill. The bill has passed the House, but seems to have hit a wall in the Senate. While Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) have been the most prominent and outspoken opponents of the bill – at least on the Democratic side of the aisle. However, rumblings out of Washington infer that Manchin and Sinema aren’t the only two Democrats in the Senate against the progressive spending bill. However, Blumenthal did take time during his speech to attempt garnering some support for the legislation.
Although Blumenthal says he believed the awards ceremony had to do only with “labor,” research shows that the Amsted ceremony was hosted by the Connecticut People’s World Committee Amistad Awards, a Communist Party affiliate political advocacy organization.
During the event, the ceremony’s emcee took to the stage to invite members of the audience to “join the Communist Party” in a time where “we make good trouble” working against systemic racism. The emcee’s speech also mentioned taxing the rich, reforming the war economy, and addressing climate change. While many of those issues sound commonplace in today’s political arena in America, the emcee mentioned one rather frightening issue: “(we work to) . . .create a new socialist system that puts people, peace, and planet before profits.”
During his telephone interview with the Connecticut newspaper, Blumenthal reiterated that he merely attended the event because he saw it as a way of supporting “labor” and that his attendance had nothing to do with any type of support for communist thinking. Blumenthal also mentioned that he attends many events in the state of Connecticut, and that he was invited to the Amsted Awards ceremony by the local labor unions. The labor unions were going to honor three individuals, although Blumenthal gives no identification of the individuals being honored.
Ironically, so many of the things that the emcee noted the Communist Party is supporting sound eerily familiar in political platforms. Blumenthal will likely see little political fallout for his attendance and awards presentation at the Amsted Award show.
