Senator Blumenthal: Week in Review 9/4/2026-9/11/2026

Honoring the 25^th Anniversary of 9/11

[Hartford, CT] - U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) commemorated the twenty-fifth anniversary of the September 11^th attacks and remembered the victims, their families and loved ones, and the heroes who responded to 9/11.

"Horror & heroism, what we lost & learned- all comes rushing back. Crushing memories of searing grief & shock. Awe at a wondrous unity of purpose & heart. After 25 years, 9/11 is no less real," wrote Blumenthal on Twitter/X. "We honor the victims & their loved ones- brave souls lost in unspeakable cruelty, & courageous first responders who sought to save them. Let us honor with action- health care, financial support, & more."

Blumenthal also spoke at the Voices 25th Anniversary NYC Symposium, Honoring the Past, Shaping the Future. This event brought together national and international experts who share their knowledge and foster conversations about lessons learned, preparedness and supporting those impacted by tragedy-with programs specifically focusing on the 9/11 Community, including victims' families, responders, survivors, and our dedicated partners who serve them.

"Proud to join Mary & Frank Fetchet at their Voices 25th Anniversary Symposium honoring the magnificent work they've done in healing from tragedy, like their own loss in 9/11," wrote Blumenthal on Twitter/X.

Combatting the Trump Administration's Harmful Immigration Policies

Blumenthal held a press conference after attending and observing Hartford Immigration Court on Tuesday.

Recent reports indicate that Hartford Immigration Court is severely overcrowded due to increasing caseloads. Hearings previously would be scheduled for 15-30 people at a time but now are scheduled for 70 to 100 people. Additionally, reports suggest that the court's docket is chaotic and changes at the last minute. This has resulted in people missing their court hearings and having inadequate time to prepare.

Blumenthal attended the Tuesday hearing to observe the court's operations and demand oversight and accountability if the proper legal processes are not being followed.

"Our immigration courts are in chaos-intentionally. My visit today confirmed real life impacts of cuts in judges & staff, lack of notice & due process, no criminal record & often no attorney, among failings. Deporting, not justice, is the goal," wrote Blumenthal regarding his visit to Hartford Immigration Court, with an accompanying video on Twitter/X.

Additionally, Blumenthal wrote Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari seeking "a formal investigation into the recent surge of [Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)] arrests and activity in Connecticut."

The surge has focused on Danbury and nearby towns, where people have been targeted dropping their children off at school and going to work. "In one of the largest immigration operations in Connecticut history, ICE agents reportedly apprehended nearly 100 individuals - many of whom likely have legal status and no apparent serious criminal history - throughout the course of just one week in August," Blumenthal wrote.

"Individuals observed: an ICE agent kicking and tasing a man while other agents were on top of him, sending the man to the hospital; ICE agents breaking car windows; removing detainees in chains; blocking attorney access to detainees in Hartford; the deployment of masked agents to locations that children frequent in Danbury, including parks, an elementary school, and a daycare center; the detention of a father walking his child to a bus stop; and a threat by ICE agents to pepper spray a man detained in front of a preschool."

Last week, Blumenthal wrote Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin and the Acting Director of ICE David Venturella requesting a meeting and demanding information about a dramatic increase in immigration enforcement activity in Connecticut. The full text of Blumenthal's letter to Mullin and Venturella is available here.

Blumenthal also hosted a public forum to receive testimony from the Danbury community about ICE's destructive and indiscriminate detentions. Blumenthal was joined by Mayor Roberto Alves; attorney Glenn Formica with the American Legal Immigrant Clinic; and members of Danbury United for Immigrants.

As Ranking Member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Blumenthal has led an investigation into DHS's abuses. Over the last year, Blumenthal and U.S. Representative Robert Garcia (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, have hosted four public forums on Capitol Hill as part of their ongoing inquiry into the lawless and abusive tactics used by federal immigration agents.

The full text of Blumenthal's letter to Cuffari is available here.

Slamming AI Bots Going Rogue

Blumenthal demanded answers from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman after recent reporting from The New York Times revealed alarming new details about how the A.I. company's agents bypassed their safeguards to go rogue and hack into the firm Hugging Face. In a letter sent to Altman, Blumenthal sought records and information about the A.I. agents' rogue operations and raised concerns about OpenAI's reported steps to limit independent accountability.

"On July 21, 2026, OpenAI first disclosed that its A.I. models were responsible for the previously-reported hacking of the firm Hugging Face. Since that announcement, further disclosures and outside audits have described an unprecedented-and surreal-scenario where its A.I. agents created their own internal messaging board to coordinate between themselves while they sought security vulnerabilities in other systems and companies, and opportunities to cheat on performance tests," Blumenthal wrote.

Blumenthal continued, "Moreover, the A.I. agents displayed a concern about being caught and coordinated to evade being detected, even planning to 'sacrifice' themselves to act as a decoy to protect the broader effort. Ultimately, this operation sought-and succeeded-to break into other firms, which could be considered a federal crime."

Blumenthal called out OpenAI for attempting to evade transparency and accountability by dictating the terms of an independent audit into the Hugging Face breach: "While these disclosures alone are chilling, new reporting and research suggests that OpenAI may have limited an independent audit of the incident and that the rogue operation was broader than your firm has acknowledged."

Blumenthal also raised concerns about new details that have emerged about how OpenAI's agents conducted the breach, including by hijacking public websites to coordinate rogue operations: "[R]esearchers found that the A.I. agents may have attempted to impersonate the administrators of the site, found and shared hacks to bypass their guardrails, and used anonymity tools to hide their tracks. Others have found indications that still more websites were abused and co-opted for this rogue operation."

"In the face of a stunning failure, OpenAI appears to be taking steps that prioritize the performance and profit of its A.I. models with the knowledge that those changes could be detrimental to public safety. This demonstrates the need for vigorous, mandatory independent auditing and oversight such as would be required in the Artificial Intelligence Risk Evaluation Act," Blumenthal concluded.

The full text of the letter is available here.

Blumenthal held a press conference in Hartford to amplify his letter to Altman, demanding swift safeguards for artificial intelligence following the reports that OpenAI's A.I. agents engaged in a sprawling and significant campaign to evade safeguards including hijacking websites to coordinate rogue operations.

Blumenthal called for passage of his bipartisan Artificial Intelligence Risk Evaluation Act, bipartisan legislation that creates a risk evaluation program within the Department of Energy (DOE) dedicated to vetting A.I. safety concerns related to Americans' national security, civil liberties, and labor protections. Specifically, the program would require developers of advanced AI systems to submit product information to the DOE before deploying their new technology and collect data on the likelihood of adverse A.I. incidents, such as loss-of-control scenarios like those seen in the Hugging Face breach.

"It's more urgent than ever, because we've just learned about an ongoing immediate threat to public safety, national security, privacy, and civil liberties from rogue bots-independent agents that have broken free from restriction and have invaded public websites, hacking into them, and then evading detection, purposefully coordinating their activities," said Blumenthal at the press conference. "These rogue agents are not controlled by humans. They are acting independently and on their own to deceive human beings, and then to continue their hacking, sometimes in fact strategizing for how to deceive human beings by sacrificing themselves individually as decoys. It is absolutely chilling. It sounds like it's science fiction, but it's real, it's serious, and it's an imminent present threat."

Blumenthal further highlighted the need for safeguards against A.I. agents on Twitter/X.

"It's real, not science fiction. OpenAI's rogue bots threaten civil privacy, national security, & public safety. We need protections & safeguards-like my Artificial Intelligence Risk Evaluation Act- against AI's perils," wrote Blumenthal with an accompanying video on Twitter/X.

Blumenthal Bulletin

Blumenthal posted a Substack piece on his recent trip to Ukraine.

Blumenthal slammed the Trump Administration's threats to mail-in voting.

Blumenthal called for support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia's invasion-slamming the Witkoff/Kushner visit to Moscow.

Blumenthal called out the firing of the Stars & Stripes' editor-in-chief.

Blumenthal attended the Goshen Fair.

Blumenthal attended Lime Rock Historic Festival.

Blumenthal attended the Bridgewater Tractor Parade.

Blumenthal attended the Ukrainian Festival in Newtown.

Blumenthal joined the Newtown Labor Day Parade.

Blumenthal joined St. Barbara's 44th Annual Odyssey Festival.

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