00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:02We now turn to the nomination of Todd Blanche to be Attorney General.
00:07The clerk will call the roll.
00:08Mr. Cornyn.
00:09Aye.
00:10Mr. Lee.
00:10Aye.
00:11Mr. Cruz.
00:12Aye.
00:12Mr. Hawley.
00:13Aye.
00:13Mr. Tillich.
00:14Aye.
00:15Mr. Booker.
00:16No.
00:17Mr. Padilla.
00:18No.
00:18Mr. Welch.
00:19No.
00:20Mr. Schiff.
00:21No.
00:22Chairman Grassley.
00:23Aye.
00:24On this vote, the eyes are 12, the days are 10.
00:26The nomination will be favorably reported.
00:31Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:33And I want to join in.
00:36It's critically important not only to me but to other members of the Senate.
00:41What Mr. Blanche said under oath in his nomination hearing on these topics was important.
00:47He said under oath, subject to the penalties of perjury, that the release he signed only applies to the IRS
00:55and the Treasury and only the parties who were defendants and the plaintiffs.
01:01And he also said once more that the weaponization fund was dead.
01:11We need a stabilizing force at the Department of Justice.
01:15And Mr. Blanche deserves the opportunity to provide that as opposed to continuing to serve in an acting capacity
01:23and as the Deputy Attorney General.
01:27Except to say that I believe that we have addressed the concerns that I have.
01:32The first one I called the payout pot for punks.
01:34I've never liked this 1776 fund.
01:37It made no sense to me and I thought it was an insult to the police officers
01:40and the people that defended us on January the 6th.
01:43It's done.
01:44It's been rescinded and I am satisfied.
01:47I also feel like Senator Cornyn addressed the other piece of it that has to do with the audit to
01:54my satisfaction.
01:58We are, this is the Judiciary Committee.
02:01We're supposed to be checking and balancing this nation.
02:07Why have people on both sides of the aisle given up on any trust in government?
02:11It's because we're surrendering any shred of integrity left.
02:16And now we're letting an Attorney General become the highest law enforcement officer in the land
02:24and putting no holds whatsoever.
02:27I had hoped for two weeks that we would get something.
02:31Two weeks that we would have something substantive to stop the world's greatest presidential tax cheat from cheating.
02:39And we've done nothing.
02:41And this man is going to now sail to the floor.
02:44And history is going to show it.
02:47I know what's going to come out in history on this president.
02:50And I know what's going to come out on Todd Blanch.
02:55And yet this administration in the Situation Room calls an emergency meeting at which Todd Blanch was there
03:03to say what are we going to do because the president appears in the Epstein files hundreds of times.
03:11They didn't get together to say this is really bad.
03:14This is eroding trust in the justice system.
03:17This is eroding trust in the rule of law.
03:19We have to find a way to hold powerful people accountable.
03:22No.
03:23They came together with Todd Blanch in the room.
03:25How do we protect the president?
03:31This man is not our lawyer.
03:34He is not America's lawyer.
03:37He is about to become Trump's sword against his adversaries and shield against any scrutiny.
03:48He does not represent the American people now.
03:51He will never represent the American people.
03:53He will never do what's best for the American people.
03:56He will only do what's best for Donald Trump.
03:59And you cannot leave someone like that as the nation's number one law enforcement official,
04:05not when you have a corrupt president engaged in the most unprecedented, self-enriching schemes
04:14we have ever seen.
04:16You just can't do it and hope to have anything left of the rule of law.
04:22The meeting's adjourned.
04:26You are welcome.
04:27We're welcome.
04:28You are welcome.
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