James Carville: Todd Blanche is a Complete Lackey and a Complete Fool

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]So, I don't know Todd was in the oven.

[00:00:02]But it maybe maybe it's just because the guy looks normal or he can speak English.

[00:00:09]He seems like he's having like more bills than Pam Bondi or you know the labor secretary or the the general idiot. But maybe he does maybe he doesn't but he is acting like a complete lackey and a complete fool.

[00:00:26]James, after Saturday night's shooting at the Correspondents Dinner, [music] Donald Trump also after the visit of King Charles this week which we'll discuss later. Trump could have lowered the temperature a little.

[00:00:42]He did for a nanosecond and then he and his lackeys went on a terrorist like rage. Trump blamed the Democratic rhetoric for encouraging violence.

[00:00:56]Let's roll the tape. Trump called for executing General Mark Milley who was chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff. He said Democrats were scum and he hated them.

[00:01:06]He said former President Joe Biden after he was diagnosed with cancer he called him a decrepit corpse. When former FBI director and special counsel Robert Mueller died Trump said good it was cause for celebration. When it comes to language that incites hate and violence Trump is in a league of his own. Then his lapdogs lapped into further insight and decimate the rule of law.

[00:01:36]Acting Attorney General cut Todd Blanche always auditioning for his to keep his post unlike his predecessor Pam Bondi he went and he indicted.

[00:01:49]He indicted former FBI director James Comey at Trump's instructions.

[00:01:56]Now let's listen let's just think for a minute about what he indicted him for.

[00:02:01]He indicted him in North Carolina and an earlier indictment had been thrown out.

[00:02:05]Came back again and he for taking a picture of seashells on a beach that spelled out 8647.

[00:02:13]I didn't know this before but 86 is a restaurant phrase for getting out or running out. Trump is the 47th president.

[00:02:22]But Blanche and his crony Cash Patel incredibly charged that this was a threat by Comey to kill the president.

[00:02:30]Nobody believes that. I just happened to ask four or five people at random what 86 meant. They looked at me like I was crazy. One said, "Well, it's between 87 and 85." This indictment is an embarrassment to the rule of law and the First Amendment. It will be thrown out.

[00:02:47]Then lapdog number two Brendan Carr said he would review Disney's ABC owned stations because comedian Jimmy Kimmel on ABC told a joke that Trump didn't like.

[00:03:01]Even Ted Cruz said that was improper and wrong. You know James just this is worse than the McCarthy era in many ways because Blanche, Carr, Patel are doing what you might expect really in Germany in the 30s the Soviet Union or Russia today not in America. It's it's what they are all about.

[00:03:22]Well, all right. First of all, they're they're which is bad and they're buffoons which in its own way is good.

[00:03:32]I I cannot tell people that listen to the show loudly and clearly enough to just hang in there till November.

[00:03:40]I I I think this thing is growing by the day. I'm looking at polling in the middle of the country that is just jaw-dropping.

[00:03:48]And there's nothing you you there's no you can't stop an from being an That's just who they are. The the whole lot of them.

[00:03:58]And you know any any thought that he would have any sense of graciousness. And I would also just as a side thing if if King Charles ran for president against Donald Trump King Charles would get 57 and a half percent.

[00:04:13]Country's done with this guy. We got to >> Wait a minute did you say 57 and a half percent? I I might take that up to the 60s.

[00:04:20]It might it might. I did They're so that's what we got to understand.

[00:04:24]They're just done with him in in I I've never been up I don't care about the English monarchy. I like going in watching it he seemed like a okay guy to me. I never thought about it that much but he's going up. He and Pope Leo might be the two greatest people on the planet Earth right now. Well, we'll get to him with Ed Lewis later but you're absolutely right.

[00:04:46]I know he stepped up to say and so just he's going to keep doing these kinds of things and then go ahead man have all the fun you can cuz this part is going to be over come November.

[00:04:58]Yeah.

[00:04:59]Well you know later in the in the week Republicans on the Supreme Court again paid obedience to their parties political interest by further gutting the Voting Rights Act and overturning a congressional map in your state of Louisiana where two of the six House members are black. That reflects a state that is 1/3 black. But Sam Alito and his fellow Republicans really want to gut the entire Voting Rights Act as Justice Kagan in dissent said.

[00:05:32]So, they threw out that map and I think the result's probably going to be you'll know better than I do there'll be only one black congressman in your state which is has 33% black and it's a pattern other states will follow because that's what the Supreme Court wants.

[00:05:50]So, it's it's more complicated once you drill down on it than than than you think. So, let's just talk about Louisiana cuz you have potential redistricting.

[00:06:01]You have two black congressmen one Cleo Fields one Troy Carter.

[00:06:06]Cleo is Baton Rouge based Troy was originally Baton Rouge district it was more New Orleans based.

[00:06:12]Cleo has better relationships with the Republicans in Baton Rouge by far than than than Troy does.

[00:06:20]So, if they could redistrict it down to one seat which one survives or will they try to redistrict it down to no seat? The Supreme Court would have no problem with the Republican legislature in Louisiana drawing a 6-0 map in a state that's 1/3 black.

[00:06:38]All right.

[00:06:39]That that so that that May is a huge month for the Republican Party.

[00:06:44]You have the Louisiana Senate race where you have the Julia Letlow who is the Landry Trump endorsed candidate against incumbent Bill Cassidy and the insurgent right wing of John Fleming who talked to a bunch of people before the show to try to get better informed.

[00:07:02]And there's not a lot of reliable polling. So, I but everybody's kind of I can see any one of the three two of the three making the run-off is is the best information I can get. Now, layer it on top of that you have the special for the Massie seat in Kentucky primary and then you have I think five or six Senate Republican state Senate Republicans in Indiana who defied Trump a primary.

[00:07:30]At the end of May we're going to know a lot more about Trump's standing in the Republican Party cuz these are real these are three deep red states Boy, they sure are.

[00:07:40]>> that Trump has gotten ill of politics and pay attention here. This this is a real this is a real tell a real bell for the fall. The Louisiana, Kentucky and Indiana primaries are a way way more meaningful than than people think and I I be honest with you Al I I don't have a good poll to where they are or where Massie is or where it is in Louisiana. I don't have any inside information but we're going to know a lot more and if this goes the wrong way for Trump it's going to set off a stampede. A lot of people yeah because it's the fear factor and you know if he can't deliver if Massie wins and four or five of those Indiana state senators win and that woman doesn't win in Louisiana you know the fear factor dissipates a bit. And I want to be clear I'm not predicting one thing or another. I I I was in the middle of making my phone calls back to Louisiana but it's amazing how the at least from the political class in Louisiana both Republican and Democrat is you know I could see any one of the you know any scenario happening right now.

[00:08:52]And boy if Letlow doesn't make the run-off which I'm not saying that she won't but if she doesn't you could I'm told about people in Baton Rouge you can just feel Jeff Landry's power just ebbing and what you can just watch it right in front of you.

[00:09:07]And if Trump got the That'll break your heart James. That'll just break your heart.

[00:09:12]>> [laughter] >> As you know >> Maybe you get a maybe you get a new football coach and a new AD and a new basketball coach.

[00:09:19]Let's just see if but this guy we got to stick with him for now but but you know you've covered politics long enough to know if when a president loses his political juice he loses his power or she loses her power whichever the case may be.

[00:09:34]Let's see what happens. I don't I don't want to anticipate something that I don't know the answer to. Right. Lyndon Johnson used to say if he lost a vote in Congress that the sharks would be in the water. Now, I don't think it's quite that much today but I think the point is exactly what you just made. Let me final word Yeah, final word on Todd Todd Blanche who's occupying office that was held by Robert F. Kennedy, Elliot Richardson, Ed Levi, and Robert Jackson. And he is disgracing that office. You know, as a side James, he's trying to get in the Metropolitan Club to join some distinguished members. I have no interest in getting the Metropolitan Club at all. So, I don't want to belong to any club that would take me.

[00:10:19]But, I can understand why objections have been raised to his application.

[00:10:24]Whatever you think of the Met Club, it's easy to see why the likes of Todd Blanche would not be welcome by most members.

[00:10:33]So, I don't know Todd Blanche or anything about him.

[00:10:36]And maybe maybe just because the guy looks normal or or he he can speak English.

[00:10:42]He seems like he's having like more bills than in Pam Bondi or you know, the the labor secretary or the the the general idiot. But, maybe he does maybe he doesn't, but he is acting like a complete lackey and a complete fool.

[00:10:58]I mean, that's what he is. I agree. One day. I don't know that. I mean, there's some some some right-wing conservative lawyers that are very good lawyers that are very thought of in in the legal community.

[00:11:10]And I I but my sense is at one time Todd Blanche was one of those, but he no longer is. I but I don't know that.

[00:11:16]Well, he wasn't top tier, but he was probably second tier and now he's down around fourth or fifth tier and it's just even people used to like him and work with him say he's really you know, guy on on CNN >> But, he he was a lawyer. He was like a real partner, real clients, and he did real things. Yeah.

[00:11:35]He's just made a He really has brought disgrace to the office of attorney of attorney general even though he's acting attorney general. James, a final thing I want to point our our listeners, our viewers to a a really good article in the New Yorker by Ruth Marcus on pardons. It's a long long article. She's done great reporting on pardons in this administration. They have taken pay-to-play to a new level.

[00:12:02]If you've done something bad, if you're corrupt, if you're in jail, if you want to pay you know, whatever the sum, often times it's seven figures, and go to the right people, people like Roger Stone, you're going to get a pardon. That's exactly the founders basically vested maybe only one power, very few powers, solely in the president. We really believed in separation of powers, as King Charles says, but the power of the pardon was vested solely in the president no one thinking it would be abused like this.

[00:12:33]But, right now he is going he has pardoned drug dealers, he has pardoned total criminals, he has just pardoned awful people, and it's almost always pay-to-play. Read the Ruth Marcus piece in the New Yorker.

[00:12:46]You know, I I known Ruth Marcus for a long time. I haven't been in contact with her for some time. Probably know her better.

[00:12:53]But, she's a really serious person.

[00:12:55]Isn't she like a kind of accomplished lawyer? And I think she went to some really good law school.

[00:13:01]Talented person. Well, I know I think she did. I know Linda Greenhouse I think went to Yale Law School and I think Ruth did too, but She did. But, I I think I I shouldn't be saying that, but I've always known Ruth to be a a very polite, you know, person, but very talented. And then if she wrote it, she wrote it, she said it, I believe it.

[00:13:24]Well, you guys get out there. You guys get the New Yorker and on pardons, pay-to-play. It's as corrupt as anything we've seen. That That That really goes a long way.