The Weeknight 7/21/26 | 🅼🆂🅽️🅲 Breaking News Today July 21, 2026 HD

[00:00:00]Good evening and welcome to the week night. I'm Simone Sanders Townson [music] with Michael Steele and Luke Russer. Breaking tonight, polls are about to close in Arizona and the Trump administration has placed election monitors across the state. [music] And we are just learning that the Justice Department is now demanding voter data from New Jersey. The details in a [music] moment. Also breaking, Senate Democrats just finished grilling Pete Hexath on Capitol Hill after he asked for $37 billion more for Trump's war of choice with Iran. [music] Senator Tammy Baldwin was in the room and joins us to react. And later, Todd Blanch refuses to say that Donald Trump's [music] nearly $1.8 billion slush fund for loyalists is completely dead, leading some Republicans to second guess his confirmation to be the next attorney general. But let's start with breaking news tonight. The Trump administration is opening up two new major fronts in the president's war on free and fair elections. First, in Arizona, polls will be closing later tonight in the state's high stakes primaries. On the Republican side, election deniers are up and down the ballot, including in the races for governor, secretary of state, and attorney general. Just today, a top Justice Department official warned that election monitors are quote fanning out across Arizona as a traditional intimidation tactic that Trump deal DOJ plans to use in at least five other states during the primary season. Also breaking tonight, the Justice Department announced last hour that it's opening an investigation into New Jersey and demanding that state turn over voter data. This follows an announcement from Governor Mikey Cheryl that the state mistakenly registered about 6,600 non-citizens to vote between June of 2023 and June of 2024. The governor said about 400 of those non-citizens voted in elections, but did not sway the outcome of any race. That announcement is certain to add fuel to the president's weaponization of our nation's intelligence findings to rehash his 2020 defeat and cast doubt on future elections. You will remember that Trump used a prime time address last week to spread misinformation about US election infrastructure and also frankly to just make a bad faith case about China's effort to influence our elections. And yet just today, Trump downplayed his own claims when asked about holding China accountable.

[00:02:25]Well, we're going to talk to him about it. It took place a long time ago. I think China is maybe a little bit different today than it was then. But look, they're they do things and we do things to them. I'll be honest, we do things to them, too. It's not a one-way street, but we'll be talking to them >> tonight. Von Hillyard and Ner Tanden are with us. But first, honestly, he said that today because he what he said last week when he made these claims, these election claims um in his big prime time speech address, it was all to whip up uncertainty and to manufacture um concern about the upcoming election.

[00:03:01]These weren't good faith arguments the president is making. And I mean, anybody who was shocked today that he said that, like, I got a bridge I want to sell you in the middle of Bermuda, child, get with it.

[00:03:09]>> That's one hell of a bridge, too, right?

[00:03:11]>> Yeah. It doesn't exist. Look, >> with Gotti Gold like within the Oval Office, >> like look, these tickleheads, y'all just don't fall for this stuff anymore.

[00:03:19]Really? I mean, come on. This at this point, elections have all kinds of things that happen in them. And and I really want to get ahead of this story before the tickleheads that I just referred to from the president on down start to frame this as, see, we told you the system was broken and corrupt.

[00:03:36]>> But New Jersey, >> New Jersey, right? It is not. It is not.

[00:03:40]Let us be clear. It is not broken. nor nor any corruption. This is the process that worked. The system caught the mistake. The system fared it out, right?

[00:03:49]They identified the voters. They did what it was supposed to do. And I think, you know, we cannot take every little bit and turn it in turn it up and to make it more than it actually is. The system is different in every state. You will find mistakes in every state. And every state from the secretarial secretary of state on down has a process to deal with the correction. So I just wanted to put that on the table because we know the stupid is about to enter the ether and we want everyone to be cleareyed and clear head when it when they're talking about this and understand Luke exactly what we're talking about.

[00:04:25]>> It's a bad unforced air for the [clears throat] era that we're in. The president is uh engaged in an allout assault on free and fair elections and this information out of New Jersey that there were 6,000 registrations that shouldn't have been for non-citizens on the voter roles and 400 of them voted.

[00:04:41]Very minuscule did not alter any election results, but it feeds the beast. Yes.

[00:04:46]>> And here's the thing that we know about the GOP. Here's the thing that we know about the right-wing media echo chamber.

[00:04:50]And here's the thing that we know about the Trump administration. They just need a spark to cause an inferno. And that's what's going to happen here. They're going to use this as the reasoning for why you have to have the Save Act. So someone like Simone, it will be harder for her to vote because she's married and changed her last name. This is why they're going to say we have to send more watchers to polls to make sure the elections are free and fair and especially in in communities where there's more of an immigrant presence because we have to make sure those non-citizens are there. So this is something that I think people need to keep their antennas up for. Uh we have seen these types of scandals that just start as a spark, they become infernos, whether it's Benghazi, Fast and the Furious, the IRS targeting. Yeah.

[00:05:31]Whatever videos come out of the James O'Keefe stuff. I mean, there's always these things that start small and they spread big because the weaponization of the of the media and the administration gets behind it. So, it's uh no need a >> smarter public. Well, that's what we try to do here by watching our show. Get informed and get educated.

[00:05:48]>> Yeah. I mean, I wonder what you And I mean, you take the with the news coming out of New Jersey and I talked to some people in um Governor Cheryl's office today, and I was just like, why why why is this happening today? What happened?

[00:05:59]Tell me how she how we got here. And I'm told that the governor found out about this on Thursday. The um elections board noted um alerted the AG. The AG alerted the governor and the governor made a plan this weekend and said, "Okay, I have this investigation, but also on Monday, we're going to talk about this."

[00:06:14]And so she was really being proactive in coming out and saying what is going on, how she plans to fix it. And it's not hiding from something that to to Luke's point, they could we will they the Republicans are going to weaponize this.

[00:06:26]They're doing it right now. Like that's what the investigation saying they want New Jersey's voter data is all about.

[00:06:31]You take that and then these Arizona elections today. This is from Mark Elias. Um or this from the Democracy Docket today. Tuesday's primaries will decide who moves forward in races for governor, attorney general, and secretary of state. three offices that could shape voting access, defend or weaken state election authority, and determine how Arizona responds to Trump's next move to control elections.

[00:06:53]>> Well, I think the thing that's most interesting to the conspiracy theories around New Jersey is here we have a governor who is telling the country what happened if it was a conspiracy to keep people who shouldn't be voting um at the polls and voting. No Democrat would say, "Hey, this is a problem." So it seems strikes me as a little odd for the kind of Elon Musk conspiracies out there because Mikey Cheryl found out about something. It happened in a prior administration and she um announced rel like pretty quickly what happened and she knew um exactly what would happen which is this administration would work to weaponize that information at the end of the day. It is really crucial that we know it was 400 vote people who actually voted and it didn't make any difference in the elections but we should ensure all our elections are fair. What we're seeing in Arizona is essentially a preparation for 2028 the most important elections this cycle. It's really important what happens in the in the House. It's really important that what happens in the Senate. If you are focused on 2028, ensuring free and fair elections, the most important elections are governor, secretary of state, AG, and swing states like Arizona. And the right has an agenda. That agenda is to elect people, far right, has an agenda to elect people who will do Donald Trump's bidding in saying elections are unfair when they are fair. And Arizona knows that all too well. Ron, how how does this when you when you take it in consideration u New Jersey and what the governor is now having to deal with? Um and you look at Arizona tonight and and the play, you know, oh, we're we got federal officers, we're going to go monitor like there's some big nasty thing happening. How does h do you hear from anybody on the hill um that aren't Democrats uh their concern about um these elections uh in the hands of Donald Trump? Is there any quiet expression of concern because all of these Republicans are on the same ballots that these Democrats are on? So when the when they start cherrypicking these races and saying that oh well I'm sorry near a tandem in the seventh district of X you know that that that was a bad but I'm I was in on the same ballot with her within that same district running for the state legislature as a Republican running for county exe county county executive in that in that in that district. So when she got a vote, I got a vote. Particularly if our votes are very close together cuz people do a crazy thing, Simone, they actually split, you know, split their vote.

[00:09:43]>> I'll vote for a Democrat for county executive and a Republican for the state legislature. So what are they planning to do when when the Democrats are saying time out, your race is messed up, too?

[00:09:55]>> I think it's a good question, Michael.

[00:09:56]And I think that what you're looking at is you mentioned Republicans on the Hill. And actually, I'm gonna name drop one person who is no longer on the hill, a Republican. Her name is Debbie Leco.

[00:10:08]She was MAGA. She was right there with Donald Trump in 2020. She actually decided to leave Congress and she ran for the Maropa County Board of Supervisors and she won. and she is actually a major defender right now of the security of elections on not on the side of the election deniers but somebody who is at an operational level taking on this guy Justin Heaps this matters because operationally there's 8,000 jurisdictions around the country that are going to be running elections this November 8,000 and so it's folks like Debbie Leco a one-time election denier that now has seen the insides of Maricopa County's voting systems and is telling her constituents they are accurate, they are fair, and they are legitimate. There's a guy Justin Heap. He is the county reporter.

[00:10:57]Our audience probably remembers Steven Richer. Steven Richer who is the Republican. He's been on the front lines of defending the integrity of elections.

[00:11:04]He got primar enough and he was an election denier.

[00:11:08]Now it's Debbie Leco vers Justin Heap inside of the Maricopa County county reporter who is going to be the one overseeing the early vote and voter registration and wants to turn over the voter roles to the DOJ versus Debbie Lecoet one-time election denier who is now saying hey guys actually these elections are fair and that it's those voices that most of the country doesn't know if you unless you live in Maropa County but it's those voices that we are going to be talking about this November and in 2028 because those names they used to be people like Bill Gates. They used to be people like Rusty Bowers.

[00:11:42]They used to be [clears throat] people like Carrie Lake. People didn't know those names six years ago. They should be paying attention locally now because the members of Congress up on Capitol Hill, to your point, they are. And they knows that those are the people with the power to ensure the security of the election in November.

[00:11:57]>> Yeah. N Von makes a very good point there about how all politics is local.

[00:12:01]And one of the things that we're hearing from sources is that there are about 3,000 plus counties in America. A lot of these county boards as opposed to the last time around are being stocked with more election deniers or people who could make decisions on the fly uh that are frankly undemocratic. Do you think that the Democratic party is building up enough of a bull work right now against election malfeasants and is aware of the threat? We had Senator Padilla on our air who said everyone has to sort of war game the scenario. But it's not just the voting this time around. It really will be if the election can go forward in a free and fair manner.

[00:12:40]>> Yeah. I mean, I think there really two issues. One you've identified which is the election deniers at the local level.

[00:12:46]And then on top of that, you have a weaponized DOJ that is looking for voting roles. I mean, the thing that's um among many outrages over the last week is the fact that the Trump administration, the Trump DOJ is looking at New Jersey as an example of why they need access to voting roles. And I think what we should be concerned about is not voter fraud at the local level. We should be worried about voter fraud that's created by election deniers or DOJ sources or working together to create that is what's happened in other countries. That's a very good point.

[00:13:22]>> That's what's happened in other countries. Now, I will say there are lots of organizations and lots of Democratic leaders who are preparing and as Senator Padilla said, it's really important for secretaries of state, AGs to prepare themselves for an FBI who's going to try and come in and take over ballots and close elections and and really make the case to the courts that that is unprecedent. Just want to follow up on that really quickly because I think it's a very important point that you mentioned which is that you could have a scenario where you have a local board at a county and you have a weaponized DOJ and they create some sort of chaos pre some sort of pretext. And I think what people should understand about that is obviously that's dangerous but the biggest danger there is this running out the clock this idea that we don't know really what happened with this election. So let's let's kick it up to a friendly court or let's kick it up into somewhere where there's a friendly governor or some friendly way and then it ends up in where we don't really know who won and they that the people in charge decide who they want to win and >> that's why that is why the litigation aspect of this is very important and outside litigators and the work that um like Mark Elias and the NAACP legal defense fund and the lawyers committee for civil rights under the law and all of y'all all y'all out there y'all know who y'all are. I read I get the emails.

[00:14:40]I see what y'all are doing. The NAACP. I think that's why it's so important because that's what made the difference in 2020. That and then aggressively walking down the narrative. The campaigns have to be aggressive about walking down the narrative. What we did in 2020 when you know we knew Trump was going to go and claim victory. So every single day for a week while those votes were being counted, we were having briefings for reporters on camera. So, describing what our process was, what the numbers are, why we believe, what, why we believe what we believe, and why they need to wait. Um, I'm wondering if the campaigns across the board are prepared to do that for these midterm elections, cuz for presidential is very easy to do, frankly, because you have the resources, and you're large. I'm thinking about these Senate races and these House races. To the points that Luke made, >> they've got to be very forward on the front end of saying, look, there are state laws that are at play. We I know we keep talking about, right, what is the federal law? Well, you know, the DOJ, the FBI can say, "Okay, well, screw federal law. We're going to send in federal agents. We're going to go and send in troops to the polling locations anyway." So, it's incumbent upon these states to say, make very clear, the attorneys general and local prosecutors to make very clear that under state law, if you were to intimidate voters, that is against the law and you could face state prosecution. not just the people in Washington that are giving the orders but also the men and women who would be the ones that would be called upon on the ground in a very precarious potentially dangerous uncomfortable situation. I think that is where we are looking at that if you look at Arizona election deniers are leading the ticket on the gubernatorial race, the secretary of state race, the attorneys general race. This is about power and in races and states that come down to thousands of votes. You're looking at the potential of understanding that early votes would be coming in and you'll have a pretty good idea on election day just how close it's going to be. That they've got to be really out front of that on the front end.

[00:16:37]>> Warnings do not elect people. Being right does not elect people. The only thing that elects people is winning the votes and that's how you get the power to do what needs to be done. This is great. Um we could do this all hour but we are not [laughter] vomar. Thank you.

[00:16:51]Y'all will continue. Thank you. Stay with us. When we come back, more breaking news. Senators just confronted Pete Hegathth after the defense secretary asked for billions with a be more to fight Donald Trump's war that he refuses to admit is actually a war.

[00:17:05]Senator Tammy Baldwin who questioned Hegathth [music] is here. And later, Todd Blanch refusing yet again to say that the president's slush fund is [music] officially dead. It's a move that could threaten his nomination to be attorney general. You're watching the week night and record economic dissatisfaction.

[00:17:24]Defense Secretary Pete Hegath went to Capitol Hill to request even more taxpayer dollars for Donald Trump's war of choice with Iran. In addition to Trump's addition, okay, how many addition folks? In addition to Trump's $ 1.5 trillion dollar initial military budget request, guess what? The administration is now asking for another $67 billion dollar for the Pentagon as part of a larger supplemental bill.

[00:17:48]Well, Hegathth, he crumbled when pressed for answers on these funds and frankly the war itself.

[00:17:56]>> You, sir, are the failure, not the men and women who are on that front line.

[00:18:00]you won't show any political courage to actually fund our department because you have Trumped derangement syndrome and can't actually commit to anything meaningful. So I put this on you, Senator >> Sergeant Hoffov, you have trillions. You have over a trillion dollars. You're asking for $1.5 trillion. It's not a question of money. It's a question of leadership and understanding what it takes to actually win >> political cowardice of Democrats who won't fund the troops.

[00:18:28]Joining us now is Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin. She is a member of the appropriations committee and attended today's hearing and apparently she's part of the political cowardice that won't fund troops according to secretary. I >> I just want to just before we start into this just make it very clear that Pete Hex Seth is full of himself and full of it. You've mismanaged the money in the budget that the Congress is already giving you. the fact that you're coming back and asking for another $67 billion and are proposing a $1 plus trillion budget for next year. You are full of it. Full of We'll talk a little bit later what can be done with some of that money. But the reality of it is, Senator, he can't answer the question because he has mismanaged the budget.

[00:19:11]There's 17 plus troops who are dead on his watch. That's not accounted for. the the the the use of munitions, the use of strategy, the lack of strategy. How how does he come before the committee and justify this? What was your take today?

[00:19:27]What's how do you see this playing out?

[00:19:29]Because I can't see any Republicans that I once knew sitting there thinking that this fool actually made sense in this request today given the money that's already been spent to what to what end?

[00:19:41]What what are we seeing?

[00:19:42]>> What do we see for this money?

[00:19:44]>> So So two things. First of all, just the context. This is a war of choice. We were not under any threat from Iran and it has been an unmititigated disaster in terms of loss of life in terms of who's bearing the costs.

[00:20:02]>> Uh my farmers, my constituents who can't afford to fill their fuel tanks and farmers can't afford to buy fertilizer.

[00:20:12]Um the straight of Hormuse now choked up. that was open before we went in. All of the political goals they've expressed, they've made no progress on.

[00:20:22]We're in worse shape now that this war has been commenced uh than we were before it began. But on the question that I asked Secretary Hegsth, which was about the deadliest day in this war so far, March 1st, when we lost six service members and dozens more were significantly and severely injured.

[00:20:45]>> We were unprepared. And there's been recent reporting from many of the troops that survived that attack about the fact that they asked for additional air defense that they asked for medical preparedness in case and were denied those requests and he either wasn't briefed on that and didn't know that they were denied >> a form of mismanagement, >> right? Uh unprepared or worse yet is covering it up. And all in this context, they're asking for tens of billions of dollars more for this war of choice.

[00:21:22]Americans want it to come to an end.

[00:21:25]Senator, I think the way you characterize it is very important because it is a war of choice and this is not a war that has been authorized by Congress at all. There is no authorization for the use of military force. This is being done unilaterally by the executive branch. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson was asked about that today. I want to play what he said, please.

[00:21:45]The administration is working very hard, the commander-in-chief and the and the whole uh department of war, they're working very hard to bring this to a resolution. There's a lot of discussions about how that will be done. We're we're all uh closely watching those developments. Of course, I don't think an AUMF is in order right now. I think we need to bring this to uh to a resolution.

[00:22:05]>> We need to bring this to a resolution without congressional involvement, essentially neutering the legislative branch. We do have some reporting though from notice that Senate Republicans are now pushing for more of a say in their Iran war. Several lawmakers said Monday that Congress should no longer remain on the sidelines. The White House needs to explain where the conflict is headed.

[00:22:21]Quote, "I think it is clear that it's time for Congress to act," Senator Curtis said. And that doesn't mean it's necessarily acting constraining the president, but in fact defining what this looks like.

[00:22:31]17 service members dead, billions upon billions upon billions of dollars in a country, frankly, is hurting in this economy. A lot of people can't make ends meet. Do you think that your Republican colleagues have the fortitude to actually have a real honest debate about this war?

[00:22:47]>> Well, let me point out a couple of obvious things. One is they have not come to Capitol Hill until today and one other appearance to be to take questions in public, >> the administration about this war.

[00:23:04]That's outrageous. uh given um uh the loss of life, given the expenditures related. I I I also want to get to one point you made that obviously this war is not authorized by Congress, but both houses have now gone on record.

[00:23:21]>> Yes.

[00:23:22]>> With a majority saying that this conflict must end absent >> congressional authorization. A majority of both houses passed a concurrent resolution saying that. And so we we've got to bear that in mind.

[00:23:40]Do I trust my Republican colleagues to act responsibility, act responsibly, and to uh do what Congress is called upon to do at this moment? Well, I've been very disappointed that they haven't in large number thus far, but I always have hope that they will understand that we are a branch of government that is the one that declares war. We're the ones with the power of the purse strings. We need to use those powers to hold this administration to account.

[00:24:13]>> So, keep hope alive. Well, someone [laughter] as the great as the late great Reverend Jesse Jackson would say, >> well, to the point you just made then, I mean, coming out of coming into this segment, we played that sound from uh the secretary who was underscoring that like Democrats don't want to fund the military. And I think previously, which I don't think is true to be very clear, but I think previously a claim like that would have grown legs, but we can all see with our own eyes. We have heard the right we've heard the mischaracterizations from I mean Pete he says four months ago a couple months ago didn't we obliterate Iran's nuclear capability and then we still went to war with Iran and now we done obliterated again and again but yet they are still bombing us. I don't I don't it's not making sense and so the people can see that.

[00:24:57]>> Are are Democrats and some Republicans though prepared to say we aren't funding any of this because we need a full accounting of what's going on in this war? We still haven't even spoken about the war crimes allegedly that this administration is committing in Iran by bombing civilian infrastructure. Are are folks prepared to really hold firm on this?

[00:25:18]>> Yes. And let me just remind some conversations we've had before on this.

[00:25:22]There's a group of us in the Senate who have come repeatedly to the floor of the Senate weekly to say uh to present a war powers resolution and to say go on record. Do you support this or not? Ben, last week we took the nearly unprecedented move of saying we are not moving the National Defense Authorization Act forward. We will at some point, but not right now while this war is going on. And so there's a lot of folks drawing a line in the sand. But back to your point about do Democrats uh support funding our troops, funding defense? Right now in our current fiscal year, the defense department reached nearly a trillion dollars in funding.

[00:26:09]That was a significant increase last for this current. I >> mean, the claim is a lie. We just all I mean, THE CLAIM IS IT'S ABOUT BS. IT'S A LIE.

[00:26:18]>> That's right. That's right.

[00:26:20]>> So, where where does that leave us then?

[00:26:23]because we we're always seemingly at the same kind of standstill um that you have a party in power that doesn't give a damn about the deaths of soldiers and the cost of the war despite how the American people feel to both Luke and Simone's point. Um you have Democrats who are frustrated by the process because you don't have the power uh in hand uh the gavl as they say to really kind of move the Congress and the agenda. So, are we just in this, you know, countdown to November, countdown to when the there's a change in power?

[00:26:57]Um h how how do Democrats see this side of it given the frustrations of the American people?

[00:27:03]>> Well, we were talking about the calculus that some of my Republican colleagues will have. This is a deeply unpopular war in blue states, in purple states, and in red states. This is a president who campaigned when he ran in 2024 on bringing foreign conflicts to an end on day one, bringing cost down on day one. So, my Republican colleagues are seeing their constituents sorely disappointed by the broken promises. Do they want to uh support those broken promises or do they want to stand up? And we're going to give them those choices as frequently as we can on the Senate floor.

[00:27:48]>> Well, we will we'll see where they stand. I have a feeling I know where that will be, but we'll see. Senator Tammy Duckworth, thank you so much.

[00:27:57]Baldwin Duckworth. [laughter] >> The Tammy Caucus.

[00:28:00]>> The Tam The Tammy Caucus. Tammy Baldwin.

[00:28:02]Thank you so much. In just a moment, two Republican senators are fed up with Todd Blanch evading their questions on the Trump slush fund. And maybe, h, just maybe, is putting his confirmation as attorney general in trouble? [music] Maybe. We'll see. You're watching the Weekn night.

[00:28:22]Republican Senator Tom Tillis just told MS Now that Donald Trump's $1.8 billion slush fund must be gone for good in order to for Tai Blanch to secure his vote to be Donald Trump's permanent attorney general.

[00:28:36]>> If the vote were today, would you be a no? Well, I' I've said the 1776. I don't know how um better I can communicate other than the 1776 fund has to have a fork stuck in it.

[00:28:50]>> I could say we need 86 to 177.

[00:28:55]>> Yesterday, Blanch submitted answers to hundreds of questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee. In one, Tillis asked Blanch, quote, "If the president directs you to reverse your decision and move forward with the fund, will you move forward?" Blanch responded, quote, "It would be inappropriate for me to comment on hypothetical communications I may or may not have with the president."

[00:29:18]End quote. Hubba hubba hubba. Joining us at the table, Liz Oyer, former pardon attorney at the Justice Department and former federal public defender.

[00:29:29]Liz, um, for what is going on?

[00:29:33][laughter] What is going on? Because rhetorical questions.

[00:29:38]I mean, y'all, Todd Blanch has regularly at every turn he has been offered to say, "I will kill the slush fund to write it down to whether it's a federal judge or the United States senators that are going to confirm him." He has declined to do it at this point. What more do they NEED TO KNOW? HE NOT GONNA COMMIT TO KILLING the slush BUN BECAUSE HE DON'T WANT to commit to killing the slush bun because the president wants the slush bun alive. So if the slush bun is a red line for the senators, isn't it time to put up OR SHUT UP? LIKE WHAT ELSE DO WE NEED TO KNOW?

[00:30:09]>> YEAH, there's no reason at this point for him not to put it in writing. No legitimate reason. He doesn't want to put it in writing because that could potentially be used against him in the future. So he is stringing it along and he's saying take my word for it. We are well past the point of take my word for it. I mean, Todd Blanch has been disingenuous about so many different things throughout his tenure, including his ability to be independent from from Donald Trump. So, we cannot take his word for for it. Legally, the slush fund is still enforceable because there is a written contract. The contract says that it can only be modified by a written agreement between the parties, which means not only does Todd Blanch need to put it in writing, but Donald Trump needs to put it in writing that he agrees to withdraw the slush fund. He's never going to do that. So there's really no point in Blanch writing it because he's not going to get the counterparty signature from Donald Trump saying it's dead and it's not dead. And >> the slush fund is so important to talk about because to me it's the single worst thing the Trump administration's ever done aside from causing suffering to people. And why is that? It eliminates judicial review. It takes the power of the purse away from the legislative branch. It gives an insane carve out to his family that they can't be uh prosecuted or looked after by the IRS for tax fraud. it is and and it then it pays insurrectionists treasonous insurrectionists in theory. So, it's just one of the worst things that we've ever seen. Um, but I want to talk to you about something else because I think a lot of times people watch political programs and they get lost in the minutia. Uh, but sometimes there's very clear lines about what's right and wrong. Uh, you worked for Todd Blanch.

[00:31:38]Todd Blanch asked you to do something. I want to play what he asked you to do and your response to it. Can we play that tape, please?

[00:31:48]Look, th this is bad policy.

[00:31:50]>> Office had asked me to recommend restoring the gun ownership rights of a convicted domestic abuser. I raised concerns about public safety, but Mr. Blanch's staff pressured me to go along anyway. I did not. But because this particular domestic abuser had a personal relationship with the president, Mr. Blanch's staff asked me to set aside my concerns. When I wouldn't, Mr. Blanch fired me within hours.

[00:32:20]>> And that abuser, of course, domestic abuser was Mel Gibson, the actor. So, you were essentially asked by Todd Blanch to give Mel Gibson a pass, give him back his gun rights, even though he's a domestic abuser. You said no, and you got fired.

[00:32:33]>> Tell us about Todd Blanch, the person, because I think that's a wonderful anecdote about how he operates. You know what's really stunning is I never actually met Todd Blanch in person. I dealt with his staff. They were very insistent about this particular request.

[00:32:48]They tried to bully me into going along with it. And when I declined, Todd Blanch sent me a memo firing me, a three-s sentence memo that he had delivered to me by Department of Justice security guards. He then had armed US marshals come to my home to try to prevent me from speaking to Congress about the firing. All of my dealings with Mr. Blanch had been in writing. He uh testified in his congressional hearing about my firing and he provided false testimony. I mean, he literally sat up there and just casually lied about the reasons for the firing. So, what I from what I know of him, he is not a trustworthy person. He is not a person who respects the institution of the Department of Justice or the role that career lawyers play there. He is totally beholden to Donald Trump and he is totally unfit to be the attorney general.

[00:33:33]>> Blanch sent Marshalls to your home.

[00:33:35]>> He did. Yes. My gosh. Well, yeah. Uh, you know, I think that's something a lot of Americans probably should get used to uh in the next coming months uh in the last two years of this administration because that's how they use the Justice Department. I mean, we've already seen uh the frivolous prosecutions, the going after people, tying them up in court.

[00:33:55]Um, and it really does say a lot uh that you had to go through that um in the role that you played um because they wanted something particular done >> and that's that's the that's the MO.

[00:34:08]It's always something particular with Trump and in the fact that he wants you to take care of a buddy who just wrote a check. He wants you to take care of a friend who just, you know, gave him something, you know, maybe a trophy or something. Um, so what what do we do here with all of this? Because I I I think the frustration that a lot of Americans have uh when they hear stories like yours is that if the good guys are getting run out like this, the folks who are kind of there to to hold those guard rails in place, what does it say for the rest of us in the system as a whole? And I think that's sort of an underlying concern going into elections, for example, and going into um what may happen on the other side of elections.

[00:34:53]How how do you see all of this playing out when you know someone like Blanch is going to have the power? Because Blanch, this is my supposition, Blanch is doing what Blanch is doing. He's not answering the questions. He's playing the oh, I can't because I can't divulge with the president conversations. It's because he already knows he has the votes. He already knows he has the votes. He he's not worried about that because if the White House was worried about it, their whole tactic would be very different right now. We've seen this before when there was a problem with securing the vote.

[00:35:23]>> You don't think they're a little worried?

[00:35:25]>> No, I don't think they're a little bit worried because if one senator falls, they got two.

[00:35:29]>> They're not worried. The question is which one of which one is going to be able to go out there and play the bad guy and say, "No, you can't have the position." The other two will give it to them.

[00:35:39]>> That's crazy. Well, look, things are really bad right now at the Justice Department. They've lost over a quarter of their attorneys. They are not even able to replace them. They've dropped the hiring standards. They're offering signing bonuses. They cannot get people to work there. But things are only going to get worse if Todd Blanch is confirmed as attorney general. He is going to be unleashed. The last guard rails on him right now are the need to keep those Republican senators on board to vote for his confirmation. Once they vote for him, if they vote for him, he is going to be totally unleashed. There is going to be nothing keeping him in check anymore. And we are going to see the current corruption double, quadruple.

[00:36:19]It's going to be really bad.

[00:36:22]>> Need a drink?

[00:36:25]>> My god.

[00:36:26]>> So why are we here at the table at the week night, folks? Liz Oyer, thank you so much. Uh, put a little something extra in that cup. After the break, the latest on that dangerous [laughter] psychospor psychospora outbreak. Yeah.

[00:36:39]In other words, the poopy poopy [laughter] lettuce thing and the Trump administration's cuts that might have worsened the situation. Y'all had the lettuce. You know what I'm talking about. Keep it right here on the week night.