Senate Republicans refuse to pass law banning DOJ anti-weaponization fund from going into effect

Added: 2026-06-07

[00:00:00]All right, the Senate handed President Trump a big win for his so-called anti-weaponization fund. Olivia Rubin explains how all of this could impact the man slated to be the next Attorney General.

[00:00:12]>> Today a victory for President Trump on Capitol Hill over his controversial $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund. Senate Republicans refusing to pass a law to ban it from ever going into effect. It comes after a rare rebuke. Several Republicans pushing back against the fund which would use taxpayer dollars to compensate allies of the president who claim they were mistreated by the Biden administration, including January 6th rioters. On Tuesday, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche backing down, testifying it wouldn't happen at all.

[00:00:45]>> Not moving forward ever.

[00:00:47]>> Correct.

[00:00:47]>> But a day later, President Trump not making that same commitment.

[00:00:52]>> fund, uh, as far as I'm concerned, was a beautiful thing.

[00:00:57]>> But with no law outright banning it, Democrats overnight sounding the alarm.

[00:01:02]>> Republicans are trusting the word of Todd Blanche who built a career on lying that the administration will just drop this slush fund.

[00:01:11]>> The issue could be problematic for Blanche's confirmation as the president says he'll nominate his former personal attorney for Attorney General.

[00:01:19]>> Do you think he'll have a hard time getting confirmed?

[00:01:22]>> Um, hard to say.

[00:01:24]>> Already two Republican senators, John Cornyn and Tom Tillis, say they're undecided. Tillis is adding January 6th will be key.

[00:01:32]>> They better not have said for 1 minute that the people that that beat up police officers like these right down here were righteous people.

[00:01:41]>> Now, Blanche's road to confirmation might be tight. He first needs to win over the approval of the Senate Judiciary Committee where he can likely only afford to lose a single Republican vote. Now, both Cornyn and Tillis are on that committee, meaning depending how the other votes shake out, he might need to win one of them over. Olivia Rubin, ABC News, Washington.