Republicans cave in Todd Blanche confirmation

**Brian Tyler Cohen** (0:01)
Todd Blanche issues an announcement to salvage his confirmation as Attorney General. And I've got two interviews, former Obama Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer and former National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor. I'm Brian Tyler Cohen, and you're listening to No Lie.
So we have got a stunning new announcement from Todd Blanche, Donald Trump's embattled acting Attorney General, who's doing his level best to salvage his failed confirmation. He issued a statement saying, In part, the Attorney General's May 18th, 2026 order establishing the Anti-Weaponization Fund is rescinded and shall have no force or effect. Okay, so here's what you need to know about this. And I'm going to try to simplify this as much as possible. Blanche's new order rescinds the implementation of the $1.8 billion slush fund, but not the overarching settlement agreement out of which the slush fund was born. In other words, the underlying settlement agreement itself is still intact, which means that while this specific $1.8 billion slush fund goes away, there is nothing stopping Blanche or Trump from standing up a brand new slush fund five minutes after Blanche gets confirmed.
Like if Blanche was looking to truly rescind the settlement agreement that the $1.8 billion slush fund was born out of, those terms can only be changed with a written agreement between the Trumps and the government. And this rescission order was signed only by Todd Blanche, not by Trump, not by his sons, not by the Trump organization.
So, if the settlement agreement needed to be rewritten, you would expect that Trump's side would have signed off on it, but they didn't because what got killed was just this specific fund mechanism, not the contract at the heart of the matter, meaning that the underlying settlement is still on the books. What's dead for now is just the particular $1.8 billion implementing structure. Whether Trump's team could push the DOJ to stand up a differently named or differently structured fund under that same settlement agreement is exactly why the whole thing is a farce. And yet apparently it being a farce is perfectly acceptable for John Cornyn and Tom Tillis. Those were the holdouts who demanded a written confirmation that none of this would go forward. And yet even despite this flimsy offering by Todd Blanche, both Cornyn and Tillis decided to cave. Cornyn tweeted a statement basically saying that he was completely satisfied with this flimsy offering by Todd Blanche and that he and Tom Tillis were looking forward to advancing Blanche's nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. That's going to happen on Tuesday morning. So my question to Cornyn and Tillis is this. Did you truly want this slush fund to go away or were you just looking to put up a pretend fight so that you could cosplay for a weekend as independent fighters? Cornyn knows that this fund is not dead because he himself questioned Blanche on this exact point at his confirmation hearing. He is fully aware that the settlement agreement isn't dead, only the specific fund itself, and that Trump can and will resurrect it the second he has the chance. So are Cornyn and Tillis okay with being rolled? The answer is, as the answer always is, yes, because as far as Republicans are concerned, you must always grovel at the feet of the God King, even if he himself is responsible for your demise. If you want to exist in this ecosystem after your time in office, you have to kiss the ring always and forever. So Cornyn and Tillis need to fold like cheap lawn chairs if they want to go on TV in the future or become lobbyists in the future or in any way stay in the good graces of this right-wing ecosystem, meaning cowardice isn't some fluke, it is a feature of today's GOP.
In fact, if you need proof that Trump has zero intention of letting this go, this is what he said after Todd Blanche's confirmation looked like it was dead.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:39)
Is the $1.8 billion DOJ fund dead or is it on hold?

**Donald Trump** (3:43)
It's, I'd have to ask the lawyers, I don't know. I know one thing, the weaponization. Are you talking about the weaponization fund? Yeah, what's your decision? The weaponization fund, as far as I'm concerned, was a beautiful thing.
It was something I was, I didn't make it, but I was, I heard that I thought that was the greatest thing because people like you have abused our people so badly. The fake news like CNN, like the New York Times and like others have abused our people. Wait a minute, be quiet.

**Brian Tyler Cohen** (4:12)
Does that sound like a guy who has no intention of resurrecting the slush fund? Come on now. I mean, this is what Trump was saying even after Todd Blanche's confirmation hearing looked like it wasn't going anywhere. If ever there was a time for Trump to at least pretend that these people don't deserve to be paid out of a slush fund, it is at that moment. And yet even then, Trump couldn't bring himself to just lie. You don't even have to think about this from a legal perspective, just use common sense. That is not a man who has any intention of giving up on paying out violent insurrectionists who do his bidding. And that right there is the point. Trump and Blanche want this because it is their way to send a message to Trump supporters that you will not only not face consequences if you commit violence in his name on his behalf, you'll be rewarded, handsomely rewarded. You'll be pardoned and then paid. You will become a millionaire, as so many other Trump allies already have. He wants to create a permission structure to incentivize people to take matters into their own hands to help him consolidate power for himself. That is why it's so important to keep this fund in place. And that is why it's so disgusting, so disqualifying that Cornyn and Tillis are so predictably folding and allowing this to happen. Words to live by, you will never lose money betting on the cowardice of today's GOP.