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Todd Blanche is the controversial new head of the Justice Dept. · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: The United States Senate has just confirmed Tom Blanche as
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  Speaker 1: US Attorney General, America's top law enforcement official, in a
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  Speaker 1: razor thin vote.
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  Speaker 2: On this vote, the yaser fifty, the nays are forty nine.
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  Speaker 2: The nomination is confirmed.
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  Speaker 1: Now it probably comes as no surprise that Senate Democrats
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  Speaker 1: opposed Trump's pick for attorney general, but Blanche also faced
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  Speaker 1: opposition from some Republican senators over his role in setting
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  Speaker 1: up a one point eight billion dollar fund to compensate
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  Speaker 1: what Trump administration sees as people unfairly targeted by the
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  Speaker 1: Justice Department. Blanche, who was already acting Attorney General before
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  Speaker 1: the vote, oversaw changes the department's long standing independence from
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  Speaker 1: the White House. Now, Trump and Blanche have a long
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  Speaker 1: history together. Blanche helped to defend Trump in numerous court cases,
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  Speaker 1: both in New York and on the federal level, including
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  Speaker 1: his cases involving accusations of election obstruction, mishandling of classified documents,
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  Speaker 1: and supposed hush money payments. Now, some in Congress hope
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  Speaker 1: that the close relationship between the two men could help
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  Speaker 1: Blanch temper what they see as Trump's most concerning impulses,
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  Speaker 1: but others warn he is playing an instrumental role in
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  Speaker 1: reshaping and bending the Department to Donald Trump's will. Here's
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  Speaker 1: a bit more of the debate that unfolded just before
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  Speaker 1: the vote.
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  Speaker 3: We need a stabilizing force at the Department of Justice,
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  Speaker 3: and mister Blanche deserves the opportunity to provide that as
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  Speaker 3: opposed to continuing to serve an enacting capacity. And as
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  Speaker 3: the Deputy Attorney General.
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  Speaker 2: He does not represent the American people now. He will
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  Speaker 2: never represent the American people. He will never do what's
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  Speaker 2: best for the American people. He will only do its
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  Speaker 2: best for Donald Trump.
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  Speaker 1: Some fiery words there. So what could blanche is now
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  Speaker 1: permanent appointment mean for the US Justice Department. Timothy Hagel,
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  Speaker 1: Associate professor of political science at the University of Iowa
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  Speaker 1: in Iowa City, is here to help us unwrap this. So, Timothy,
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  Speaker 1: were you surprised at how close the vote to confirm
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  Speaker 1: Blench as Attorney General was?
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  Speaker 4: Not? Particularly It was going to be close anyway, And
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  Speaker 4: once a couple of senators who had objected to the
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  Speaker 4: weaponization Fund that their concerns were resolved, it was still
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  Speaker 4: going to be close. And somebody like Susan Collins, Senator
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  Speaker 4: from Maine, is in a close reelection fight, so it's
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  Speaker 4: not surprising that she would vote no on something like
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  Speaker 4: this to basically not give her opponent an additional talking point
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  Speaker 4: at Lisa Murkowski, Senator from Alaska, has kind of an
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  Speaker 4: independent streak as well, and so it allowed them to
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  Speaker 4: basically cast no votes either because they personally were against it,
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  Speaker 4: or again with Collins in a close reelection fight, and
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  Speaker 4: still get the win. And even then, you know, if
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  Speaker 4: it had been fifty to fifty, then we could have
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  Speaker 4: had the Vice president's vote in favor.
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  Speaker 1: Now, in the run up to this vote, some critics
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  Speaker 1: say that Blench represented a much more expansive view of
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  Speaker 1: presidential power than previous Attorney generals. Could you help walk
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  Speaker 1: our viewers through what exactly that means.
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  Speaker 4: Well, what it means in part is that the president,
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  Speaker 4: as we've seen with President Trump but also Presidents Biden
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  Speaker 4: and Obama as well, that they're making liberals, shall we say,
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  Speaker 4: not liberal in the political sense, but expansive use of
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  Speaker 4: the executive powers, particularly executive orders. And because we've been
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  Speaker 4: in a situation for a number of years now where
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  Speaker 4: Congress has great difficulty getting much done, especially if it
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  Speaker 4: has any political overtones, and it's just particularly regarding getting
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  Speaker 4: somethings through the Senate because of the filibuster, that basically
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  Speaker 4: the president has taken it upon himself to use his
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  Speaker 4: powers as much as possible to try to get things
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  Speaker 4: done regarding his policy. And again this Obama is doing
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  Speaker 4: this in Biden and Trump as well, So this is
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  Speaker 4: nothing new. And the difference with Blanche potentially is that
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  Speaker 4: he seems to be willing to allow the president to
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  Speaker 4: do that if he so chooses. Now, of course, prior
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  Speaker 4: administrations you had Eric Holder, who was who declared himself
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  Speaker 4: to be the wingman of Obama, was perfectly willing to
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  Speaker 4: let Obama do his thing as well. So we're in
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  Speaker 4: kind of a period where there's the attorney generals often
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  Speaker 4: going to allow the president a little bit more leeway
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  Speaker 4: than perhaps has been the case in the past.
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  Speaker 1: Now, Blanche had previously also said that this more expansive
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  Speaker 1: view was rooted in the Constitution. Last April, he argued
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  Speaker 1: that Trump had the right and duty to order political
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  Speaker 1: investigations under powers that were granted him in the Constitution.
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  Speaker 1: Now does that argument have merit to you.
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  Speaker 4: Well, yes and no. It's always going to depend on
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  Speaker 4: your point of view that obviously democrats, and you saw
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  Speaker 4: Senator Shift was making that argument essentially in the clip
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  Speaker 4: you played that basically he sees it as purely, purely political. Well,
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  Speaker 4: from Trump's perspective, he sees that basically before he or
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  Speaker 4: when he was present the first time and intervening four years,
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  Speaker 4: that basically the Department of Justice was weaponized against him.
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  Speaker 4: And so basically this is looking into these sorts of things. Now,
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  Speaker 4: is that political weaponization? You know, if you're a Democrat,
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  Speaker 4: you may think so. If you're a Republican, perhaps not.
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  Speaker 3: Now.
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  Speaker 1: Previous presidents have kept more of a distance to the
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  Speaker 1: Justice Department, and we seem to be seeing that change
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  Speaker 1: under the second Trump administration. Do you think that is
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  Speaker 1: an important aspect of the American legal system or is
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  Speaker 1: it more of an outdated principle.
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  Speaker 4: Well, it's certainly something that we can aspire to and
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  Speaker 4: have aspired to in the past. We've often seen people
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  Speaker 4: that were nominated to be the Attorney General that basically
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  Speaker 4: were somebody who had been a long time perhaps members
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  Speaker 4: of the Department of Justice previously, even if maybe they
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  Speaker 4: had gone into private practice for a while. But basically
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  Speaker 4: the idea would be that they would be looking at
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  Speaker 4: the law, you know, without partisan partisanship and so forth. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 4: we've kind of passed that to a certain extent that
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  Speaker 4: we've seen again with previous administrations last ten or fifteen years,
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  Speaker 4: where it's become more and more political. And that's one
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  Speaker 4: of the concerns that Trump had was that the Department
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  Speaker 4: of Justice had become very political under initially Obama and
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  Speaker 4: then of course later Biden after Trump's first term, and
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  Speaker 4: so this is in some sense a carryover from that
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  Speaker 4: sort of a reaction saying, Okay, well, it became very
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  Speaker 4: political one direction, now we're making a political the other.
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  Speaker 4: That's not necessarily a good thing. It'd be nice to
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  Speaker 4: have it where it is a little bit more objective.
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  Speaker 4: It is looking at things more specifically without regard to
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  Speaker 4: the political side of things. But it's hard to argue
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  Speaker 4: that that's not something we've seen before.
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  Speaker 3: Now.
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  Speaker 1: A lot has also been made of the close relationship
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  Speaker 1: between Trump and Blanche, And let's have a listen to
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  Speaker 1: a clip of mister Blanche that raised some eyebrows last month.
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  Speaker 4: Are you in President Trump?
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  Speaker 1: Friends, I'm his lawyer, was his lawyer, and now I'm
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  Speaker 1: the deputy Attorney General.
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  Speaker 2: I met him.
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  Speaker 1: Now, this may have just been a slip of the tongue,
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  Speaker 1: but for some people it has been raising questions of
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  Speaker 1: a possible conflict of interest if he still kind of
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  Speaker 1: sees himself as Trump's lawyer. Now, is that something you
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  Speaker 1: would be worried about or do you think it's you know,
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  Speaker 1: much ado about nothing.
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  Speaker 4: It's something that we would maybe be a little concerned about.
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  Speaker 4: And certainly, and certainly Democrats are going to be keeping
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  Speaker 4: a close eye on this, but I think even Republicans
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  Speaker 4: would as well, that they would certainly be along the
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  Speaker 4: life they being Republicans, would certainly be along the line
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  Speaker 4: of wanting to see that the Justice Department is going
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  Speaker 4: to carry out its duties without undue political favor. Now, again,
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  Speaker 4: the Attorney General is a member of the president's cabinet
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  Speaker 4: and is going to adhere to the president's policies in
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  Speaker 4: various ways. And again we've seen that in the past,
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  Speaker 4: where you know, maybe under the Biden administration, certain laws
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  Speaker 4: were enforced more faithfully than others, which think about immigration
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  Speaker 4: along those lines as something that Trump's administration has complained about.
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  Speaker 4: And so as long as Blanche is adhering to the
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  Speaker 4: letter of the laws, not unduly favoring Trump. He should
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  Speaker 4: be okay, even if it's more than Democrats would prefer.
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  Speaker 1: All right, now, now some senators have to actually expressed
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  Speaker 1: hope that Blanche's close relationship with Trump and past history
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  Speaker 1: could help him tamper some of Trump's more expansionistic impulses.
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  Speaker 1: Have you seen any of evidence of that when he
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  Speaker 1: was acting Attorney general? And a question that just occurred
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  Speaker 1: to me recently was how typical is it that informal
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  Speaker 1: considerations like those play a role in political appointments like this.
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  Speaker 4: Those types of considerations can be important, and again it
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  Speaker 4: does depend on that relationship. You'll notice, however, though, when
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  Speaker 4: Blanche was asked us if he was a friend of Trump,
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  Speaker 4: he didn't say yes, And we're say, well, why was
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  Speaker 4: his lawyer? Well, that's not necessarily the same thing as
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  Speaker 4: being your friend. That basically, if you have certain ethical
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  Speaker 4: obligations as a lawyer to adhere to the letter of
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  Speaker 4: the law and even perhaps the spirit of the law,
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  Speaker 4: and so he can't go beyond that. And certainly we
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  Speaker 4: may not have seen much of willingness on his part
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  Speaker 4: to buck Trump's inclinations when he's acting attorney general, because
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  Speaker 4: if he does too much, then all of a sudden
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  Speaker 4: he's going to lose that opportunity. Well, now, once he
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  Speaker 4: gets confirmed, he could still be fired potentially by Trump.
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  Speaker 4: But once he gets confirmed and always got a little
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  Speaker 4: bit stronger base to work on, he can perhaps exert
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  Speaker 4: himself if he so chooses a little bit more to
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  Speaker 4: try to curb those inclinations. But on the other hand,
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  Speaker 4: we've seen that that hasn't always worked in other cabinet positions.
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  Speaker 4: That Trump really wants to get something done, he's willing
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  Speaker 4: to vocalize that, look, we need to do this, and
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  Speaker 4: you didn't need to get on the stick.
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  Speaker 1: So Blanche has been confirmed. Now what do you see
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  Speaker 1: as the key challenges moving forward for the Justice Department
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  Speaker 1: now that he has been confirmed as Attorney general.
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  Speaker 4: Well, one of the things that any administrative political appointee,
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  Speaker 4: even at the very top level, has to deal with
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  Speaker 4: is that you are usually at the head of a
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  Speaker 4: very large bureaucracy, and bureocracy often will resist changes of
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  Speaker 4: various sorts. And one of the things in particular that
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  Speaker 4: the Trump administration has tried to do is to change
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  Speaker 4: sort of the culture of the Justice Department that it
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  Speaker 4: was sort of leaning too far to the left again
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  Speaker 4: from Trump's perspective, and so they want to try to
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  Speaker 4: rain that back a little bit, but that takes time
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  Speaker 4: and it takes a lot of energy. You're going to
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  Speaker 4: get pushed back bureaucratically and so forth. I saw this
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  Speaker 4: when I worked at the Department of Justice for a
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  Speaker 4: couple of years, that a lot of the career people said, well,
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  Speaker 4: we can just wait out for the next president. Well,
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  Speaker 4: with Trump's case, he's only got a couple of years
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  Speaker 4: and Blanche would only have a couple of years as
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  Speaker 4: his attorney general, and so they can wait and see, well,
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  Speaker 4: who's going to be the president come twenty twenty nine
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  Speaker 4: after the twenty twenty eight election, and maybe that would
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  Speaker 4: be something more to their liking. So they can sort
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  Speaker 4: of dig their heels in and resist any kinds of change.
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  Speaker 1: All right, I'm afrare. We want to leave it there.
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  Speaker 1: That was Timothy Hagel, Associate professor for political science at
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  Speaker 1: the University of Iowa and Iowa City. Thanks for joining
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  Speaker 1: us and sharing your expertise with us.
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  Speaker 4: My pleasure.
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  Speaker 1: Now we've heard from the expert, But what's your take
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  Speaker 1: is Blanche a good fit for the role of Attorney General.
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  Speaker 1: Let us know in the comments, and don't forget to
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  Speaker 1: subscribe to our channel if you want to see more
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  Speaker 1: of our videos. Thanks for joining us.