Why the Senate Hearings on Todd Blanche Feel So Disorienting

The War on Truth Being Waged Is Both Familiar and Jarring

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The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Donald Trump’s nomination of Todd Blanche to be the Attorney General of the United States provides a disturbing snapshot of just about everything that is wrong with Washington, DC.

Trumpism has always been a sort of gravitational field that distorts reality to feed the black hole of Trump’s monstrously needy ego, but watching it warp the law itself–including the very government agency charged with enforcing it–is especially jarring. It’s not that the Justice Department is perfect or has always been led by the best minds. It’s that America has never witnessed anything like having someone akin to a mob lawyer at its helm.

In any other Congress not so servile to Trump, Blanche would never have received a confirmation hearing in the first place. His actions as Acting Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General would have disqualified him for this promotion.

To be fair, I never expected Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the 94-year-old chair of the Judiciary Committee, to do the right thing. His schtick of supposedly being a watchdog on government overreach is well past its expiration date. He is willfully blind to all the damage Blanche has already done to the American people and to DOJ. He’s been staffed by flamethrowers for years, by his own choice, and is there to deliver whatever Trump wants, even as the president’s reckless policies have harmed Iowa farmers so badly that he had to raid other taxpayers’ dollars to staunch the bleeding.

Among the Republican lawyers on the dais, only Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) had the guts to condemn the despicable deal Blanche tried to cut with and for Trump. Even then, he approached the breadth of the document Blanche himself signed–giving Trump immunity “FOREVER” for any violations of our tax laws to date and much more–as a technical legal question rather than the outright condemnation it deserves.

Now whether Cornyn is doing this out of the goodness of his heart or because Trump endorsed his primary challenger, effectively killing his re-election bid and his tenure in Congress—or both—we may never know. Still, I applaud his willingness to object and I hope he doesn’t cave. He’s right to raise the alarm and he could help protect America from the Leopold-and-Loeb-like duo of Trump and Blanche, who have essentially kidnapped the rule of law and are executing it. Executing as in killing it–not faithfully carrying it out.

Then there’s Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC). Like Grassley, he claimed the Biden administration weaponized DOJ against Trump and criticized Democrats for not objecting. But reality tells a different story. Joe Biden’s Attorney General, Merrick Garland, dragged his feet in response to what Trump unleashed on the Capitol on January 6th. Only after the bipartisan January 6 Select Committee unveiled its detailed findings did Garland finally appoint a special counsel–independent of him and President Biden–to look into the matter and consider criminal charges. The evidence showed those charges were well grounded, unlike a photo of seashells.

I also hope Tillis doesn’t let Blanche get away with checking a box simply by meeting with a group of Epstein survivors. Blanche’s actions toward those survivors, compared with his treatment of convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell, make clear who matters more to those doing Trump’s bidding.

Overall, the Democrats on the Committee stood up to Blanche and detailed the truly many ways he has disqualified himself from serving as AG. Still, some were far too gentle and genteel, as though the Senate were still the storied institution of a past that never existed. It’s a small point, but publicly thanking Blanche for meeting with you makes you sound like the supplicant rather than the person evaluating his fitness for the job. Blanche should consider himself lucky that you are even giving him the time of day after all the havoc he has wreaked. Most Americans want you to stand tall in righteously condemning his actions.

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The thing most jarring to me is the same thing that has been jarring me for years from people like Blanche: how easily they bend or break the truth.

I remember the first time I personally watched Sen. Lindsey Graham lie out loud about a judicial nomination issue, while I served as the Chief Counsel for nominations on the Senate Judiciary Committee. This was just a few years after Graham sought to impeach Bill Clinton for lying about his sexual relationships. I vividly recall seeing Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) say one thing off camera, then confidently lie and say the exact opposite once the recording light came on. And, then there is the endless lie machine in the White House, at the White House Correspondents Dinner, on airport tarmacs, and virtually everywhere else.

Day after day, we are swimming in a pool of lies–big lies, small lies, even lies about reflecting pools. Sometimes it feels like we are drowning in them. We would never tolerate this from the people we love. Why do we tolerate it in our politics?

It’s like a new Dark Age, with the American empire crumbling beneath the weight of Trump’s lies, gaudy gilt, rampant corruption, and destruction of science. It feels like a war on the Enlightenment itself–the search for truth, the scientific method, the rejection of the supposed divine rights of kings.

We have got to repel this 21st century version of the barbarians at the gates. We simply cannot accept this new normal. We must not give up. We have to deepen our solidarity and re-affirm our values: which at the bare minimum include don’t lie, don’t covet, and don’t kill, and which certainly means act justly.

I don’t know what motivates Todd Blanche or any of the others who bend in proximity to power. I do know the wreckage that results when people are willing to do almost anything to get or keep it–and when billionaires can never have enough of it.

I’m reminded of the story about Joseph Heller, the author who was asked how he felt about some billionaire who had more money than he could ever make. He responded, “I have something he will never have: enough!”

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What I’m Reading or Rereading:

• Joseph Heller’s Catch-22

  • It’s still a brilliant satire–what will be the Catch-22 that captures this time?

• Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American

  • She’s a brilliant and a real life hero.

• FDR’s Four Freedoms speech

  • We need to boldly envision what redefining freedom means for us in the 21st century.

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