Todd Blanche Told the Senate Under Oath He Knew Nothing About the Adams Dismissal. His Soon-to-Be Deputy Was Already Discussing It.
Attorney General Todd Blanche has made the same shape of commitment five times since joining DOJ in 2025, and contradicted it five times. He testified under oath he had no knowledge of the decision to dismiss corruption charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams -- unsealed documents show the acting deputy AG discussed it with prosecutors two weeks earlier, and every Senate Judiciary Democrat has asked DOJ's Inspector General to investigate. He pledged to recuse from Trump-related matters if DOJ's ethics lawyer advised it -- the ethics lawyer did, in writing, and CNN reports he never recused. He signed an ethics pledge to divest his crypto holdings within 90 days -- he signed a memo killing crypto enforcement while still holding up to $485,000 in crypto, and didn't divest for two more months. He told Congress DOJ's Epstein-files review was complete and unredacted beyond legal necessity -- a federal judge found DOJ in violation of the transparency law, with roughly 200,000 pages still withheld. And this week, asked to pledge that DOJ would act independently of the White House, he simply declined: "No attorney general should ever pledge that." He was confirmed as Attorney General nine days ago, 50-49 -- his closest margin yet.
RFK Jr.'s Own Words Were Read Back to Him at His Hearing. The Senate Confirmed Him Anyway.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s past statements on vaccines were read back to him, on the record, during his own January 2025 confirmation hearing -- and fact-checkers were correcting his sworn testimony within 48 hours, not months later. Sen. Bill Cassidy, the key swing vote, says he got specific written commitments in exchange for his yes: don't touch the vaccine advisory committee, work within existing systems, leave the CDC's autism language alone. Kennedy has since fired all 17 members of that committee, bypassed it to change vaccine recommendations, and ordered the CDC's autism language altered -- each with a clean date. Cassidy's own follow-through has been mostly words: a delay request that was ignored, a promised oversight hearing that, five months later, still hasn't happened. And in his entire Senate term, Cassidy has never once voted no on a Trump nominee -- not this one, not any other.
Pelosi Voted to Cut Israel Aid. Jeffries Voted to Keep It. The Old Democratic Consensus Is Gone.
The amendment failed overwhelmingly. Inside the Democratic caucus, it won 103–98 — splitting the party's leadership and turning what was once a fringe position into a majority vote.