Speaker 1: With justice in America on the line, let's bring on
Speaker 1: Rhode Island Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. He is on the
Speaker 1: Judiciary Committee and is the first committee member to join
Speaker 1: ms NOW since the vote this morning, Senator, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for being with us. You were in the
Speaker 1: room where it happened. Tell us what it looked like,
Speaker 1: what it felt like, and how you were feeling. Not
Speaker 1: the vote is over.
Speaker 2: Was astounding. Was at the end of the day, after
Speaker 2: the long negotiations and the delay in confirming Todd Blanche,
Speaker 2: how little the Republican senators got for their efforts. Basically,
Speaker 2: Blanche did nothing more than write down what he had
Speaker 2: already told them, but none of it was in the
Speaker 2: form of any kind of an enforceable agreement. It did
Speaker 2: nothing to solve the problem that Senator Cornyn himself raised
Speaker 2: that Trump still had claims against the government under the
Speaker 2: original agreement. It doesn't prevent Trump from pursuing those, It
Speaker 2: doesn't prevent Blanche from doing slush fund two point zero
Speaker 2: just giving it a new number and a new name,
Speaker 2: and it certainly doesn't prevent them from opening what I
Speaker 2: call the drive by window like a scream store where
Speaker 2: Maga offenders cop meaters from January sixth can come in
Speaker 2: and get a quick and easy free settlement under the
Speaker 2: Federal Court Claims Act and dole out money that way.
Speaker 2: So it was really kind of stunning how weak the
Speaker 2: result was at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: So then why do it if you're corning, if you
Speaker 1: are till us, why drag your feet for what amounts
Speaker 1: to a pinky promise.
Speaker 2: I can't go to their motives. To me, it doesn't
Speaker 2: make sense. First of all, it doesn't solve the problem
Speaker 2: they said they wanted to saw off. Second, it doesn't
Speaker 2: change the character of the man who entered into those
Speaker 2: sleazy deals. I use the example of a burglar. The
Speaker 2: burglar gives back some of the jewelry he stole, he's
Speaker 2: still a burglar. He still was engaged in that misconduct.
Speaker 2: And if you had any doubt about that, just go
Speaker 2: down to the Florida court where Todd Blanche's conduct is
Speaker 2: being examined for potential fraud upon the court. The worst
Speaker 2: thing that a lawyer can be accused of so rare,
Speaker 2: that has never happened before to any senior Department of
Speaker 2: Justice lawyer in the entire history of the Department of Justice.
Speaker 2: And yet for this guy, it's still an open incurding.
Speaker 1: I think for a lot of folks, they watch what
Speaker 1: transpired today, they understand everything you're saying about the ways
Speaker 1: in which a fund like this could re emerge in
Speaker 1: any number of forms. What then, can the Senate do
Speaker 1: about it? What's the backcheck on a future fund? The
Speaker 1: future deal?
Speaker 2: Well, I suppose that in the immediate term, senators who
Speaker 2: are up for reelection or who are not facing re
Speaker 2: election could object and say, until this is fixed, we
Speaker 2: are going to stop allowing nominees forward, we are not
Speaker 2: going to clear bills. They could use the tools of
Speaker 2: the Senate to try to enforce their objection. The problem
Speaker 2: is they had those tools right now and failed to
Speaker 2: use them. So it doesn't set a very high bar
Speaker 2: for what they might do in the future. But do
Speaker 2: bear in mind that he still needs to clear the
Speaker 2: floor and there are plenty of other Republican senators who
Speaker 2: are not yet sold on all of this. Again, go
Speaker 2: back to that fraud on the court thing. This has
Speaker 2: never happened before in the United States history. The guys
Speaker 2: being put forward while there's a fraud on a court investigation.
Speaker 2: It's kind of unbelievable, and it puts Republicans in a
Speaker 2: terrible for November.
Speaker 1: All right, we're going to come back to what you
Speaker 1: think that full vote looks like. But I want to
Speaker 1: talk about Blench's in this handling of the Epstein files,
Speaker 1: of something you focused on today as a key reason
Speaker 1: why you opposed him. Epstein survivor Danny Benski was in
Speaker 1: the committee room to watch the vote firsthand. Our own
Speaker 1: Michael Schnell. Talk to Danny. Talk to Danny about what's next.
Speaker 1: Take a listen.
Speaker 3: What would be your message now to Senator Murkowski, Senator Collins,
Speaker 3: Senator Cassidy as Again, this was a significant hurdle for
Speaker 3: Todd Blinch, but it's not the entire ballgame. What would
Speaker 3: be your message to them in the lead up to
Speaker 3: this final vote?
Speaker 4: Yeah, to please take a meeting with us, because there's
Speaker 4: so much information that we have to share, not just
Speaker 4: investigative leads, but just how this process has gone down
Speaker 4: for the five administrations and thirty years. You know, there's
Speaker 4: just a lot of ground to cover. So I would say,
Speaker 4: take a meeting with us, and we'll be able to
Speaker 4: get you the information you need.
Speaker 1: Senator helped me understand what you think could happen between
Speaker 1: now and the final vote that could keep Todd Blanche
Speaker 1: from being confirmed.
Speaker 2: You know, I think Republicans have they're between an Epstein
Speaker 2: in a Blanche place, between a rock and a hard
Speaker 2: place over the Epstein stuff. Because Blanche is put squarely
Speaker 2: in charge by Pambondy. She's testified that the buck stops
Speaker 2: with him, and she's been hiding stuff and they know it.
Speaker 2: He first tried to hide the FBI three oh twos,
Speaker 2: the agent reports that specifically referred to allegations that President
Speaker 2: Trump Donald Trump sexually and physically assaulted a girl around
Speaker 2: fourteen years old. When those got caught out, they had
Speaker 2: to produce the three oh twos, But they still haven't
Speaker 2: produced the agents notes that they use to review to
Speaker 2: write up the three oh two. We know that they're
Speaker 2: thirty seven pages missing, so like, what's up with that?
Speaker 2: And then you've got billions of dollars of Epstein transactions,
Speaker 2: the generated Treasury suspicious activity reports, and evidently them being
Speaker 2: called suspicious activity reports wasn't enough of a clue to
Speaker 2: Blanche to investigate for suspicious activity. So that whole arena
Speaker 2: of Epstein's financial misconduct was left just completely uncovered. And
Speaker 2: then his trip down to Gilean Maxwell to buy her
Speaker 2: silence about Trump with an improvement in her status to
Speaker 2: a club fed prison situation. You know, you pile all
Speaker 2: that stuff up, and it's really hard to not have
Speaker 2: Jeffrey Epstein stick to people who vote to confirm Todd Blanche.
Speaker 1: I heard a lot of people refer to this not
Speaker 1: as a job interview but a performance review. Given the
Speaker 1: amount of time that Todd Blanche has already had an
Speaker 1: opportunity to show us what he would be like as
Speaker 1: AG in his acting capacity, we've got another indication of
Speaker 1: what he might do if he gets the job full time.
Speaker 1: He dialed into a White House faith call just a
Speaker 1: few days ago, and on that call, he talked about
Speaker 1: plans to roll back aborsh access nationwide. Take a listen.
Speaker 5: Rest assured that we're working hand in hand with AHHS
Speaker 5: and the FDA and the White House and President Trump's
Speaker 5: team to get permanent solutions so that the Dobbs decision
Speaker 5: becomes permanent in every single state.
Speaker 1: Beyond the weaponization fund, beyond the IRS settlement, beyond the
Speaker 1: Epstein files. What other horrors could await on the other
Speaker 1: side of this confirmation.
Speaker 2: It is the question that has to worry Republican senators.
Speaker 2: His record is so bad looking backwards that it's very,
Speaker 2: very hard to say that looking forwards is going to
Speaker 2: be any better. And having voted for the guy, they're
Speaker 2: going to own all of his future misconduct, all of
Speaker 2: his future political decisions, all of his future defense of
Speaker 2: his primary client, Donald Trump. It isn't going to be pretty.
Speaker 1: And as you said when you were in the first
Speaker 1: hearing with Todd Blanche and he will own cash battel.
Speaker 1: Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, thank you so much for being with us.
Speaker 2: Thank you