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Blanche Attorney General Confirmation Hearing Underway; Blanche Pressed on Trump Pardons for Jan. 6 Rioters; Trump DNI Nominee Jay Clayton Appears Before Senate Intel Panel; Senate Panel Grills Trump's Attorney General Pick Todd Blanche. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired July 15, 2026 - 11:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[11:30:00]

SEN. ERIC SCHMITT (R-MO): -- the largest infusion of permanent FBI agents anywhere in the country, and they're helping clean up the streets. People feel safer. It's a great American turnaround as relates to crime. Those numbers hopefully will continue, and I look forward to working with you on those efforts as well.

TODD BLANCHE, ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Thank you. We will. Thank you, Senator.

SEN. CHARLES GRASSLEY (R-IA): Before we take this 15-minute break, I wanted to say that from 12:30 till 1:00, I'll be in the Capitol to vote. Another Republican will chair the meeting, so we're going to go on through the noon hour. And so, we'll take a break now, and we'll be back at 11:45, and Senator Blumenthal --

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we've been watching the acting Attorney General of the United States, Todd Blanche's confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Let's discuss what we've just heard, and then we'll take another quick break as well. Our Senior Legal Analyst, Elie Honig, is here with me in the Situation Room. CNN's Senior Justice Correspondent, Evan Perez, is up on Capitol Hill, and our Kevin Liptak is over at the White House.

Evan, let me start with you. You've been in that hearing room. You've been monitoring it very closely. What are the big challenges for this nominee?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the biggest challenge for Todd Blanche is to try to portray, at least to this room and to these Senators who have a lot of concerns, that he is sufficiently independent from the president of the United States. Obviously, he described in one of his answers to some of the questions here that he is part of the executive branch.

Of course, the president can fire him, but one of the traditional parts of the Justice Department, one of the traditional things that attorneys general have tried to show Wolf, is that they are in charge of the Department, that they are calling balls and strikes, doing the things to administer justice in this country without any kind of political motives.

And those have been the biggest issues for this attorney general, for this acting attorney general, because the president, of course, has made clear who he wants prosecuted. He puts it on social media. And, you know, one of the things that you saw just this week from a judge in Florida raises questions as to whether Todd Blanche is sufficiently independent, whether he's still acting as President Trump's personal attorney.

I thought one of the most interesting parts of the hearing was the exchange that he was having with John Cornyn, who, of course, is the Senator from Texas who's leaving office and is still one of the questions as to whether he's going to vote for him. And Cornyn really honed in on this idea of the Weaponization Fund, which Todd Blanche has tried to portray is completely dead, is completely a dead matter, but Cornyn got him to acknowledge that essentially the deal, the settlement that he signed with President Trump and his attorneys, his family, is not necessarily dead, that President Trump could still try to enforce it because it is still enforced, essentially. So, those are some of the tough questions that he's facing.

He did say that -- he did get to acknowledge here that the only part of the government that's tied to an agreement here between the Justice Department and the President Trump is the IRS. In other words, there won't be any audits of him and his family up to that agreement. So, again, that's an important clarification there that we got from Todd Blanche during that questioning. Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, we'll see what else happens. We're going to continue our special coverage. Our congressional correspondent, Lauren Fox, is also joining us right now. Lauren, I want to play one moment between Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Todd Blanche. Listen to this, then we'll discuss.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SHELDON WHITEHOUSE (D-RI): How long do you intend to put up with that Kash Patel character? Are you good with his airplane jaunts? Are you confident he's not drinking on the job? Are you sure none of his travel is a pretext for vacation activities like snorkeling Olympics and visiting girlfriends? Are you sure he knows what he's doing? Do you vouch for him? Are you willing to look at whether he lied to this committee?

BLANCHE: That's an extraordinarily obnoxious question, Senator, and I have full faith in Director Patel and the work that he's doing every day.

WHITEHOUSE: Great. You get to own that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So, Lauren, what does that signal to you about some of the huge challenges Blanche is facing now to get confirmed, first of all, by the Senate Judiciary Committee, then by the full Senate? Not only questions from Democrats, serious questions, but even from some Republicans.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, this is going to be a huge math problem potentially for Todd Blanche as he seeks to get this job. And, you know, you shouldn't think that Democrats are going to vote for Todd Blanche. I think that question makes it very clear. Most Democrats going into that meeting that we talked to, their minds were already made up. They do not plan to support his nomination.

[11:35:00]

You really have to look at two key senators on this committee, and that is Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, and Senator John Cornyn, who Evan was talking about because Cornyn made clear that he wants assurances that this weaponization fund is completely dead. And I'm really unclear right now whether or not those assurances were really clear enough for him to warrant his support.

We're waiting for Cornyn to come out of this hearing. They are taking a short break. Perhaps we'll get further clarification, but that is going to be really important for Todd Blanche because he cannot lose Senator Cornyn or Senator Tillis on this committee in order to get through this committee.

So, that is a huge question mark, and that is not even dealing with the fact that what will happen on the Senate floor if his nomination goes there. There's still a lot of work to do. This is not a nomination that at this point is a sure thing, Wolf.

BLITZER: Good point. I want to play, Elie, that questioning from the Republican Senator John Cornyn on the so-called anti-weaponization fund, $1.8 billion initially proposed taxpayer money to pay for some of President Trump's friends and allies who got involved in this so- called anti-weaponization program.

ELLE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST AND FORMER ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK: Yes.

BLITZER: Oh, let's listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): First of all, I believe you have said that the weaponization fund is a moot issue. Is that your position?

BLANCHE: Yes, it is a moot issue, meaning there is no weaponization fund. The weaponization fund is dead. It's not moving forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So, how do you think he's handled that issue?

HONIG: It's such a sensitive issue, not just with Democrats, of course, but with some Republicans as well. It's a perfect example of the way Todd Blanche has approached this whole hearing so far, Wolf, which is he's trying to keep the temperature down. He is retreating without surrendering. So, for example, on the $1.8 billion fund, he has stepped back.

He has said, we will not pursue it any further. It's a dead letter. But he has not admitted any wrongdoing. He has not admitted that this was collusive, as that judge found in Florida. So, he's trying to give way where he must. But he's not acknowledged anything, I think, that he believes is going to damage him. And that's been the tenor of most of today's hearing.

However, I think the last few Democratic senators have started to make an impact and have started to really hone in on some of the important issues. For example, Senator Whitehouse put up a board showing some of the criticisms that federal judges all across this country have made of DOJ, saying you've sacrificed your credibility, you've made false statements, you've failed to comply with orders.

And Blanche's response there, I think, was very unconvincing. He just said, well, that's a really small percentage of total cases. And Senator Whitehouse rightly said, wrong, and that is too much and that is way more than has ever happened to DOJ in the past.

Senator Whitehouse also drilled down on Todd Blanche's, essentially, support for January 6 rioters by deleting out press releases off the DOJ website, by moving to dismiss certain cases, by not standing against the pardons. And Blanche just basically said, well, I never said it's good to assault cops. OK, but by your conduct, you've done things that have condoned what happened on January 6.

And then we heard Senator Coons, I think a really important moment, ask Blanche pointedly, do you believe, as potential attorney general of the state, that Donald Trump is constitutionally eligible to run for office again in 2028, for president again in 2028? And Blanche surprisingly said, no, I don't think he's constitutionally eligible. So, hopefully that will put those murmurs to rest.

So, I think Blanche has had fairly smooth sailing in the early portion of the hearing. But I think the last couple of Democratic senators in particular have started to make some dents.

BLITZER: Yes, I think you make a good point. Kevin Liptak is our White House reporter. He's over there right now. Kevin, Lindsey Graham's unexpected death over the weekend left Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee with a razor thin margin, just one vote to lose to advance Blanche's nomination. How is the White House viewing Blanche's prospects right now?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, I think they're watching very closely. And in particular, they're watching the questioning of John Cornyn, which we've already seen, but also Thom Tillis, who is still to come. And I think they're watching them because in their view, and I think in the senator's view as well, they don't have this loyalty obligation to President Trump that some of these other Republicans have.

In the case of Cornyn, President Trump endorsed his rival in a primary. Now, Cornyn is a lame duck. And in the case of Tillis, also a lame duck, will not be serving another term as senator. Both of these men, I think, do not feel the obligation to vote for Todd Blanche in the way that some of these other Republicans will. And you saw, I think, in John Cornyn's very sustained, yes, cordial, but also very serious questioning about the anti-weaponization fund.

[11:40:00]

I don't know that the White House and that Blanche's team here are going to walk away from that line of questioning necessarily feeling like they have Cornyn's vote in the bag. And when it comes to Tillis, you know, Tillis has been a senator who has drawn a red line at any notion that Blanche could be soft on the January 6th rioters. And you already see how Blanche is sort of softening the ground here, saying that, yes, it was President Trump's prerogative to pardon those rioters, but that he wasn't necessarily celebrating it.

And so, once Tillis comes up, I think it's likely that that will form part of his line of questioning. It will be interesting to see how Blanche sort of toes the line here between the pardons that the president offered but not necessarily showing any signs that he is being soft on what these people did on January 6th.

I do want to pull out one other moment that I think was telling. And this was under questioning from another Republican. It was much friendlier questioning the Senator John Kennedy from Louisiana when he asked Todd Blanche whether he was President Trump's friend. And Blanche seemed to have a slip up. He said, I am President Trump's lawyer, before correcting himself and saying I was President Trump's lawyer.

And I think in a moment when there are so many questions about the proximity of Blanche to President Trump, he was his personal lawyer, certainly, but also questions about the independence of the Justice Department, I think you will see that moment played again and again as evidence of just how close Todd Blanche is to President Trump at a moment when I think he is trying to show senators that he isn't necessarily a yes man for everything that the president is doing. And he made that point explicitly to Senator Coons. He said, no, I'm not a yes man. But that moment I think will be an important one as this nomination goes forward.

BLITZER: Yes, a lot of important moments during the course of this hearing. And it will continue momentarily. Kevin Liptak of the White House, thank you very much. And thanks to all of our reporters and analysts. Please stick around. We will have extensive live coverage coming up. Todd Blanche's confirmation hearing will resume shortly. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:45:00]

BLITZER: We'll go back to the confirmation hearing of Todd Blanche in just a moment or so. But first, there's more breaking news we're following this morning. President Trump's nominee to become the next Director of National Intelligence, Jay Clayton, appearing this morning before the Senate Intelligence Committee. The DNI, the Director of National Intelligence, leads the Intelligence Community across 18 separate agencies and organizations and advises the President on key national security and intelligence issues.

CNN correspondent, Brian Todd, is joining me right now. Brian, you've been monitoring all of this. How contentious did this hearing get?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It got very contentious, Wolf, just moments ago. Now, the central question here that the Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee are pressing Jay Clayton about is he, as the Director of National Intelligence, going to use that office to pursue President Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

President Trump has tasked his predecessors, Tulsi Gabbard and Bill Pulte, with that. Is he going to, as DNI, pursue those claims and try to investigate those claims? He was grilled on that by four different Democratic senators. The central question that he's being asked by three Democrats and one independent senator was, did Joe Biden win the 2020 election? And he repeatedly refused to say flat out that President Biden did win the 2020 election. Here's a particularly heated exchange with Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JON OSSOFF (D-GA): Who won the 2020 election?

JAY CLAYTON, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE NOMINEE: I'm not going to do this with you.

OSSOFF: This is a job interview. We've established that you have an obligation to be honest and forthright with the committee. Yes, you do have an obligation to be honest and forthright with the committee.

CLAYTON: Yes.

OSSOFF: Who won the 2020 election?

CLAYTON: Like I said, I'm not going to get into that with you.

OSSOFF: But you do have an obligation to be honest and forthright with the committee.

CLAYTON: Is anything that I just said not honest or forthright?

OSSOFF: Yes, you're not being honest or forthright. Who won the 2020 election?

CLAYTON: I think I've answered the question. We can keep doing this.

OSSOFF: Well, we're going to keep doing it because you're not being honest and forthright with the committee.

CLAYTON: I'm not going to engage in the theater.

OSSOFF: It's a simple question, Mr. Clayton.

CLAYTON: And I've answered it.

OSSOFF: Who won the 2020 presidential election?

CLAYTON: I've answered it.

OSSOFF: You're here asking for the support of senators to lead America's Intelligence Community. We've established that you have an obligation to be honest and forthright with this committee and with the American public. But you refuse to answer a simple matter of fact about the 2020 election. Is that right?

CLAYTON: No, that's not right.

OSSOFF: Then answer the question. Who won the 2020 election?

CLAYTON: I have answered the question.

OSSOFF: Answer it. What is your answer?

CLAYTON: I've given you my answer.

OSSOFF: What is your answer? You refuse to answer a basic question about who won a presidential election, but you asked to lead America's Intelligence Community. Isn't it humiliating to be unable to answer this question, to have to indulge the president's delusions? We know, you know, everybody in this room knows the truthful answer to that question. Why can you not give it?

[11:50:00]

CLAYTON: I think I gave you the answer.

OSSOFF: Are you aware that Director Gabbard was present at the Fulton County raid in Georgia earlier this year?

CLAYTON: You discussed that with me yesterday in your office.

OSSOFF: Are you aware that Director Gabbard was present at the Fulton County raid earlier this year?

CLAYTON: You brought it to my attention.

OSSOFF: What is going on here? You've said at the beginning of this, you have an obligation to be honest and forthright with the committee. I'm asking a very simple question. Are you aware that Director Gabbard was present at the Fulton County raid earlier this year? Yes or no? Are you aware?

CLAYTON: I was.

OSSOFF: You won't answer that question either.

CLAYTON: I just said I was made aware of it by you yesterday.

OSSOFF: The first time you learned that Director Gabbard was present at that raid was in my office yesterday? CLAYTON: It was the first time that, in my recollection, I've thought about it recently. Now, was I aware of it before?

OSSOFF: What?

CLAYTON: I mean, you brought it to my attention yesterday.

OSSOFF: OK. So, you had not thought about it until --

CLAYTON: I had not thought about it until you brought it to my attention yesterday.

OSSOFF: Your answers lack credibility. Your testimony lacks credibility. You're being evasive, and you're not being candid or forthright. And everybody across the country is going to watch this and know that. Are you aware that former Director Gabbard testified that her presence at the raid was, quote, "requested by the president?"

CLAYTON: I'm not aware of that until now.

OSSOFF: OK. You are now aware of that?

CLAYTON: Yes.

OSSOFF: Are you aware that members of this committee are already probing Director Gabbard's potential misconduct in this matter?

CLAYTON: I'm not privy to your probe.

OSSOFF: Are you aware that the general counsel and deputy general counsel of your office have already provided testimony to this committee regarding this matter?

CLAYTON: No.

OSSOFF: If the White House chief of staff or the president asks you to travel somewhere across the United States and oversee the execution of a domestic search warrant on a sensitive election facility, will you do it? Is that appropriate? Is that appropriate for the Director of National Intelligence?

CLAYTON: That's a hypothetical.

OSSOFF: We all know it's not appropriate for the Director of National Intelligence. Will you answer the question?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your time has expired.

OSSOFF: Will you give him the opportunity to answer the question? Is this not material right now, sir? Is it appropriate for the Director of National Intelligence to oversee the execution of domestic search warrants at sensitive election facilities, yes or no?

CLAYTON: I think you're asking me, as you just said in your first comment to me -- OSSOFF: Yes or no, is it appropriate? No?

CLAYTON: You are asking me to comment on a matter that you just said was under investigation.

OSSOFF: No, I'm asking you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Senator Ossoff, your time has expired.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: Just an extraordinary exchange there between Senator Jon Ossoff and Jay Clayton. To put a point on this, Wolf, he was asked by four different senators, Democratic Senator Mark Warner, Independent Senator Angus King, Democratic Senators Mark Kelly and Jon Ossoff. Four different senators asked him flat out, did Joe Biden win the 2020 election? To those questions of those four senators, he did not answer it directly. He said President Biden was certified that he went through the process. He never flat out would say that Joe Biden won the 2020 election.

And also, very extraordinary that he seemed to not know about the Tulsi Gabbard visit to Fulton County, Georgia in January when it was widely reported at the time, very controversial. He said basically that he wasn't aware of it until Senator Jon Ossoff told him in his office.

BLITZER: And I assume also coming up in the course of this confirmation hearing, Brian, is the fact that he has very limited, if any, real serious experience in national security or intelligence, right?

TODD: Well, that's a bit of a debate there, Wolf, because he clearly has more than Bill Pulte, the man who's in the job now, had. He has prosecuted international terrorists. He has prosecuted drug traffickers. He has been in that role of prosecuting those people. He's had to be a consumer of intelligence. He's had to coordinate with the DOJ and FBI. So, to say that he has no experience, I think, would be a little misleading. I think that that's a bit of a point of debate about his experience.

But I think really extraordinary there that he just could not, would not say that Joe Biden won the 2020 election because he knows how his possible future boss might feel about it if he actually flat out said that.

BLITZER: Yes. If he said that Joe Biden won that election, the president of the United States, President Trump, would be irritated with him. He clearly didn't want to irritate the president. And that was a very dramatic exchange that we just saw with Senator Ossoff of Georgia. Brian, Todd, thank you very, very much.

I want to go back to the confirmation hearing for Todd Blanche right now at the Senate Judiciary Committee. Let's listen in.

[11:55:00] BLANCHE: But I very much disagree with the judge's insinuations about me. And we're going to do what we can to make that right.

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): One last question. Would you agree with me that agents of the United States should not fire into cars unless there's fire, their weapons into cars, unless there is an imminent threat? Give a short answer to that.

BLANCHE: There's a well-established standard as to what an agent can discharge or firearm. And I think that that's something that's that that should be followed in every case.

BLUMENTHAL: And that includes not firing weapons into cars?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Chair.

GRASSLEY: Before I -- well, do you want to respond?

BLANCHE: I mean, there's not really a response. It requires federal agents to follow the rules.

GRASSLEY: Then let's move on. Before I call on Senator Britt, I want to another letter supporting the nominee from the American Border Story, a national organization representing 300 angel families. Quoting from the letter, "The families we work with are not focused on politics. They want leaders who take crime seriously, who understand the national security implications of open border criminal networks and who will prioritize victims over ideology. We believe Todd Blanche understands that responsibility and would approach the office of attorney general with seriousness it demands," end of quote, without objection, that'll be entered in the record. Senator Britt.

SEN. KATIE BRITT (R-AL): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I think that's an excellent segue. I appreciate your commitment to all of the victims, the Epstein victims, your commitment to hear from them and fight for them. Thank you for saying that today. I only wish that my Democratic colleagues had that same level of conviction when it came to meeting with the families of those who have lost loved ones at the hands of illegal aliens. So, thank you for that letter. Thank you for your commitment. I can only hope that they will answer the call and meet with their own constituencies who unfortunately have lost ones that they hold dear.

Mr. Blanche, I want to applaud the work that you and DOJ have done to reduce crime and violent crime across the country. We've heard it a number of times here today, both in the chairman's opening to Senator Moody talking about it to you talking about it. We currently have the lowest murder rate that we've had since 1900.

When you're looking at violent crime arrest, we are up 184 percent. This is real results. This is what you're supposed to be doing. Keeping Americans safe. We know that you've done that through a number of ways, task force and joint operations, interagency cooperation. We've seen the forces, those task forces successfully pursue numerous cases in our state related to major drug trafficking, related to firearms trafficking, all of which has been linked to, in many cases, broader criminal enterprises. So, we're glad that our children are safer and that our communities are safer.

What I'd like to know from you, because we've seen in Alabama this have tremendous results. We've even seen in one case a corrupt local law enforcement officer in the southern district of Alabama who had engaged in a range of criminal activities in his capacity as an officer being held accountable through this work. Based on what I've seen in Alabama, I hope that you continue this all across the country.

Can you speak to the work of these task forces and the success that you've seen and how you intend to build upon this work moving forward if and when confirmed?

BLANCHE: Yes. So, the Homeland Security Task Force regime that we've set up in every state and every single district in this country is designed to do what-- just what you were describing. So, work not just with the federal government, not just DOJ, but to work with Department of Homeland Security, sheriffs, cops, local prosecutors local law enforcement and assistant U.S. attorneys to go into that community and eradicate it of human trafficking, drug dealers, narco-terrorism.

And the results, it's been set up for almost a year in most places and the results are in the statistics that we show, but they're really more evident when I go out to U.S. Attorney's offices and meet with HSTF groups like I do all the time. To a person, they say, this is what we needed forever. This is what works. Having law enforcement get together in a room and say, we need to tackle this gang, or this apartment building has a drug problem, or even this individual needs to be targeted because he's a violent felon and needs to go off the streets. It's basic law enforcement that, that I've done for a long time that President Trump echoed --

[12:00:00]