Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche sparred with Democrats on a range of issues during Blanche’s confirmation hearing Wednesday, including President Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel.
“How long do you intend to put up with that Kash Patel character?” a stern-looking Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) chided. “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?”
“That’s an extraordinarily obnoxious question, senator,” Blanche shot back. “And I have full faith in director Patel and the work that he’s doing every day.”
Whitehouse retorted, “Great, you get to own that.”
Earlier in their exchange, Whitehouse threw down a stack of papers detailing various requests he made for files from the DOJ and demanded that Blanche respond to them.
He then ticked through indictments that judges tossed out, and raised concerns that they were politically motivated.
“That’s not reflective of the hundreds of thousands of indictments and informations that have been filed,” Blanche countered.
“While cherry-picking a few isolated words from district court or magistrate judges in certain districts is something that you’re entitled to do, it’s absolutely false to suggest that this Department of Justice is not executing as we should and doing the right thing every single day,” the acting AG said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
