Todd Blanche’s Fiery Confirmation Hearing and Is Skipping Salad Enough To Avoid Getting Cyclosporiasis?
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
You just learn since you're a little kid that the country stops and everybody collects stickers, you know, to pass the time between the games.
Hey, everybody, and welcome to Here's the Scoop from NBC News. I'm Yasmin Basugian. So today on the show, they may be new to U.S. fans, but collecting Panini stickers has been a tradition for World Cup fans for over half a century. So how are people actually going to be able to finish their collections with just a couple of days left? Plus, you have probably heard about this foodborne illness. More than 100 people have been hospitalized and thousands have gotten really sick. So, do you have to stop eating salad? Up first, though, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch is hoping to be the actual attorney general. But a lot of people, including former DOJ employees, legal groups, and lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee, are concerned about him leading the Justice Department.
And that was incredibly clear at Blanch's confirmation hearing on Wednesday. He faced tough questions from both Democrats and Republicans. So I want to bring in NBC News correspondent Julie Serkin to talk more about what we saw today. Hi, Julie. Hi, Yaz. Okay. Kind of take me into the room, if we can, just to start things off, because I know there were Epstein survivors in the room as well. What was the feeling like? Yaz, when Chuck Grassley, who's the top Republican on this committee, opened the door on the Epstein issue for Todd Bland, she was the first questioner in that room. He started off with that issue for a reason. He set it up for him. And he said, is there anything you regret as the tip of the spear on the Epstein files?
You You'll remember that the law that Congress passed compelled the DOJ to release them, but not all the files were released in a timely manner. There were also issues with redactions. Some of the victims in that room say that the DOJ didn't care enough to redact their personal information. And so Blanche said, yes, mistakes were made.
There were mistakes that were made. And so approximately 1% of the redactions had to be fixed after we released the Epstein files.
And that issue drove a large part of the hearing, at least in the beginning, because those survivors are facing Todd Blanch, not only as potentially the future attorney general, but somebody who's kind of been in this job already. And even under Pam Bondi, the former attorney general, Yasmin, he was tasked with the Epstein issue. He was the tip of the spear. He interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell. He, in many cases, in many minds, is responsible for her transfer, which he answered today as well. And I thought a poignant moment came in the beginning when Senator Dick Durbin, who's a top Democrat on the committee, asked Todd Blanch point blank, will you meet with the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein?
Will you meet with these 10 survivors? I'm asking you on the record. If they have lawyers, as you know, I'm prohibited from meeting directly with them.
I have met with counsel for survivors, as has many people in the Department of Justice. So you won't? And he danced around it in the words of Dick Durbin. But you know what? Durbin told me afterwards that in closed doors, behind closed doors, Blanche told him he would.
What happened at Todd Blanche’s confirmation hearing and who raised concerns?
And yet today he said he can't because it's a matter of an active investigation. And those survivors behind him had to hear that. Amidst all this, you had 1,200 former DOJ employees from 14 administrations, 14 administrations. They sent in letters protesting Todd Blanch's confirmation, right? And it came up – a lot of the contention came up not only with Epstein but also with the anti-weaponization fund and whether or not Blanch is going to serve at the behest of the president, i.e., be the president's personal attorney versus the attorney general for the people in this country. Walk me through some of those major moments for you. I'll start with the last thing you brought up because actually beyond Epstein, I thought that was the most salient moment of this hearing when John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, not a Democratic senator, asked Todd Blanche point blank.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–3:07
2
What happened at Todd Blanche’s confirmation hearing and who raised concerns?
3:07–6:07
3
How did Jeffrey Epstein survivors influence the tone of the hearing?
6:07–17:36
4
Did senators press Blanche on his relationship with President Trump and the anti-weaponization fund?
17:36–24:32
5
Which Republican holdouts could decide Todd Blanche’s confirmation outcome?
24:32–27:04
Speakers
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