NPR News: 07-30-2026 6AM EDT
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Hurst.
Why was Todd Blanche's Attorney General nomination vote postponed?
A Senate committee vote on Todd Blanch's nomination to be Attorney General has been postponed after two key Republicans, Senators John Cornyn and Tom Tillis, threatened to derail it over the deal Blanch made to settle President Trump's lawsuit against the IRS and the $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund. The deal prevents the government from auditing Trump, his family, or their businesses. Cornyn says he's still waiting for proof the fund had been canceled and the IRS deal with Trump revised.
I think they realize now that we're serious, and I think Senator Tillis is pretty much on the same page that I am, so they better get real, and there's not much time left.
Cornyn says he sent the Justice Department the exact language he wants, but that they couldn't come to an agreement in time for another nomination vote this morning. Cornyn's support is critical to Blanche's nomination. Former FBI Director James Comey is asking a judge to throw out threats against him as a vindictive prosecution. And Pierce Carey Johnson reports Comey says he's being singled out because he criticizes President Trump.
Lawyers for Comey say the Justice Department moved to indict him to make the president happy. Comey says his 8647 Instagram post of seashells on the beach was not advocating violence against Trump. Rather, he says it was protected political speech. In new court papers, Comey says the Secret Service surveilled him last year, even though agents doubted there was a legal basis to do so. He says DOJ relied on an unreliable source long estranged from Comey, to build the criminal threat case against him. The prosecutor who moved ahead with the Comey indictment had little experience and took on the matter only after others left the case. Trump celebrated the charges and later posted an image of Comey in a prison jumpsuit.
Carrie Johnson, NPR News.
Louisiana's largest school district is hanging up posters of the Ten Commandments before the schoolyard starts next week. This after a federal appeals court cleared the way for the posters earlier this year. The Gulf State Newsroom's Aubrey Juhasz reports some districts have moved slowly.
The Fifth Circuit allowed Louisiana's law requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom to take effect in February. Ruling a lawsuit filed by families and civil rights groups was premature because the posters hadn't been displayed yet. Some districts hung them right away, but others waited, including Jefferson Parish, a New Orleans suburb that enrolls more than 45,000 students. In July, the district's chief legal counsel told principals to install donated posters before teachers returned to campus. A spokesperson for the ACLU of Louisiana said they plan to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to decide if the state's law and a similar one in Texas violate the First Amendment.
For NPR News, I'm Opera Juhasz in New Orleans.
You're listening to NPR News from Washington. President Trump wants to revamp Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C. And Pierce Deepa Shivaram reports voters are showing concern about what Trump is focusing on.
A new poll from CNN shows that Americans disapprove of Trump's various construction projects like the White House ballroom and the reflecting pool on the National Mall. 58% say they feel dissatisfied or angry about them. The same poll shows that 73% say that Trump hasn't paid attention to the country's most important problems. Still, Trump is forging ahead with trying to reconstruct Washington Dulles International Airport.
In the end, you're going to end up with, I think, maybe the best airport and one of the biggest airports anywhere in the world. And it's going to be a great thing for Washington, D.C.
Trump says he might need approvals from Congress, but he thinks construction could begin next spring. Deepa Shivaram, NPR News, the White House.
Firefighters are getting a handle on the massive and historic wildfires in southwestern France and the Madrid area of Spain, slowing the fire's progression for now and allowing some evacuees to return home.
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