Impeach Todd Blanche
With the thin Republican majorities, Democrats could plausibly force a trial of the acting Attorney General over the "Anti-Weaponization Fund"
Dear readers,
The president is conspiring with the treasury secretary and the acting attorney general to steal nearly $2 billion from taxpayers and distribute it as he sees fit among his supporters — including his criminal supporters who rioted at the U.S. Capitol — in the name of avenging the “weaponization” of the Justice Department. Frankly, all three of them ought to go to prison for this.
Even many Republicans in Congress are outraged — partly because they feel the theft is wrong, and partly because they are concerned Democrats will force them to take awkward votes about whether or not the president should be allowed to rob taxpayers of $2 billion and give it away to criminals.
Democrats, being in the congressional minority, have limited options for fighting back. But here’s one I think they should use: they should bring impeachment articles against Todd Blanche, the president’s former personal attorney who is currently serving as acting Attorney General (itself an outrageous fact) and who is administering this theft scheme for him.
Impeachment resolutions are privileged — any member of the House of Representatives can force one to the floor, even if the speaker does not want it considered. The House does not have to then vote on impeachment. It can instead vote to table impeachment articles or refer them to a House committee, effectively killing them, but these approaches would require the support of a majority of House members. While assembling that majority would be an easy lift for a disciplined majority party united in its desire to protect a same-party administration, it is a dicey proposition for Republicans given their razor-thin majority and the level of outrage many Republican members feel toward Blanche.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a moderate Republican from the Philadelphia suburbs facing a serious re-election challenge, is on the warpath against the “anti-weaponization fund,” saying it cannot be allowed. Is he really going to vote to protect Blanche from impeachment and subject himself to attack ads about how he’s helping Trump steal from taxpayers to give payments to criminals? Will Rep. Thomas Massie? I think it’s likely Democrats could peel off enough Republicans to actually pass an impeachment resolution against Blanche.
Then we would turn to the Senate. Senate Republicans might vote to dismiss charges against Blanche without an impeachment trial, following what Democrats did in 2024 when Republicans impeached then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. But that approach, again, would require a majority vote of the body. And there is even less love lost for Blanche in the Senate than there is in the House — his lunch with Senate Republicans on Thursday was “incredibly hostile,” according to Andrew Desiderio of Punchbowl News, with about two dozen Republican senators standing up to lay into him about the fund. Are the Republican senators facing tough re-election challenges (Susan Collins, Jon Husted, Dan Sullivan) really going to vote to dismiss the charges and let the president’s personal lawyer get away with stealing $2 billion from taxpayers on his behalf?
As a Democrat, I’d like to see them forced to make the choice.
My guess is Republicans have lost the necessary cohesion to fall on Trump’s sword and block a trial. As such, Democrats should be able to force a trial of Blanche that elevates this issue — the president stealing billions of dollars of your money at a time when you can’t afford gasoline — in the 2026 campaign, and ultimately forces every Republican senator to render a verdict on whether the president can simply steal whatever he wants from the Treasury.
So let’s get those impeachment articles out there.
Very seriously,
Josh
It kind of blows my brain just how corrupt this is. It can't be real.
This is an excellent idea. I hope it prevails.
But in a probably petty mode, I think there is something wrong with "less love lost" in the above piece. Wouldn't it be more love lost?