Trump Suddenly Traps His Own AG Pick

0:00Michael Popok:He didn't have the votes on Wednesday. He didn't have the votes on Thursday. He didn't have the votes on Friday. And he certainly doesn't have them leading into the weekend. In fact, Todd Blanche looks like he's lost the support of Donald Trump. But what this is really all about is that Trump wants Blanche to stand and deliver and make sure that Donald Trump and his family get a pardon, a release related to the Jan 6 fund. and that phony settlement that's already been found to have been entered in bad faith by Todd Blanche. And Donald Trump wants Todd Blanche on the firing line, and he will not relent and release Todd Blanche.

0:43Michael Popok:That's the reason Todd Blanche can't cut a deal with Senator John Corden of Texas and Senator Tom Tillis of North Carolina. It's not because he doesn't want the job. It's not because he himself wouldn't be willing to finally put out of its misery, in our misery, the Jan 6th Anti-Weaponization Fund and the accompanying release. But this is all about the release, the pardon. The reason Trump is squirming and he's trying to make it about the Jan 6 fund is he doesn't want to go public with the fact that he wanted Todd Blanche as a condition of getting the attorney general nod. to the day after that Jan 6 fund was created to compensate people that abused and maimed and tried to murder police officers and elected officials.

1:35Michael Popok:The very next day, obviously at Donald Trump's request and behest, Todd Blanche entered a one paragraph document. That's the tail that's wagging the dog. And that's why he can't get the votes right now, because it's not up to him. Even And Cornyn and Tillis have said, I don't know what's going on here. It seems like somebody else is calling all of the shots. Yeah, the guy's name is Donald Trump because he wants desperately that release. He wants desperately that pardon, super pardon for tax liability and audit liability worth hundreds of billions with a B of dollars to him and his family. I just got through interviewing Senator Cory Booker, the senior senator from New Jersey, who's in the room where it's happening as one of the 10 Democrats.

2:26Michael Popok:And I just interviewed him as Thursday's confirmation hearing had to be canceled and postponed because, repeat after me, they don't have the votes. And I thought now's a great time to kind of bring you up to speed about everything as we lead into the weekend and beyond here on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF. I'm traveling, Michael Popok, for the next couple of weeks with my family. But, you know, justice and the intersection of law and politics don't rest. And so we can't either. I'm glad you're here. Take a minute. Hit that free subscribe button over on the Legal AF YouTube channel. All right.

3:02Michael Popok:Let's get down to what's going on here. This is a Senate Judiciary Committee that's controlled by Republicans. They slid in Lindsey Graham's sister, who has no background in being on the Judiciary Committee. They slid her into the slot to be sort of a seat filler to vote for Todd Blanche. but they sort of forgot about Cornyn and Tillis. And Donald Trump finally woke up and said, oh, you mean the Senator Cornyn, the guy that I opposed in the Texas primary who now lost his job in the Senate come January is opposed to me? Oh, Tom Tillis, the guy that I constantly abuse, who also is going to be residing come January, they're opposed to me.

3:39Michael Popok:They want Todd Blanch on one issue and one issue only to come clean. I won't let them. In fact, Donald Trump continues to lie to the American people about what this whole thing is about. He says it's about the people that were on a, get this phrase, an innocent journey, an innocent journey from the ellipse to the Capitol to attack with murderous cries and blood lust to kill elected officials and to do battle with Capitol police. I mean, a series of Capitol police that committed suicide. You know what Donald Trump said about that in his, in his posting? He thought, he said, Yeah, he thought that many of the Gen Sixers had taken their own life.

4:21Michael Popok:No, it was law enforcement because of what they saw that day. Imagine your own nation attacking you. So when I interviewed Senator Booker, we talked about the dirty little secret here that Donald Trump continues to want to ignore. And the press follows it. I'm reading things like HuffPost and reading other, you know, mainline, mainstream journalism. And they're always talking about the fun, the fun, the fun. They never talk about and link it back to the settlement agreement amendment by Todd Blanche about the release, the super part. And we do. Here's my clip of an interview that I just had with Senator Booker in the last 24 hours.

5:00And now we have two people that saying, no, I can't have history looking back and saying that we allowed the president of the United States to have a slush fund. and what could be hundreds of millions of dollars worth of tax immunity for the cheating that this president we know does.

5:15Michael Popok:That's what I want to focus on, Senator Booker, because I don't think this is my working theory. I don't think this is a problem of having Todd Blanche put in writing the thing that he's told members of the House and told judges and unsworn testimony that the fund. Look at this. Look at this interesting and precise choice of words that the fund is dead. I don't think that's the problem. I think the problem is there is somebody who doesn't want the super pardon, the release of Donald Trump, his family, his affiliates from tax and audit liability, which is the thing I think Donald Trump really cares about, never really caring about the fund.

5:56Michael Popok:Somebody doesn't want that to disappear. That's my working theory. No, you and I have the same belief. Everybody needs to understand who this guy is. I've watched him for decades before he was president bankrupt New Jersey casinos, drive small contractors out of business by refusing to pay him, have failed endeavor after failed endeavor from Trump stakes to Trump University from housing his charitable foundation be revealed to be an absolute scam to get him more money, take money from people and not do what they're supposed to do. So we know who he is and his time as president. It's all about his megalomania and his avarice.

6:36Michael Popok:Cornyn can't figure it out either. John Cornyn came out and gave this press statement about I can't figure he must think I'm going to go away. I'm not going to go away. And he signaled that it's not just Cornyn and Tillis that have a problem. Many on the Senate Judiciary Committee have a problem with the Jan 6 fund and that super pardon given to Donald Trump and his family. play the Corning clip. Maybe they think I'm just going to give up or, you know, go along, but they're mistaken. Did they say they're going to respond to you by 4 p.m. today? Did they say they're going to respond to you by 4 p.m.?

7:08I 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.

7:18Michael Popok:Now, if Donald Trump really does support Todd Blanche, he sure has a funny way of showing it. And you know that Donald Trump doesn't like to be associated with losers. If you know anything about Donald Trump, he doesn't like to be on a team with a loser. That's one of many reasons why Alina Habba is no longer an acting U.S. attorney in New Jersey. Lindsey Halligan is no longer the U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia. Tulsi Gabbard is no longer in his administration as the director of national intelligence. Pam Bondi is no longer the attorney general. And Kristi Noem is no longer the head of ICE.

8:00Michael Popok:The question now is, has Todd Blanche now fallen into the loser category? It looks to me like he has. Because the first thing that Donald Trump put on social media was not a ringing endorsement, I'm going to go through fire and hell and hell and back to support Todd Blanch. Oh, no, he said, I'll just pull the nomination. I'll just pull the nomination. He's a good guy. I'll pull the nomination. We'll try it again next year. Next year, when the numbers are maybe worse, doesn't that give a target for the Democrats and the independents to aim for? Deny Donald Trump the House. Deny him the Senate and give the Senate over to the Democrats so that Donald Trump doesn't get to have Todd Blanche as attorney general.

8:46Michael Popok:Hasn't he made the equation? Now we're down to simple arithmetic. It used to be a more complicated calculus, if you know what I mean. So, you know, I didn't know what to make. It was sort of like, you know, the owner of a sports team, which Donald Trump used to be in his lifetime, giving a ringing endorsement, but faint praise about a sports coach that he employs. I think he's doing a great job. We're going to wait to the end of the season before we make a final decision. But I don't know. And like two days later, the guy resigned, saying he needs to spend more time with his family. We're having that moment right now with Donald Trump.

9:20Here's what Trump posted.

9:23Michael Popok:And I'll try to, you know, I, after six years of doing this, you know, I'm fluent. I have a PhD in Trump on how to interpret things. Here's what Donald Trump had to say in his postings. I'll just point to the parts that relate to Blanche. He said, John Cornyn never had a problem with the so-called fund, which will not benefit me, but rather the great American patriots who were hunted like dogs and whose lives were unfairly and illegally destroyed by the crooked Joe Biden administration. Stop right there. First of all, Cornyn and Tellus hate the fund, but they hate more the super pardon to you and your family, which you ignore every time you talk about what this is about.

10:07Michael Popok:You try to make it about the people on an innocent journey, you know, the lovely people who, you know, erected a guillotine and brought makeshift weapons and real weapons and used it to attack the Capitol Police and the Metro Police, right? He goes on to say, millions of people agree with me as we have proven in my landslide presidential win. All right. He beat sort of a hobbled Kamala Harris, you know, after a lack of a primary for the Democrats after Joe Biden pulled out late. Todd Blanche, a good man. This is this is this is now three quarters to four fifths of the way through the posting. And he finally mentioned Todd Blanche.

10:51Michael Popok:Faint damning, faint praise, as we say in the business. Todd Blanche, a good man, should be immediately approved as a U.S. Attorney General. Thank you. Thank you. I love our cat Chanel, but I definitely don't love everything that comes with having a cat, especially the litter box. Since switching her to Small's though, I've noticed a real difference. Small's fresh cat food is protein packed, made with preservative free, 100 % human grade ingredients you'd find in your fridge and it's delivered right to your door. My cat goes absolutely feral for these recipes, and I've noticed more energy, a softer coat, and a whole lot less stink.

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12:13Michael Popok:That's 60 % off your first order plus free shipping and free treats for life when you head to smalls.com slash legal AF. I had a conversation about what was going on here and fundamentally whether we should be concerned that the replacement for Todd Blanche could be even worse. I actually asked Senator Booker, I said, on behalf of our audience, I said, you know, some in our audience are saying, maybe we should just take, just take Blanche because the next person, I don't know, Bill Pulte, Janine Pirro, one of these, you know, Mike Davis, one of these other MAGA crazies would be worse. But he made a very compelling point about why we have to fight so hard.

12:59Michael Popok:Play my clip. Some people are like, well, he's terrible, Todd Blanche. But the next nominee, if he loses, could be worse. In other words, we know that Donald Trump is picking from the bottom of the barrel, the bottom of the deck, dealing from the bottom of the deck. Some people I have actually said, and I've, you know, I've told them this, it is possible that Donald Trump is his own attorney general. There's nothing in the constitution that says the president can't be his own attorney general. So what, what do you say to people that say, let's just take Todd Blanche, the devil, you know, the next one could be even worse.

13:37Michael Popok:It could be, it could be Bill Pulte, right? It could be Janine Pirro. It could be, you know, Harmeet Dillon, fill in the blank. What do you say to those people? I would say, please don't surrender to that idea because that will lead us into a pretty terrible place. I know from my own history as a black American that people fought hard as hell for every inch of ground we gained. And this idea that if we just acquiesce, if we just give in, maybe it won't be as bad as we imagine it to be. That to me is inviting disaster and accepting, resigning yourself to injustice. We have to fight. I am telling you right now, when it comes to principled stands, we have to stand up or there'll be the slow erosion of the very principles that are worth fighting for.

14:37Michael Popok:Now, here's what Tom Tillis had to say. The other swing vote here from North Carolina always comes off. I mean, I don't agree with most of what he does, but he always comes off as very reasonable when he's dealing with these particular issues. He said about four hours ago, the president made it clear today that the so-called anti-weaponization fund is still alive, which is exactly why we're attempting to formally end it. While I never disagreed that the Biden administration pursued a number of vindictive prosecutions related to Jan 6th, you see, that's where I kind of go. I kind of jumped the tracks with Tillis, but let's continue.

15:12Michael Popok:The criminals who assaulted police officers and defiled our nation's capital are not, quote, great American patriots, quoting from Donald Trump, who are, quote, victims of government abuse. Anyone who attacked law enforcement should still be in prison, not getting a check from the federal government. Senator Cornyn and I, Tom Tillis writes, have been working with Blanche to end the fund. And he's been forthright, thoughtful, impatient. It's a shame his confirmation has hit a snag only because of an incompetent personal advisor to the president who refuses to amend the bogus settlement. So here, this is again classic Tom Tillis.

15:49Michael Popok:He creates the straw man of this unknown personal advisor to the president and says, that's the boogeyman, not Trump, who is calling the shots here. And I don't know if he thinks we'll think it's Stephen Miller. It's the only person in the White House that has that type of power. I don't think it's Susie Wiles, the chief of staff. So if you're looking for somebody on the inside, inside, it's Stephen Miller. But I don't think it's Stephen Miller. I think what Tillis is doing is trying like he did when Janine Pirro brought the prosecution or attempted prosecution against Jay Powell, the Federal Reserve chair.

16:32Michael Popok:Tillis was like, I think the president's getting some bum advice. I think he should. That was like to give Trump some face saving in order to solve this and blame this unknown person in the White House not named Donald Trump. That's calling the shots. Forget that. This is all about the release and the super pardon. There's only one person in the White House that wants it. It's the president of the United States, Donald Trump. Tillis continues, I will continue working in good faith to put an end to this legal and political albatross and prevent any potential misallocation of taxpayer dollars. But it's this creation of this phony boogeyman, you know, the real president, that is just Till is trying to throw Trump a bone so he can sweep it and say, I got some boom advice and I've decided I'm going to rip up the whole darn thing.

17:24Michael Popok:He's not going to rip up the whole darn thing. He could care less about the Jan 6 fund. He's always wanted the release that Blanche gave him. Blanche is the only attorney general that was willing to give him that. That was the condition to get nominated. Todd Blanch was left twisting in the wind for several months while Donald Trump allowed a little bit of a Hunger Games to break out about the attorney general position. Will it be Jeanine Pirro? Will it be Harmeet Dillon, the civil rights division head? Will it be Lee Zeldin, the head of the EPA? No. Or will it be the guy that will do anything I ask him to do, including creating a hundred billion dollars worth of tax liability, audit exposure, release and immunity for me?

18:07Michael Popok:that's the guy that gets it just days after he announced it. You don't think that was a quid pro quo? You don't think that was the deal? That was the transaction for the art of the deal, president? It certainly was. We'll continue to follow it all right here. You're on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF. I'm Michael Popok, not my normal studio. I'm on holiday with my family, but we can't take a break. We're trying to defeat Todd Blanche as attorney general. So together we'll do it. Hit that free subscribe button on Legal AF YouTube channel. Until my next report, I'm Michael Popak.

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