Sen. Chris Coons on Todd Blanche’s Nomination: I’m a Strong ‘No’

EXCERPT:

COONS: "Look, my two colleagues on the Judiciary Committee, Senators Cornyn and Tillis, have stood up to Todd Blanche. But let’s remember, the larger point here is that he created, along with President Trump, this $1.8 billion weaponization fund, out of which, at his confirmation hearing, Todd Blanche made clear it was possible that those who assaulted, those who were convicted of assaulting police officers on January 6th, might well apply for and get multimillion dollar settlements. Those who are members of the Trump family or his business partners might get multimillion dollar settlements. So I’m a strong 'no.' They should be a strong 'no.' They know better. They know that this is not a binding deal, that in a deal, in trying to resolve something like this, you have to have a written agreement by both parties. By its plain language, the settlement — and I’ll remind you, this was a settlement between a president suing his own government, unprecedented, that a true modification of that settlement has to be in writing, signed by both parties. One of the parties is President Trump. And he has said, as recently as this weekend, he’s not giving up on the weaponization fund. So I think we should be voting against him today, not advancing him. He sees himself as President Trump’s personal lawyer, which he was before, and he tripped up in his confirmation hearing and made it clear that that’s how he sees it, that he’s not independent. On every confirmation like this, I look at whether a nominee is qualified and has the policy positions to actually carry out the job. He is qualified to be an attorney general. He has a lot of relevant experience. But he’s absolutely not independent.”