Blanche confirmation gives Trump ‘excuse’ to continue his ‘breathtaking corruption’, Schumer says
The Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, has said Senate Republicans have “handed Trump an excuse on a silver platter” to continue his “pervasive, breathtaking corruption” by confirming Todd Blanche as attorney general
“If you want to wipe out corruption, you can’t have the president’s personal attorney as the attorney general. You don’t need a PhD in political science to know that,” he wrote in a post on X.
“Todd Blanche has no intention of stopping Trump’s corruption. He advanced his career enabling it. Every senator who voted to confirm him has now branded themselves as an enabler, too.”
Schumer said Senate Democrats will continue to resist the Trump administration’s “assault on the rule of law and undermining of democratic values”.
All Democrats voted against Blanche’s nomination to lead the Justice Department on a permanent basis, with a wide spectrum of lawmakers saying he was unfit for the role and would do the president’s bidding.
Key events
Closing Summary
We’re wrapping our live politics coverage for the day. Here’s the top political news:
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The US Senate confirmed Todd Blanche as attorney general. Blanche, who was deputy attorney general prior to former AG Pam Bondi’s ouster, previously served as Donald Trump’s criminal defense attorney. Blanche won the confirmation by a 50-49 vote early Saturday morning. Just two Republican senators, Maine’s Susan Collins and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, voted against him.
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Blanche was confirmed despite facing intense criticism for his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Remember: Trump’s Department of Justice was required by bipartisan legislation to disclose all files related to Epstein by 19 December, with redactions only in extremely limited circumstances. While some files were disclosed on this deadline, many were released after the congressionally mandated cutoff. Blanche’s rollout has also been criticized for redacting information that should have been public–-while disclosing survivors’ names.
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US Senators started their five-week recess this morning after handing Trump a major win with Blanche’s confirmation. But, GOP senators managed to go on recess without meeting some of Trump’s demands–including passage of the Save America Act. This proposed legislation would restrict voting across the US. Trump had pushed for senators to postpone their recess to green-light this act, but they reportedly told Trump portions of it would be included in a Republican budget package.
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It’s not just Blanche–dozens of Trump nominees were confirmed by the Senate early Saturday morning. Senate Republicans pushed through a resolution confirming more than 70 Trump picks for role such as ambassadors, judges, and US attorneys.
Senate confirms slate of Trump nominees, including first-term aide who refused to testify to impeachment inquiry
Robert Mackey
Among the early morning votes pushed through the US Senate by Republicans before dawn was a resolution to confirm a slate of 71 of Donald Trump’s picks to serve in a variety of roles, including as ambassadors, US attorneys, judges and senior staff at federal agencies.
One of the nominees confirmed this way was P Wells Griffith, a former Republican campaign operative and Trump aide who was the senior director for international energy and environment on the National Security Council in 2019.
As of today, Griffith is now a US ambassador, representing the United States at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. The IAEA played a key role in verifying Iran’s compliance with the nuclear deal negotiated during the Obama administration, which Trump withdrew from during his first term, and could be similarly important should a new nuclear deal with Iran be struck by the Trump administration.
During the impeachment inquiry over Trump’s pressure campaign against Ukraine in 2019, Fiona Hill, the NSC’s Russia expert during Trump’s first term, testified that Griffith was present at a July 2019 meeting with Ukrainian officials in which John Bolton, then Trump’s national security adviser, discovered that other US officials had secretly pressed Ukraine to open a sham investigation of Joe Biden.
Griffith refused to testify to the House impeachment inquiry, defying a subpoena.
Pete Buttigieg called for unity among Democrats on Friday during a rally in Michigan, saying “the stakes are high, and people from around the country, people from around the world, are watching” to see if Democrats can win the swing state.
Buttigieg’s remarks, reported by Politico, came during a planned event that involved Michigan’s statewide Democratic ticket. Buttigieg ran for president in 2020 and is considered a possible Democratic contender for 2028.
Michigan Democrats must hold onto their Senate seat if Democrats want to regain control of the Senate. And while Michigan has long been a battleground state, residents voted for Donald Trump in the last two elections, Politico noted.
“We’re going to win because we know what it means to focus on what’s at stake, to lock arms as allies after a spirited primary, to pull together in common cause,” Buttigieg said.
Buttigieg remained neutral during Michigan’s Senate primary, which exposed deep schisms within the Democratic party. Abdul El-Sayed won against the US representative Haley Stevens on Tuesday and is up against the Republican representative Mike Rogers in the general election.
El-Sayed needs to attract moderate and establishment Democrats to win, Politico said, with the GOP noting a potential opportunity to attract some Democrats.
“Wherever you sit, in this big tent of ours, and it is a big tent, but whatever corner of that tent you think of as home, there is a set of things, and I mean big, big things, where we agree with each other, we agree with most Michiganders, and Washington and Lansing Republicans disagree with us,” Buttigieg reportedly said. “That’s what’s at stake right now, and it’s not all about left, right and center, Democrat and Republican.”
El-Sayed also called for coming together.
“In the spirit of unity, in the spirit of the work, in the spirit of coming together, I want to thank both of my colleagues who ran, Haley Stevens and Mallory McMorrow, for an incredible race,” he reportedly said. “Their incredible public service in the state of Michigan, and I cannot wait to see what both of them will do next.”
“They don’t know who we fight for,” he also said, referring to Republicans. “We fight for the families barely able to put their groceries in the cart and check out, we fight for the mom who’s worried about the childcare she needs to be able to work a job that barely pays enough, we fight for the folks who are afraid about what happens if they get sick. We fight for each other, and we don’t back down.”
A former Republican strategist thinks that “this might be the year” that Democrats beat the GOP in a race for statewide office in Texas.
Joseph Moreno’s comment came during an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN’s The Lead. Tapper questioned Moreno about the Texas state representative James Talarico besting the GOP state attorney general Ken Paxton 47-45% in recent polling.
“It surprises me, and it worries me a little bit, Jake. Normally, I would say, ‘I’m not worried about this,’ right? It’s been 30 years since a Democrat won statewide office in Texas,” Moreno remarked, according to the Hill.
Paxton beat the incumbent senator John Cornyn in the Republican primary after receiving Donald Trump’s endorsement. Talarico bested the Democrat representative Jasmine Crockett during the primary, his victory boosted by Democratic leaders, according to the Hill.
“The problem is, here’s what happens – in 2024, the Republican was up by 2%, wins by 8%. In 2020, Cornyn was up 10%, wins by 10%,” Moreno said. “Now, you’ve got Talarico even, or maybe even ahead of Paxton.”
“I hate to say it, this might be the year for Democrats in Texas,” Moreno also remarked.
US senators kicked off their five-week recess early on Saturday after delivering Donald Trump a major victory – but punting several of the president’s demands.
Senators confirmed Trump’s pick for US attorney general, Todd Blanche. They green-lighted a broad Russian sanctions package to help Ukraine and approved a deal to fund the federal government through early December, as to avoid a shutdown, according to the Associated Press.
But the Senate did not advance Trump’s Save America Act, which would place restrictions on voting across the US, prior to their break. Trump had pushed senators to remain in session so they could approve this proof-of-citizenship voting legislation.
According to the AP, GOP senators pitched an alternative plan to Trump late on Friday. Under the Republican senators’ proposal, they would push for approval of some portions of this bill “as part of a broader GOP budget package to fund the Iran war and replenish the Pentagon when they return to work in September”.
Joe Biden’s prostate cancer has spread throughout his body, causing the former president great pain, his son Hunter Biden said during an interview broadcast Friday.
“The cancer has spread, metastasized into his bones and further,” Hunter Biden said in a sit-down with the BBC. “It’s very painful and it’s very debilitating in many respects.”
“It’s really sad to watch,” Hunter Biden also said. “The only thing that I’d say about my dad, about his health right now, is I wish he would complain more, because it’s not good.”
Biden, now 83, disclosed his prostate cancer diagnosis in May 2025, just months after he departed the White House. As the oldest president in US history, Biden’s age was routinely the target of his political opponents.
Biden and his staff have also been criticized for purportedly hiding his health problems. This criticism came to a crux following a devastating debate against Donald Trump that prompted calls for him to step out of the presidential race.
Biden abandoned his run and his vice-president, Kamala Harris, became the Democratic candidate. Donald Trump bested Harris in the election and he is serving a second term as president.
Hunter Biden noted that his father has not stepped back from public life, discussing issues that matter to him.
“He’s still doing his thing,” Hunter Biden said. “He so believes in this country.”
Hunter Biden also remarked that he was “the most privileged person there is” after Joe Biden pardoned him. He felt that the pardon was “not good” for the nation, his father’s legacy or the US constitution.
But, Hunter Biden said, he did not discuss the pardon beforehand with his father. He told the BBC that his dad did so – despite vowing not to intervene in Hunter’s criminal cases – out of fear that Donald Trump would go after him.
With reporting from the Associated Press
Chris Stein
Democrats instigated a government shutdown last year when they refused to approve funding bills without an agreement to extend subsidies for Affordable Care Act health plans. That led to the longest funding lapse in US history, but ultimately no agreement to keep the cost offsets going after the shutdown ended 43 days later.
Some government agencies shut down again briefly earlier this year after Democrats held up a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in protest of the killings by federal agents of two US citizens in Minneapolis during an intensive immigration enforcement drive.
While an agreement was reached to resolve that blockade, the two parties did not agree on funding DHS for weeks, as Democrats held out for reforms to immigration enforcement operations.
Senate passes funding bill to prevent shutdown through US midterms
Chris Stein
The US Senate on Friday passed a government funding bill that will prevent a shutdown through the midterm elections, though it still must be approved by the House of Representatives.
The continuing resolution (CR) passed by a 90-6 vote will keep the government running at its current funding levels until 11 December, more than a month past the midterms in which Democrats are hoping to regain control of Congress and block Donald Trump’s legislative agenda for the final two years of his presidency.
The measure’s passage signals a recognition by both parties that they would prefer to avoid a messy battle over federal spending in the weeks leading up to the 3 November vote.
The government will shut down after 30 September if new funding is not approved, and the Republican Senate appropriations committee chair, Susan Collins, called the CR “a major step toward averting a damaging shutdown that only harms vital programs and federal workers”, and noted it makes no major changes to funding levels.
Trump reposts social media account calling Lisa Murkowski a ‘traitor’
Although Donald Trump has not yet commented directly on Todd Blanche’s confirmation as attorney general, he has taken to his platform Truth Social to post a screenshot from an account on X that refers to Lisa Murkowski, the Republican Alaska senator, as a “traitor”.
Murkowski was one of only two Republicans, along with Maine’s Susan Collins, to vote against Blanche.
The US embassy in London is offering grants of up to half a million dollars for new “public education” programmes in what has been criticised as interference in British domestic politics.
Using language that the pro-Trump Maga movement has sought to appropriate, a funding notice identifies a goal of fostering a “national conversation” about “shared civilizational values” underpinning US-UK ties. Priority will go to applicants aiming to celebrate “freedom of speech” and “limited government”.
It comes after senior Trump officials voiced sharp criticism of British authorities and repeated misinformation on a range of fronts including abortion and digital regulation, and allied with European far-right movements in attacks on hate speech and immigration policies.
You can read more of this story from my colleagues, Ben Quinn and Aisha Down, here:
Adding to Chuck Schumer’s comments, New Mexico’s Democratic representative Melanie Stansbury said the confirmation of Todd Blanche as attorney general represents a “dark moment” for the nation’s traditional system of checks and balances.
She said this is because the justice department “is being weaponized for retribution, shielding the administration from accountability, and actively obstructing the Epstein case.”
“There is no doubt that these 50 votes will go down in history. To every survivor and every person who cares about justice: this is not the end. We will continue fighting to hold them accountable,” Stanbsury added in her post on X, in reference to the concerns raised about Blanche’s handling of the release of Jeffrey Epstein-related documents.
The US constitution’s creation of the three branches of government, with the legislative branch being the third, was intended to ensure checks and balances so that no branch had too much power.
The system, however, has come under severe strain during the Trump administration, with presidential power aggressively expanded and the president accused of usurping powers reserved for the legislature.
Blanche confirmation gives Trump ‘excuse’ to continue his ‘breathtaking corruption’, Schumer says
The Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, has said Senate Republicans have “handed Trump an excuse on a silver platter” to continue his “pervasive, breathtaking corruption” by confirming Todd Blanche as attorney general
“If you want to wipe out corruption, you can’t have the president’s personal attorney as the attorney general. You don’t need a PhD in political science to know that,” he wrote in a post on X.
“Todd Blanche has no intention of stopping Trump’s corruption. He advanced his career enabling it. Every senator who voted to confirm him has now branded themselves as an enabler, too.”
Schumer said Senate Democrats will continue to resist the Trump administration’s “assault on the rule of law and undermining of democratic values”.
All Democrats voted against Blanche’s nomination to lead the Justice Department on a permanent basis, with a wide spectrum of lawmakers saying he was unfit for the role and would do the president’s bidding.
Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said he was undecided about whether to vote to confirm Todd Blanche as the attorney general as late as last Wednesday.
“I’ve got to be convinced that he is an attorney general who just happens to have once been President Trump’s personal attorney, as opposed to President Trump’s personal attorney who is now the attorney general,” he said in a radio interview. “I think there’s a big difference between the two.”
In what was a major win for Donald Trump, Cassidy soon got in line with the president’s wishes as he brushed off his concerns about Blanche’s independence and cast the deciding vote in the acting attorney general’s favour.
Here is a video of Cassidy, who has had a strained relationship with the president, explaining his vote on the Senate floor on Friday:
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Sam Levine
Todd Blanche faced heavy criticism for the department’s sloppy rollout of files related to Jeffrey Epstein, which redacted information that should not have been redacted and left unredacted the names of victims that should have been kept private.
During his confirmation hearing, Blanche refused to personally meet with Epstein victims, then agreed to do so. The survivors said they received few answers from Blanche during the meeting.
Blanche, who left a lucrative partnership to represent Trump in 2023, has been at the center of the president’s attempt to bend the federal government to his will. Scores of career justice department attorneys have left the agency under his leadership. Department lawyers have been rebuked by judges across the US for making misrepresentations to the court.
Blanche has also been at the center of Trump’s efforts to use the justice department to punish political rivals. During his tenure as both the deputy attorney general and acting attorney general, the department has indicted former FBI director James Comey twice, New York attorney general Letitia James, the non-profit Southern Poverty Law Center – all in cases that exerts see as thin.
It has also tried to bring criminal charges against two Democratic senators, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Mark Kelly of Arizona, and used its investigative powers to try to get leverage over Jerome Powell, the former chair of the Federal Reserve.
Todd Blanche ‘honored’ to be confirmed as new attorney general after narrow Senate vote
The US Senate has narrowly confirmed Todd Blanche as attorney general, installing Donald Trump’s former defense lawyer as the nation’s top law enforcement official.
Blanche was confirmed by a vote of 50-49 early on Saturday morning, with only two Republican senators – Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska – having voted against him, joining all the chamber’s Democrats in opposing the nomination.
He said he was “deeply honored” to be confirmed as the new attorney general, thanking Trump for the “trust and confidence” that has been placed in him.
Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who was among earlier Republican holdouts, cast the deciding vote in Blanche’s favor. Explaining his decision on the senate floor on Friday, he said:
Mr Blanche is not perfect, and he will tell you this, but the choice is not between perfection and Mr Blanche.
It is between Mr Blanche and another acting attorney general who may not run the department effectively under President Trump and who indeed may not be as good as Mr Blanche.
Blanche has been serving as the acting attorney general since the president fired Pam Bondi, another Trump loyalist, in April.
However, there was a lengthy delay to Blanche’s confirmation amid concerns he could use the department to go after Trump’s political adversaries as attorney general.
Blanche faced pushback from Republican senators over the department’s deal to create a $1.8bn so-called “anti-weaponization fund” and to give the president, his sons, and business tax immunity, as my colleague notes in this story.
“The attorney general is supposed to be the people’s lawyer,” Senator Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee, said on Tuesday.
“Mr Blanche continues to operate as the president’s personal lawyer, treating the justice department like a law firm serving one client: the president.”
But despite these concerns, Blanche’s confirmation was narrowly confirmed after a late-night session ran over into the early hours of Saturday ahead of a planned five-week Senate recess.
The Senate majority leader, John Thune, Trump and Senate conservatives reached a deal last night to postpone a vote on a budget resolution and defer action on a significant portion of the SAVE America Act until after the break.
Trump had demanded that senators stay in session to pass a strict proof-of-citizenship voting bill before the summer recess.
Instead, Republican senators who had brought the chamber to a standstill spoke to Trump late in the evening about an alternative plan: they would try again to approve elements of the voting bill as part of a broader GOP budget package to fund the Iran war and replenish the Pentagon when they return to work in September.
