Attorney General Todd Blanche repeatedly pushed back against CNN anchor Dana Bash on Sunday during an interview about how the Department of Justice plans to respond to Democratic threats of investigations into the Trump administration.
The exchange followed sweeping Democratic wins in the midterm elections, after which several prominent Democrats signaled they would pursue legal action against President Donald Trump and members of his Cabinet. Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., who is set to lead the House Oversight Committee, posted “lawyer up” in reaction to the midterm results and news that Stephen Miller would be promoted to White House chief of staff.
Blanche had defended Miller in a post on X, writing that he and the Department of Justice would defend the chief of staff. That prompted Bash, host of “State of the Union,” to ask whether defending Cabinet members is part of his job as attorney general.
“Do you see it as your job as attorney general to represent anyone in the administration being investigated by Congress?” Bash asked.
“Wait, do I see it as my job?” Blanche responded. “The Constitution sees it as my job. Just in every administration, the Department of Justice represents members of the executive who are brought in front of Congress. So, there is nothing unique to me saying that. Every attorney general in history represents members of the administration.”
Blanche also addressed Garcia’s comments directly. “And this idea that Congressman Garcia comes out and says, ‘Oh, no, no. Stephen Miller needs his own personal lawyer.’ I would suggest he read the Constitution,” he said. “If he doesn’t have a copy, I can arrange to send him one. But the Constitution absolutely protects members of the executive, and I am the attorney general, and as that, like I do every day, we represent members of the administration who go in front of Congress. That’s nothing unique to me.”
Oversight or Something Else?
Bash pressed Blanche on Congress’s oversight authority and asked whether he had concerns about it.
“No, no, no,” Blanche said. “They have a very unique role in oversight, I agree. Have you been listening to the rhetoric the past couple of days? You honestly think that all they’re doing is talking about their oversight obligations, when they’re talking about going after basically every member of the Cabinet? They’re talking about impeachments. They’re talking about going after companies, private companies, who happen to have made investments in this country over the past couple years. That is not oversight. I welcome oversight. Oversight is exactly something they should be doing.”
Bash then referenced a recent Truth Social post from Trump encouraging an investigation into Democrats, asking Blanche, “So are you saying that you are going to investigate them? And what you just described, is there a crime there?”
Blanche said that depending on what is said, there “could be” grounds for an investigation into some Democrats’ rhetoric toward Trump. He pointed to recent remarks by Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., about discouraging young conservatives from taking jobs in the federal government.
“You have free speech in this country. You are allowed to be critical of President Trump, of me, of this administration,” Blanche said. “But when the threats become so vile and so dangerous that you are telling people in college that they better be careful if they want to work in the Trump administration because somebody will come after them, at some point you have to draw the line.”
Fox News Digital reported that it reached out to the White House, the Department of Justice and Garcia’s office for comment.
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