Confirming Blanche Might Finish Off Republicans’ Careers
How voting to promote the Epstein cover-up architect could play out.
Senate Republicans who vote to confirm Todd Blanche for attorney general should take heed: They will be haunted for the rest of their careers (some of which may very well end with the midterms) by the courageous survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s monstrous crimes.
CNN reported that last week 19 Epstein victims “responded to The New York Times’s reporting that Blanche and other senior officials participated in Situation Room meetings to discuss how to respond to growing pressure for more transparency as the issue became a public relations crisis for the administration.” The survivors’ statement read in part:
We are deeply disturbed to learn that so many senior members of the administration gathered in the Situation Room to discuss the release of the Epstein files as a reputational problem, rather than an opportunity to pursue investigative leads and try to figure out what actually happened.
The reporting, they said, only confirmed their “worst fears about the administration prioritizing political expediency over justice for survivors and truth for the American people.” And they blasted Blanche, who “has consistently minimized legitimate concerns about how the files have been handled, including problematic redactions and the exposure of survivors’ personal information.” They concluded that he “failed to deliver transparency, and he has gravely failed survivors.” (Their jab that promoting him to AG would “failing upward, plain and simple” aptly describes the Trump DEI program for elevating unqualified, ethically deficient white males to top posts.)
Even before Blanche’s nomination, Republicans were under siege for their handling of the Epstein files. But Trump’s nomination of Blanche amounts to a gratuitous slam at Epstein victims, puts the issue back in the news, and forces Republicans (many past the primary season) to decide: Save their own careers or promote Blanche?
The perpetually concerned but never courageous Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) is infamous for Trump-friendly votes when it matters (e.g., acquitting Donald Trump in the first impeachment trial; confirming obvious opponents of Roe v. Wade for the Supreme Court; sending the big, ugly bill to the floor when she could have stopped it in its tracks). She has been at her most spineless in rubber-stamping unfit, unqualified, and morally decrepit Cabinet members such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Health and Human Services secretary, Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, and Pam Bondi for attorney general. Would Collins now double down and confirm yet another Trump stooge over the objections of Epstein survivors?
Surely, even she understands that a vote to confirm Epstein victims’ nemesis could be a career-ender. If “character” is what Republicans want to talk about in Maine, Democrats may be more than willing to engage. (Indeed, Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner wasted no time last week making an issue of Republicans’ support for the “Epstein class.”)
Collins’ biggest problem may be finding enough colleagues willing to take the heat for voting to confirm Blanche so she can duck (i.e. vote no without imperiling Blanche and incurring Trump’s and MAGA’s wrath). Consider Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio), the governor- appointed replacement for now-Vice President JD Vance. It would be wholly foolhardy for him to ignore the Epstein abuse victims’ pleas.
Former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) already has put out ads against Husted pointing to Husted’s receipt of six-figure donations from the infamous Ohio billionaire and Republican donor Les Wexner, who hired Epstein as a financial adviser and was named in an FBI email as “co-conspirator” in Epstein’s sex trafficking crimes. (Husted has tried to muddy the waters by fishing around for names in the files who wound up giving to Brown, but, as fact checkers have noted, “[n]one of the donors the Husted campaign identified has been charged with a crime related to Epstein, nor has any been identified as a co-conspirator.”)
Blanche puts Husted on the hot seat: Should he support the Epstein cover-up architect for attorney general when no reasonable voter would believe Blanche is anything but a Trump stooge willing to perpetuate the heinous coverup? Husted could well conclude a “yes” vote for Blanche would doom his already-shaky campaign.
Likewise in Alaska, Blanche’s confirmation fight could very well aggravate Republican Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan’s own problems with the Epstein cover-up. Sullivan last September joined other Republicans (including Husted and Collins) in blocking a vote (on defense authorization) aimed at forcing release of the files.
As a local Alaska journalist at the time noted, Sullivan blithely declared in a constituent letter, “I trust [!?!] the Department of Justice to carefully consider the release of relevant materials, while simultaneously ensuring that Epstein’s victims remain protected and that legal protocols are upheld.” As absurd as his faith in the Department of Justice was back then, a vote now for the man who thwarted the law and obstructed the release of the files would cement Sullivan’s image that he is Trump rubber stamp who would throw victims under the bus to keep his job.
Finally, even though Texas Sen. John Cornyn will not be on the ballot, Blanche’s confirmation fight is already roiling the race of the man who defeated him, MAGA extremist and scandal-plagued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. (Cornyn should consider if he wants one of his last important votes in the Senate to be a tip of the hat to Blanche and a kick in the teeth of Epstein’s victims.)
Houston’s Chron. reported on the ongoing fallout from Paxton’s sweetheart plea deal with Adam Hoffman, who was tried for first-degree sexual abuse of a child. (Seriously, what is it with Republicans cutting deals with accused pedophiles?) Democratic nominee James Talarico emailed the paper: “Adam Hoffman—an admitted child molester—just became a registered sex offender in Nebraska but still doesn’t have to register in Texas because Ken Paxton gave him an Epstein-style sweetheart deal.” Talarico continued: “Hoffmann was supposed to serve 25 years to life, but today he walks free after the most corrupt politician in America put the well-being of pedophiles over the safety of Texas children.”
Yikes. Talarico’s argument (“Does America really need someone who authored his own ‘Epstein-style sweetheart deals‘ roaming the halls of Congress”) may hit home even in deep-red Texas. No wonder Republicans would rather talk about veganism and transgender kids; perhaps supporting pedophiles’ victims is a better way to measure masculine virtue.
In short, by insisting on nominating Blanche — already under fire for masterminding the coverup, botching the files’ redaction, and conducting a nefarious interview with Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell — Trump has again handed Democrats a club to pommel Republicans who cannot resist Trump’s outrageous demands.
If cowardly Senate Republicans vote to install Blanche to run DOJ, many voters may well conclude it is time to throw Republican senators out en masse. At some point, all Americans must decide whether to stand with the Epstein and his enablers or with his victims.
Keep up the pressure, Jen. It's one good way to spread reality to the red hats and those who have been Repugnican without really noticing what they do. Everyone's efforts to resist, however small and local, do add up!
If voters haven’t thrown the GOP out after Iran, inflation, corruption, pedophilia, and the free-wheeling wreckage of our rights-protecting government, then they’re satisfied customers.