As of now, Todd Blanche’s confirmation vote for Attorney General takes place this Thursday, July 30. The American public and lawmakers alike have repeatedly criticized Blanche for refusing to meet with Epstein survivors and acting as Donald Trump’s personal lawyer.
Senator Rosen joined Tim to discuss how Blanche’s confirmation would only exacerbate the DoJ’s failures in handling the Epstein Files and Trump’s $1.776 billion slush fund. Emphasizing the importance of taking action, the pair talked about Senator Rosen’s recent legislative moves to demand FEMA assistance for wildfire prevention, highlight the Iran war’s costs for Nevadans, oppose presidential pardons for Ghislaine Maxwell, and fight for strengthened DACA protections.
Jacky Rosen is a Democratic Senator from Nevada. Senator Rosen sits on the Senate Committees on Armed Services, Foreign Relations, Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
The following transcript has been edited for formatting purposes.
Tim Dickinson
Hi, this is Tim Dickinson for The Contrarian. Our guest today serves the great state of Nevada. Jacky Rosen, Senator Jacky Rosen, welcome back to The Contrarian.
Senator Jacky Rosen
Well, thank you for having me. It’s always my pleasure to be here with you.
Tim Dickinson
Top of mind this week is the Todd Blanch confirmation, likely confirmation to be Attorney General. For those of people who are on vacation, not paying super close attention to politics here in late July, can you talk us through, just briefly, why this is such a controversial and concerning nomination?
Senator Jacky Rosen
Well, first of all, let’s just think about the Attorney General overall, generally speaking. The Attorney General is the lawyer for the United States of America, not for the President. Of course, they serve a president and their administration, but their job is to really protect and take care of the citizens of the United States of America without having an allegiance to, well, I guess I’ll say in this case, to a ruler, a king, or whatever they want to call it. And so it’s really problematic that Todd Blanch says that he is Donald Trump’s lawyer, and he just keeps going over and over about his allegiances to Trump, not to the Constitution, not to the rule of law, not to the American citizens who may have been damaged in some way. We think about those women, who were trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Not giving them the respect And compassion that they deserve? Through acknowledging their pain, and also giving them that pathway to justice for what happened to them, the horrific, horrific things that we have seen come out of the Epstein files. And so, for that reason and so many more, Todd Blanch is not qualified to be the Attorney General, because he’s not going to represent The people of the United States. He’s only interested in a party of one, and that party of one is Donald Trump.
Tim Dickinson
Now, I understand that you wanted… Blanche’s Senate committee hearing, likely to be voted out on Thursday, and I understand before that happens, you wanted to put the entire Senate on record. Can you talk to us a bit about… talk to us through what that process is?
Senator Jacky Rosen
I’m gonna do, and I appreciate you asking that, because it’s really important that, you know, a lot of us go on the press, and it’s easy for people to say this or say that. But when they have to vote, that’s recorded in the congressional record for all of history. So you can say one thing, but if you vote another way, well. That tells the real story. And so, who are you? So this bill, my resolution, excuse me, would affirm the sense of the Senate that convicted sex trafficker… convicted sex trafficker. Ghislaine Maxwell, working along with Jeffrey Epstein, a pedophile, a sex trafficker, the worst of the worst. should never, ever receive a pardon or clemency from Donald Trump. And again, I’m going to refer to Todd Blanch, because he said he’s besties with Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyer, and has been on their podcast, and none of this should happen. Lawyers are supposed to have ethics. They are supposed to understand the rules, and how things work, and who they should be talking to, and about what they should be talking about. Todd Blanch goes to Florida, meets with her, and then moves her from one prison to a very limited, minimum security prison. Without any thought, and then laughs about how he’s best friends with her lawyer. That doesn’t sound like a lawyer for the United States of America, and it surely doesn’t sound like someone who cares about victims of sex trafficking.
Tim Dickinson
I understand that he had a meeting with some of the, the victims of Epstein, and they described that as not a good faith effort. What was your understanding of… and I understand this is to appease some Republican senators on the committee who might be on the fence. What was your sense of that?
Senator Jacky Rosen
Well, you know, we saw with the prior Attorney General, Pam Bondi, she wouldn’t even look up. She wouldn’t even acknowledge that there were victims. A woman wouldn’t even acknowledge that there are women who are victims, child sex trafficking, and horrific abuse. Todd Blanch, not much better. Why? Because Donald Trump doesn’t want them to. So he was kind of guilted into it, forced into it. I think he went through the motions, and you’ve seen, I’ll let the survivors speak for themselves, how they believe the meeting went. He kind of checked a box that But he’s not gonna do a damn thing to protect them, to make sure they feel heard. That they get some justice, and that anyone who thinks that they can do this again To women, young men, young women in this world should understand that our country’s not going to stand for it, no matter who it is. And this is why Todd Blanch is absolutely unqualified to lead the Department of Justice.
Tim Dickinson
You know, and I’ve heard some… I’ve seen a lot of media coverage sort of blaming Blanche for mishandling the Epstein files, but my own sense is that he handled them just as Donald Trump would have preferred, that in fact, he sort of stage-managed this whole process, and the bungling, so-called, was quite intentional, inflicting pain on the victims. I wondered if that was your perspective as well.
Senator Jacky Rosen
Yeah, well, I mean, you just have to look no further than his comments, the way he talks about it, the way he hems and haws, and… clearly, and not just Todd Blanch, but look at some of these cabinet meetings, look at some of the bill signings. I mean, it’s absolutely ridiculous that everyone has to go through and bring the dear leader a present, a compliment, a this, a that. It is ridiculous. You have never seen this before. And Todd Blanch is just one of many more enablers of this president and his cruel policies that are hurting people all the time, and the covering up of something as horrendous as what Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell did, and the others that might be named in these files did to people. There isn’t a person alive, there isn’t someone, you don’t even have to be a parent, but if you’re a parent, can you imagine this happened to your kids? But you don’t have to be a parent to even imagine. You just have to be a compassionate human being to know this is wrong, and that the cover-up is wrong. And I guess I could go on and on, but all of them are complicit in doing this because they’re so afraid to get spanked by Donald Trump.
Tim Dickinson
Perhaps the clearest example of Blanche serving as Trump’s personal attorney still, even though he has this role in the Department of Justice and hopes to lead the department, is the handling of the IRS settlement fund, the idea that… he was, you know, not only removing all criminal liability and tax liability for Trump and his family, but then setting up this, you know, incredible weaponization fund to… you know, pay out J6 offenders and others. Can you just talk a bit about what that…
Senator Jacky Rosen
Yeah, 1776, $1,700, you know, 700,076. For Donald Trump, they’re gonna give him a slush fund. For him to just use as he wants. I’ll pay out January 6th. I’ll pay out whomever I feel like. Someone feel agreed? I need loyalty from somebody. Oh, here’s a million here, a million there, 10 million here to his cronies. Absolutely ridiculous. This is taxpayer money. This is taxpayer money. So the average person, everybody here is listening, he wanted to take your money so he could just I guess, do political favors, put it out with no accounting, and he would have no audit, and also his taxes, your taxes would be audited, your taxes, mine, whatever, we have to play by the rules, but Donald Trump, again, has no rules. And I’m sorry, in this country, no one should be above the law, no matter what anyone says. And we have to continue to push back on any efforts to make one person, the president or anyone else, a king. We don’t have a king, we don’t have a dictator, we don’t have an oligarch, we have three co-equal branches of government and a beautiful, messy, and wonderful democracy and a constitution that’s been held up for 250 years. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to let Todd Blanch or any of these other folks who just need Trump’s praise like he’s their daddy. It’s, it’s so sad. I believe in our country. I believe in our Constitution. I believe in the messy, loud, noisy democracy that makes the melting pot of America the place that it is. How we all got here. Never being perfect, but always trying to move forward. Always trying to move forward. And so, for that, All of us need to stand up and stop these folks who won’t respect And admire the Constitution that we have, and live by it when they take that oath.
Tim Dickinson
I’m here in Oregon, and your own state is subject to wildfires. We have wildfires raging across the state right now. One of our major interstate freeways is closed. I know recently you wrote a letter with colleagues from the West insisting that Trump release FEMA funds, fire preparedness funds, and I think this gets to the idea that this is a president who isn’t respecting all of the people, isn’t respecting that idea that he needs to serve all of the people. Can you talk us through that issue and what your advocacy is there?
Senator Jacky Rosen
Well, we can talk about, you know, I think they just admitted that they were only giving grants to states that voted for them, and states that didn’t, and we don’t… we’ll come to that one on another, another podcast, but what I want to say is that wildfires are not… no longer just plaguing the West, and I’m so sorry for what’s happening in your beautiful state. It’s happening in mine, and states all across This nation, Europe is burning up, right? Canada’s fires, our country is… Our country and our world are suffering from wildfires, and we know it better than anyone. And so, we’re just introducing a bill called the Wildfire Air Quality Sensor Expansion Act, and what we want to do is be sure that we can monitor air pollution, that the people who live around these wildfires… what happens in a wildfire when whole towns burn down? It’s not just trees, it’s cars, it’s computers, it’s refrigerators, it’s… it becomes a toxic soup, if you will, when things burn and melt rubber from your tires, right? And so we want to be sure that people who have health issues, we can monitor that air for air quality, we can take care of that, people who have issues can take care of themselves however they need to. There’s so many more things that we’ve been able to do. We need that funding to declare wildfires, emergencies through FEMA so that we can, we can be proactive. You know, there’s… there’s a whole group of meteorologists that specialize in wildland fires. They deploy with our wildland firefighters, because wildfires create their own weather, and it becomes dangerous, not just to the community, but to the firefighters themselves. Though there’s so many aspects that we need to take care of, and this issue is only going to get worse and worse. And, I have a whole slew of bills out there, but we have FEMA, which is well-positioned to help here, be proactive. How we work on fire management and some of our forests and mitigation is going to be extremely important, but we have to acknowledge the fact that it’s here, and give our communities the tools. It could be different, maybe, in Montana or Oregon than it is in and Northern Nevada, but we have to be sure our communities have the tools and resources so that our entire states don’t burn down. This is neither a Democrat or Republican issue, and again, I’m going to, Say that, sadly. the Trump administration makes everything about who loves them and who doesn’t. And if you voted for him, you get something. If you didn’t, or you sneezed the wrong way, you don’t get it. I mean, sometimes you don’t even know… I mean, sometimes he tells you exactly why, but it can be just random. I don’t like the way you look. I don’t like someone who wears glasses. You’re not getting the grant. I don’t like one word in your proposal. I don’t like the word positive outcome anymore, so that means, you know, you’re not getting a grant. It’s just been ridiculous war on so many things. They’re so good for the folks of all of our state, and we need to fight back at it. And with a fire hose, like our wildland firefighters, we need to use that fire hose and fight back.
Tim Dickinson
Senator, I remember Donald Trump campaigning in your state on affordability issues, campaigning about…
Senator Jacky Rosen
What affordability is? He said, you just made that word up. Didn’t he just say that?
Tim Dickinson
I mean, that was the pitch, right? It was no tax on tips, it was… it was, you know, I’m the guy who’s gonna look out for your pocketbook, was really the message. And with this Iran war in particular, and I think AP just came out with a study that said that grocery prices are up. you know, about 30% in this decade alone, and Trump’s continuing the pattern that was there before. Can you talk about the affordability crisis that Trump has not only failed to ameliorate, but has made much worse in recent months?
Senator Jacky Rosen
There’s only one pocketbook Trump is looking out for, and it’s his, because since he’s been president, you can see how much money he’s made, his family’s made, and the corruption is rampant. In the meantime, he promised to help families, so I’ll just tell you what’s most important to everyone. Everyone. I don’t care how much money you make, I don’t care how old or young you are or where you live, it’s the people that you love, your family and friend you unit in your community. So I say that at the kitchen table. So every week, when you fill up your gas tank, this unjustified war in Iran that is probably costing a billion dollars a day, we’re not getting the right statistics. I’m on armed services and foreign relations. Men and women have already lost their lives and hundreds more injured. Gas prices are up. Every week, you fill up your tank, you have to make choices. What do I do? How do I… how do I drive around? Do I just get to work and back, because I can’t afford the gas. Now, for food. Goods, clothes, everything you buy gets shipped around this country on a truck or a train that uses diesel fuel. Diesel fuel is about a dollar more. than regular fuel. So that dollar is going to get added on top of, on top of everything else. All the tariffs. He’s got tariffs on food coming in, all of your groceries. I have a bill that says no tariffs on groceries. It’s absolutely ridiculous. Everybody has to eat. You’re putting tariffs on everyone’s kitchen table. So now, gas is up, food is up, energy prices are up. I can tell you in my state, tourism is down. That means less shifts, that means less money. So people are hurting. And he said he would focus on the American kitchen table. I said, the only pocketbook this man’s ever focused on is his own. As kids, it’s shameful, and we need to find ways to continue, I’ll use the wildfire, use that fire hose and fight back at every level we can against the corruption, lack of empathy, lack of leadership that this administration has.
Tim Dickinson
To shift gears a little bit, I understand you’ve been concerned about changes in the way DACA recipients are being handled by this administration, and I wanted to… and I know that touches in on the Justice Department, so I wanted to ask you about that.
Senator Jacky Rosen
Well, I can tell you that Trump’s immigration policies are hurting everyone, and every day, he just defies whatever laws there. He just makes them up as they go. Again, we don’t have a king, we have a rule of law, and no one seems to… well, some judges are holding him accountable, thank goodness, but I can tell you, in our state, in so many states, we have I think maybe over 800,000 DACA recipients in this country who have known no other country, but this is their home, who have played by the rules, who have done the right thing, who have registered, who are going to school, working, paying taxes, doing all of that, and then Donald Trump just wants to pull the rug out from under him. This is hurting not just Nevada. But this entire country, his immigration policies, his DHS just chasing people down the street, shooting into moving cars, killing innocent people. It’s absolutely ridiculous, his war on immigration. Immigration is one of the secret sauces that has made this country great through 250 years. Everyone has a story of how they got here, why they got here. And what they’ve done since they’ve been here. And so, we have to continue that tradition. This administration has no respect No respect at all, and they are going to continue. This is one of the reasons that we’re fighting to reform, ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, everything that they’re doing is not law enforcement, it is vigilante, no accountability, no, No training, no technology, no body cams, no rules. They knocked down someone at the Las Vegas airport. Old man, just trying to get a ticket, and they’re just… suddenly people are trying to fly, and they see someone screaming, and their people are in plain clothes, and they’re handcuffing a guy. When people started filming him. Pulled up their masks and their hoods, and they ran away, leaving the guy handcuffed. Ridiculous. So it’s not just DACA recipients. They’re profiling, folks in every single city and state in this country. and from Maine to, from California, from sea to shining sea, you can go to each state and find something that’s happened, not just the horrible murders that have been in the news in Minnesota and Maine and, and other places. And we have to, again, use that fire hose to fight back, to stand up for what is right, for who we are and our democracy. And, find paths forward.
Tim Dickinson
Senator, I’m mindful of our time, but I wanted to invite you to share any final thoughts that you have with our listeners and our viewers.
Senator Jacky Rosen
Well, what I want to tell people is this. I don’t want… things do seem tough. People are anxious, people are scared. Are we gonna be okay? Am I gonna be okay? Can I afford my life? Are my kids gonna be alright? Can I go out in the street? Is it safe? Am I going to have vigilantes just shooting me because of the color of my skin, or am I gonna be walking my dog and get caught up in the middle of something that’s going on? But what I can tell everyone is this, is that Turn your anxiety or despair into hope through your action. Be out with your neighbors, make connections through your work, your church, your school, your friends, and find positive things to do. Find ways to connect and do good in your community, wherever that is for you. And you’ll begin to change things person after person, because if you just look at what is sometimes posted by bots on the internet. You will not. be able to feel that hope. And I do… I am hopeful that this November, everyone will show up. Be sure that you stand up. Take a friend with you. If you have a car, fill your seats in your car and drive someone who doesn’t have one to the polls. Your vote is your voice. Use it. It is precious. Our democracy is precious. Have hope. We’ve been through tougher things than this. We are resilient, we will go forward, but you need to grab hands with someone you know, person to person. and move forward. That’s what I want to say to everybody.
Tim Dickinson
Well, Senator Rosen, thank you so much for your time today and your insights. Always a pleasure to speak with you.
Senator Jacky Rosen
Thank you. Thank you for having me. We’ll see you soon.
