Transcript of Blanche Confirmation Hearing, Iran War And Midterm Politics, Clayton ODNI Hearing

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And thank you. It wasn't Todd Blanchett's qualifications that were front and center at his confirmation hearing to lead the Justice Department.

The focus was his loyalty.

Are you and President Trump friends?

I'm his lawyer— was his lawyer.

I'm Leila Fadel, with A. Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News. President Trump notified Congress that the U.S. is back at war with Iran. A majority of Americans oppose the war, but Trump's base is behind him. Will anything make that change?

And the president's pick for intelligence chief wouldn't acknowledge that Trump lost the 2020 election.

I'm not going to get into that with you.

But you do have an obligation to be honest and forthright with the committee.

That's from Jake Clayton's confirmation hearing. Why so much time spent on that question?

Stay with us.

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This week on the NPR Politics Podcast: President Trump—

It is the greatest threat to our country.

—is trying to tie Democrats to communism.

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Why the White House is pushing communism as a new line of attack ahead of this year's midterms. Listen now on the NPR Politics Podcast.

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The Senate Judiciary Committee grilled President Trump's nominee to lead the Justice Department on Wednesday.

But it wasn't Todd Blanche's qualifications qualifications for the job that were the focus. Instead, the panel honed in on his close ties to the president and whether he would serve Trump or the American people.

NPR's Carrie Johnson has been following the hearing. Carrie, I mean, no shortage of controversy at the DOJ over the past year and a half, and Todd Blanch has really been at the center of it. How did that come up in the hearing?

Yeah, Todd Blanch has been the deputy attorney general, the second in command at the Justice Department, since last year. He assumed the top job in April after President Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi. Getting that promotion on a permanent basis requires Senate confirmation, so lawmakers got a chance to ask Blanche about a lot of problems. He got questions about prosecutions against the president's political foes, about how DOJ botched the release of files about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and about a nearly $2 billion slush fund the administration tried to set up to pay alleged victims of weaponization. That includes people who stormed the Capitol on January 6th.

How did Todd Blanch respond?

Well, Todd Blanch basically said he's a creature of the Justice Department. He's worked there as an intern, a paralegal, and a prosecutor, and he told them serving in the Justice Department represents an American dream. But Todd Blanch has really been dogged by questions about his relationship with President Trump. Blanch, of course, worked as Trump's personal lawyer for a couple years. He defended Trump in cases that involve election interference. Classified documents, and Democrats say he's still serving Donald Trump instead of the Constitution. Then, under questioning, Blanche seemed to make a slip of the tongue. Here he is being questioned by Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana: Are you and President Trump friends?

I'm his lawyer— was his lawyer, and now I'm the Deputy Attorney General.

Blanche went on to say he's not a yes man and that his time defending Trump should not define his long career.

So, Carrie, Democrats on the panel are trying to make the case against Blanche.

Well, how do they try to do that? Some of these senators actually worked inside the Justice Department earlier in their careers, so these issues are personal to them in a way. Sheldon Whitehouse from Rhode Island used to be a U.S. attorney. Whitehouse talked about how DOJ has lost stature with judges and juries over the past year.

Between judges appointed by every president harshly criticizing the department's work in your tenure Grand juries rejecting indictments, judicial findings of outright misconduct. This seems to be the most troubled Department of Justice in history.

Todd Blanch says on his watch, DOJ has done a lot to prosecute violent crime and keep Americans safe.

So here's a wrinkle now, because after the death of Senator Lindsey Graham over the weekend, the Judiciary Committee is very closely divided now. So how do Todd Blanch's prospects look? That's true.

There's one more day of hearings today there that are going to feature witnesses arguing for and against Blanch's nomination. But safe to say, most of the Republicans on the panel seemed inclined to support him. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas is going to be critical. For now, Cornyn says he's undecided. Cornyn is worried about DOJ trying to resurrect that slush fund for January 6th rioters, which would use taxpayer dollars, and he's worried about the broad grant of immunity the DOJ gave Trump and two of his sons for any past tax audits. This week, a judge in Florida blasted the Justice Department's approach there. The judge wrote DOJ officials, 'abdicated responsibility to zealously defend the interests of the U.S.

in a sham deal that benefited Trump.' That's NPR's Carrie Johnson. Carrie, thank you. Thank you. President Trump sent Congress a formal notification this week that the U.S. is once again at war with Iran.

The administration argues this gives them a new 60-day clock to use military action without congressional congressional approval. But the greater concern for the president and his inner circle may not be approval from Congress, but from voters, particularly as the midterms get closer and closer.

NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez joins us now. Franco, so a restarting of full-scale fighting, there's got to be some political implications here. I mean, there—

I think it kind of depends on what actually happens next. I mean, the president would rather not be dealing with all this. I mean, he's made that clear as he's aggressively pushed for the ceasefire. Now, I will say, A, if these new strikes actually kind of break the regime, if the Strait of Hormuz actually opens and gas prices drop down, then actually maybe the political implications could be kind of good for the president. But if fighting continues, you know, next week and beyond that and energy prices continue to rise, then obviously that would not be good for the president or for Republicans for that matter. And just one other factor. Is whether voters actually feel the U.S. won or lost the war or is winning or losing. I mean, it's certainly not going to sit well with Americans if they feel the president started this war and then the U.S. lost. So the success of this latest offensive could also be very important from that political perspective as well. Yeah.

And the thing on that is that foreign policy really rarely dominates midterm elections. I mean, could this year be an exception?

I mean, I'd say yes and no. I mean, yes, in that this is a big foreign policy challenge, but no, or really really only because it's helping drive such major domestic challenges. I mean, voters are not necessarily going to point to the war for how they voted. I was talking with John McHenry, a veteran pollster with North Star Opinion Research. You know, he says exit polls will not show the war, but they'll more likely show voters citing higher energy prices and the economy, which are driven by the war.

Ultimately, the gas prices may be the determining factor in how this plays out politically. Because gas prices have a ripple effect on everything. Prices, you know, at every retail shop and at the grocery store will go up because, you know, a gallon of milk doesn't walk to the grocery store, it gets driven there by a truck. So the gas price is sort of the crux of the whole matter.

Now, that could change, of course, if this continues to grow and if, for example, Trump commits ground troops to the conflict. Now, he's been reluctant to do that, but he has threatened the possibility. So, Franco, is this what we're doing now?

Sporadic strikes and then just continued anxiety? Anxiety about the war all the time.

I mean, I'll say that Americans, though, have been expecting that. I mean, there was a new Reuters poll that came out that said 4 out of 5 Americans expect the war to drag on indefinitely. I mean, less than 20%, eh, expect the war to end in a matter of weeks.

Thing is, though, President Trump has said for months that the war is almost over. Obviously not, because Iran continues to stop traffic going through the straits. So what has this done to Trump's overall support?

Well, I'd say a majority of Americans oppose the war, but I'll just add that if you focus on Republicans, they largely continue to remain behind Trump. I mean, it's not necessarily that they're ignoring the evidence that you outlined, but they trust Trump's framing. And McHenry, the Republican pollster, tells me he doesn't expect that to change no matter the reporting, no matter the facts on the ground, that Trump's core supporters trust how the president interprets those facts to them. And he says that they're likely to trust a president until they can't anymore.

That's White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez. Thanks a lot. Thank you, eh.

A major line of questioning for President Trump's pick to lead the intelligence community in 2026 was the election results from 2020.

Jay Clayton is the nominee for director of national intelligence. He faced senators on Wednesday in a confirmation hearing. The question centered on Trump's repeated false claims that there was election fraud in 2020.

For more, we're joined by NPR's Greg Myre. Good morning, Greg. Hi, Leila. Okay, so we've heard President Trump assert repeatedly and without evidence that the 2020 election was rigged. So when Clayton was asked about this, what did he say?

Yeah, the Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee repeatedly asked Clayton straight up, who won the 2020 election. Clayton said he wasn't an election denier and that Joe Biden was certified as president, but he didn't say outright that Biden won. And so after several go-rounds with senators along these lines, the tone escalated as Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff kept pressing Clayton. Who won the 2020 election?

Like I said, I'm not, I'm not going to get into that with you. But you do have an obligation to be honest and forthright with the committee. Is anything that I just said not honest or forthright? Yes, you're not being honest or forthright. Who won the 2020 election? I think I've answered the question.

So I know the president is expected to again talk about this election in his speech tonight, an election he lost but refuses to acknowledge he lost. But it's, it's 2026. So why the focus on this in the panel? Could the director of national intelligence end up being part of any investigation into the 2020 election?

Yeah, the short answer is yes.

Now, Clayton was asked about Trump's speech that he's going to deliver tonight, and Clayton said he didn't know anything about it because he hasn't been confirmed yet. But the director oversees the collective effort of the intelligence community, all 18 agencies, those with a domestic focus like the FBI, those with a foreign focus like the CIA. So yes, this office could be involved. And Leila, an important reminder, the 2020 election has been investigated repeatedly. No evidence has emerged of any serious irregularities. Irregularities in the casting or counting of votes. And this includes a 2021 report by this very office, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. It said Russia and Iran tried to influence American voters but did not penetrate the actual voting process, and that China also considered an influence operation but ultimately decided against it.

What should we know about Jay Clayton's background? Yeah, he's a lawyer.

He's held a couple of high-powered government jobs. He's currently the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and this handles high-profile legal cases in the Justice Department. And he previously led the Securities and Exchange Commission. Now, Senator Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said he's worked with Clayton in earlier jobs and found him highly professional. But Warner stressed that the law stipulates this job must be filled by someone with extensive experience in the intelligence world.

So is Clayton qualified for this job?

Well, he's never held a job in the intelligence community. Now, he says he's worked extensively with intelligence agencies. For example, his current office is in charge of prosecuting the former leader of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro. So Clayton works with the FBI and others. Now, a couple quick notes: Republicans control the Intelligence Committee and can send Clayton's nomination to the full Senate without any Democratic support, and a committee vote is expected next week. And a reminder, this position opened up after the the recent resignation of Tulsi Gabbard, who often seemed to be just out of step with President Trump.

NPR's Greg Myre, thank you, Greg. Sure thing, Leila.

And that's Up First for Thursday, July 16th. I'm Emil Martinez.

And I'm Leila Fadel. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Anna Yukhaninov, Kelsey Snell, Andrew Sussman, Alice Wolfley, and Mohammed Mordisi. It was produced by Ziad Butch and Mia Dumas. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hynes, and our technical director is Carly Strange. And our deputy executive producer is Kelly Dickens. Join us again tomorrow.

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