US attorney general Todd Blanche on Sunday declined to assure that the federal justice department he helms would always act independently of the White House and Donald Trump.
“No, I’m not going to pledge that,” he said when asked about the topic by NBC’s Meet the Press host, Kristen Welker. “And no attorney general should ever pledge that.”
Blanche also claimed Trump would never ask him to do something that crosses an ethical or legal line – after the president dismissed his predecessor, Pam Bondi, having become frustrated over insufficient action from the justice department against Trump’s political foes.
These can be interpreted as contradictory statements. And they’re the same branch. That’s the point.
Yes obviously thus situation is improper in many ways, but I was speaking to the specific statement.
Sure, if you never worked at a large structure. They are professionals who talk. They are not intimate nor buddy-buddy with each other.
The same way Congress has various agencies it delegates powers to, yes. You are very technically correct.
Like those agencies, the DOJ is a non-partisan part of the otherwise partisan executive branch whose job is to represent the US in its court cases. It is not the president’s personal law firm.
I’m speaking generally. Becsuse this specific situation is so sleazy and utterly corrupt that it’s barely even worth analysis. But for those who don’t know: no, this is not normal, business as usual.