Attorney General Todd Blanche dismissed criticism that he is mixing official business with electoral politics after a Justice Department event in South Carolina with Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC).
“This is not my first trip here,” Blanche told reporters on Thursday. “I missed you last time, I’m sorry.”
Blanche, who was President Donald Trump’s personal attorney before being confirmed as deputy attorney general last March and then attorney general this August after Pam Bondi was pushed out in April, added that he travels “every single week saying exactly the same thing I said today.”
“It has nothing to do with the fact that it’s October,” he said. “It’s what President Trump ran on, what we’re talking about today. He ran on making streets safer. He ran on putting bad guys in jail. He ran on making America safe again.”
Blanche was in North Charleston, South Carolina, on Thursday for a roundtable on how the administration is countering violent crime with U.S. Attorney Bryan Stirling and Graham, who is in a closer-than-expected race with Democratic Senate nominee Annie Andrews to replace her late brother, Lindsey Graham, permanently.
In an effort to distance himself from the appearance of politicizing the office, Blanche told reporters he didn’t know why he was in Charleston “as opposed to other cities.”
Darline Graham is 2 percentage points ahead of Andrews, according to a RealClearPolitics polling aggregation. Her brother won reelection in 2020 by 10 points.
“I was in San Francisco yesterday,” Blanche went on. “I’m traveling tomorrow. So this has nothing to do with the time of the year. But anytime any anybody asks me, and I was asked this question last week, if a Democrat asks me to come speak to their cops about how great it is that crime is down in their city, if it happens to be down, I will be there.”
He continued, “I don’t know when my team planned this trip, but it’s something that is very important to Sen. Graham, and it’s something that’s very important to the congressman and obviously to our U.S. attorney. And so this is what the community should want, right?… You want us here, being responsive, being accountable, and you heard some tough, tough talk in there. We had a victim’s father basically say that we failed, that we failed him. That’s not, that’s not fun. I’m not here for fun, but it is something that I think that everybody in South Carolina should want from their leaders.”
VANCE ACCUSES MICROSOFT OF FRAUD AS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION CLAMPS DOWN ON H-1B VISA ABUSE
Blanche has appeared at several political events during his time as attorney general, including his address to last month’s Republican midterm convention in Dallas.
“To evil men and women in this country, know this: President Trump will hold you accountable,” he said.
Continue reading...
[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
