{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.welch.senate.gov/welch-opposes-todd-blanches-nomination-for-attorney-general/", "Welch Opposes Todd Blanche\u2019s Nomination for Attorney General", "2026-08-04", "2026", "2026-08", "Democrat", "Senate", "VT", "Peter Welch", "W000800", "www.welch.senate.gov", "welch", "https://www.welch.senate.gov/category/press-release/page/", "scraper", "\u201cWe can stop capitulating today by doing our job and rejecting a completely unqualified man to be the top law enforcement official in this country.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today voted against advancing Todd Blanche\u2019s nomination for Attorney General (AG) of the United States. At a Judiciary Committee meeting ahead of the vote Senator Welch called out Acting AG Blanche\u2014and the entire U.S. Senate\u2014for capitulating to President Trump, who has consistently and corruptly abused his authority and the power of the Executive.\n\n\u201cThis is a story about how a young and talented and idealistic man\u2014committed to public service, a prosecutor\u2019s prosecutor\u2014became a new person in service of a corrupt president. It\u2019s a story of ambition, and loyalty, and political calculation eroding resistance and idealism. Mr. Blanche has used his considerable talents to accommodate the corrupt goals of a corrupt president\u2026But Blanche is also a story about how a once great institution is relinquishing its own power and capitulating to a corrupt president. Is there no line that the U.S. Senate will not allow this president to cross?\u201d said Senator Welch.\n\nWelch concluded: \u201cThe president is abusing his authority. But we are failing, as the U.S. Senate, to use our authority. When we fail to use our authority, we fail to meet our responsibility to the people of this country. We can stop capitulating today by doing our job and rejecting a completely unqualified man to be the top law enforcement official in this country. I will vote no.\u201d\n\nRead the Senator\u2019s full remarks as delivered here and watch more below:\n\nIn Acting AG Todd Blanche\u2019s nomination hearing, Senator Welch grilled Mr. Blanche on his relationship with President Trump and his willingness to put his personal loyalty to the president ahead of the American people. Senator Welch questioned Mr. Blanche on his previous professional relationship with President Trump and clear conflicts of interest, the creation of Trump and Blanche\u2019s so-called anti-weaponization fund, Trump\u2019s reckless presidential pardons, and Blanche\u2019s firing of career pardon attorneys, and the Trump Administration\u2019s attempts to subpoena members of the press.\n\nIn May, Senator Welch called on Acting AG Blanche to resign. He also led all Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats in demanding that the DOJ Inspector General (IG) launch an immediate, thorough, and quick investigation into President Trump\u2019s creation of the nearly $1.8 billion \u201cAnti-Weaponization Fund,\u201d emphasizing how President Trump\u2019s slush fund, created from a settlement agreement in Trump v. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), represents waste, fraud, and abuse of an unprecedented magnitude and must be subjected to independent scrutiny.\n\n###", 1, "2026-08-05T07:37:37Z", "2026-08-05T07:38:44Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.welch.senate.gov/welch-opposes-todd-blanches-nomination-for-attorney-general/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5514488331973553, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}