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Good morning, it's Thursday, August 6. The Senate moved Todd Blanche one step closer to becoming attorney general — then a leaked recording revealed what he promised religious leaders about abortion behind closed doors.
Also in today's issue: The last Jan. 6 case falls, A father dies in ICE detention, America's missile supply runs low.
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The Deal Behind the Vote
Todd Blanche cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday to become the next attorney general. He got there by making a deal — but a recording from last week suggests the deal was never what it appeared to be.
Here's what you need to know first. On a July 30 phone call with thousands of religious leaders, organized by the White House Faith Office, Blanche said the Justice Department is working "hand in hand" with federal health agencies to make sure the Dobbs ruling — the 2022 Supreme Court decision that ended the national right to abortion — "becomes permanent in every single state." He specifically talked about restricting mail-order abortion medication.
Today, medication abortion accounts for the majority of all abortions in the United States. If Blanche is confirmed and follows through, millions of women could lose access to a legal prescription they currently receive at home — regardless of what their state laws allow. That's not a Washington story. That's a medicine cabinet story.
Now let's talk about the deal that got him here. The committee vote had been stuck for weeks. Several Republican senators worried that Blanche — who served as Donald Trump's personal defense lawyer during his criminal trial — would run the Justice Department as an arm of the White House. To win them over, Blanche formally rescinded the $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund. That fund was created through a settlement between the DOJ and the IRS that effectively shielded Trump from tax audits. Giving it up was supposed to prove Blanche would keep the department independent.
Here's the thing: the recording tells a very different story. Coordinating with health agencies to impose abortion restrictions nationwide is not what independence looks like. It's a preview of a Justice Department that takes its marching orders from the White House — which is exactly what the Republican holdouts said they feared. The recording was posted online by the religious group that hosted the call, then quietly deleted once reporters noticed.
And this is where the math gets tight. Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, announced she'll vote no on the full Senate floor, saying Blanche has eroded the Department's independence. With Senator Mitch McConnell absent and recovering from a fall, Blanche can only lose one more Republican vote. Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana — both undecided — met with Blanche today. Cassidy told reporters he needs to see proof that Blanche is the country's lawyer first and Trump's former defense attorney second. The recording makes that standard much harder to meet.
Watch what comes next. If either Murkowski or Cassidy votes no, the nomination dies and the White House starts over. If both vote yes, Blanche takes charge of a department already under fire for mass pardons of January 6 defendants and dropped federal cases. Either way, the recording changed the terms of this debate. This is no longer about whether Blanche can be independent. His own words, on tape, already answered that question.
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In other news that matters
The last Jan. 6 prosecution is over. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta on Monday dismissed the seditious conspiracy case against Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers militia, and seven other members of the group — ending the final remaining criminal case from the Capitol attack. Mehta, who had sentenced Rhodes to 18 years in prison, wrote that the dismissal diminishes the gravity of that day and excuses acts that caused a pillar of American democracy to buckle. Trump's Justice Department didn't just pardon the defendants — it moved to erase their criminal records entirely. More than 1,000 January 6 defendants have now been pardoned or had charges dropped. The quiet message is plain: storm the Capitol, and the government will eventually pretend it didn't happen.
A father died in immigration detention — and his 12-year-old daughter is now an orphan. Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, a 41-year-old Salvadoran man who had lived in the United States for nearly 20 years, died August 2 after a medical emergency at Delaney Hall, a detention facility in Newark, New Jersey. His family says he was denied medication for diabetes, epilepsy, and high blood pressure during six weeks in custody. His mother, Maria Cornejo, demanded justice at a press conference on Tuesday. A third death at the same facility — previously unreported — was disclosed this week by Representative Rob Menendez, after ICE quietly changed its reporting rules in June to stop counting deaths that happen after a detainee is released. At least 54 people have died in ICE custody since Trump took office, making this the deadliest stretch for immigration detainees in over two decades.
America's missile defense is running thin. The U.S. military has burned through nearly 80% of its THAAD interceptors — high-altitude missiles designed to shoot down incoming ballistic threats — and roughly half its Patriot interceptors since the Iran war began in February, according to CNN. Pre-war stockpiles included an estimated 452 THAAD and 2,200 Patriot missiles. Rebuilding the THAAD supply alone will take three or more years, and the Pentagon currently receives only about 15 new Tomahawk cruise missiles and 20 new Patriot missiles per month. Meanwhile, the average American household has paid $527 in extra fuel costs since the war started, with gas prices still roughly 27% above pre-war levels. The war is quietly draining both the country's defenses and its wallets — with no timeline for either to recover.
P.S. Does the recording disqualify Blanche? Hit Reply — one word is enough.
