Bulwark Takes - Todd Blanche Thinks You’re Dumb Enough to Believe This

Episode Date: May 21, 2026

Will Saletan gives his take on Todd Blanche’s embarrassing performance as Donald Trump’s acting Attorney General, and why his public defenses of the administration keep collapsing under scrutiny. From reviving debunked 2020 election claims to arguing that indictments themselves are proof of guilt, except when it comes to Trump, Blanche repeatedly finds himself trying to justify glaring double standards in real time. Will walks through Blanche’s interviews, the James Comey indictment, Trump’s public pressure on DOJ leadership, and how the Justice Department is shaped by loyalty to Trump rather than consistent legal principles.Get 20% off your first order, plus free shipping during the Memorial Day Sale at https://www.bollandbranch.com/bulwarktakes with code bulwarktakes.

Hey, it's Will Salatin from The Bullwork. So what do you think is the most degrading job in Washington? I mean, it's a long list, but the answer might be Donald Trump's Attorney General. So right now, Trump has an acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche. And Blanche is trying really, really hard to get the job full time. And to get it, he's willing to absolutely humiliate himself. So today, I'm going to show you Todd Blanche debasing himself to do whatever Trump tells him to do. So let's start with the 2020 election.

You might recall that during that election, Trump had an attorney general, Bill Barr. And Barr investigated Trump's allegations that the election was stolen. And here's what Barr found. As I made it clear, I did not agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen. putting out this stuff, which I told the president was bullshit. Bullshit. That was Trump's attorney general saying, I looked into this and it's bullshit. But now, six years later, Blanche is trying to get the job that Bill Barr had.

So he's reinvestigating the 2020 election. And on Sunday, Maria Bartaromo asked Blanche what he's found. Now, the president says all the time that the election was rigged. What have you done about that? Do you have any evidence that the election was rigged? What can you tell us? Well, there's a ton of evidence that the election was rigged. That's not something the DOJ needs to tell you about.

There's been evidence about that for many, many years. What I can tell you is that we have multiple investigations going on in Arizona, in Georgia, in Fulton County, Georgia. Oh, there's a ton of evidence. Oh, yeah. We've been looking at Georgia. We've been looking at Arizona. We got lots and lots of proof.

Okay, so where is it? I mean, it's six years later. Why can't you show us the evidence that the Democrats stole the election? By the way, this is very difficult because they're very good. They're very good at hiding up misconduct and hiding what they're doing. Oh, so the reason he can't show us. The evidence is it's all been hidden, right? And the fact that he can't show us the evidence is more proof that the election was stolen

and then covered up. Right. And in that same interview, Bartramo asked Blanche for an update on another investigation about, you know, the giant conspiracy to make it look like Trump has some weird thing for Vladimir Putin, which he obviously does. I'd like to know why it's taking so long. We're finding out some incredibly troubling things. And at some point at the right time, that will be made public. And the American people will see exactly what happened. Ooh, we're finding some incredibly troubling things. At the right time, at the right time, it will all be made public. Sure. But on one thing, Blanche actually has produced an indictment. Three weeks ago, he got an indictment of James Comey, the former FBI director,

for posting this image on social media. It's actually an overhead view of seashells on a beach. And you can see, they see. spell out 8647. And here's what Blanche said about that picture. Threatening the life of the President of the United States will never be tolerated by the Department of Justice. Wow. So Blanche says those numbers, 8647, are a criminal threat to kill the president. That's odd because apparently, Apparently, if you write 8646, which would be a reference to the former president, Joe Biden, that's not a criminal threat to kill the president. Let's do a compare and contrast, Mr. Blanch. In 2022, someone well known in right-wing circles,

Jack Piscobic posted on X, 86-46. He did not take it down. He did not apologize. Mr. Comey has done both of those things. The Biden Justice Department never prosecuted him. By the standard of that grand jury, Jack Piscobic should face charges as well. Will the Justice Department pursue that case? Because they sound very similar. Good question. So how did this? How did Blanche answer it. You cannot compare, well, what happened last time, what happened this time. Every investigation is different. You know that. The American people know that. Oh, yeah. Every investigation is different. I mean, it's not at all about treating Trump

differently from Biden, right? And Blanche says the seashells are just, they're just part of the investigation. He says, oh, he has a lot more evidence against Comey. How does that image of seashells amount to a series? threat against the president's life. Well, every case requires an investigation. And what you just showed is one part of that investigation. What you just showed is the Instagram post. Rest assured that the career assistant United States

attorneys in North Carolina, the career FBI agents, the career secret service agents that investigated this case, didn't just look at the Instagram post to walk away. Okay, so it sounds like he's found more evidence, right? So what is it? I am not permitted. to get into the details of what the grand jury heard or found, as you know. But rest assured that it's not just the Instagram post that leads somebody to get indicted.

Oh, so he's not permitted to get into the details. You know, that's weird because remember the guy who tried to attack the White House correspondence dinner? I could swear, I could swear that within like 12 hours of that incident, Blanche was like all over TV telling us lots of details about that evidence. We believe that he traveled by train from Los Angeles to Chicago and then from Chicago to Washington, D.C. We're still looking into what happened, how he got the guns, if he got them legally. But what we do know is that he tried to use them. He did have two firearms and some knives on his person when he tried to use them.

That was 12 hours after the end. incident. Blanche was, he was telling us everything. But now, in the Comey case, I mean, it's been 12 months since that picture of the Seashells. And Blanche has absolutely nothing to show for it. Okay. Instead, he's claiming that since all that time has passed, just the time itself. That must mean that the investigators have more evidence against Comey. And it should be evident by the fact that it's been 11 months since the posting and the indictment, there is an investigation that takes place. And that's the result.

The result of that investigation is the indictment that was returned last week. In fact, he claims that the fact that Comey got indicted is itself proof. It's proof that Comey is guilty. Do you have proof that the former FBI director knowingly and willfully threatened the life of the president? A grand jury indicted Mr. Coleman yesterday. Grand juries hear evidence. That evidence is not something that anybody can talk about today. But when you talk about whether proof exists,

the proof that we have is in the fact that the grand jury returned an indictment. Wait a minute. The acting attorney general of the United States says an indictment is proof of guilt. That is instantly disqualifying. Look, you don't even have to go to law. school. If you've ever watched even like a TV show about a crime, you know that what he's saying is completely whacked. And let me show you the indictment of Comey. Here it is. All it says is that Comey posted a picture of seashells in the shape of 8647. That's it. That's the whole thing.

It's two pages. There's no other evidence presented. Okay. So if Blanche has nothing to show us against Comey, then why did Comey get indicted? Well, here's an obvious answer. Trump fired. He fired the previous Attorney General Pam Bondi for not moving fast enough to indict Comey. And a couple of weeks ago, Kristen Welker on Meet the Press, asked Blanche about what Trump did to Bondi. Back on September 20th, President Trump publicly posted a private message to then Attorney General, Ham Bondi, pressuring her to prosecute Senator Adam Schiff, James Comey, and Letitia James,

writing, quote, they're all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done. They impeached me twice. They indicted me five times over nothing. Justice must be served now. Why should the public believe that any case brought against the individuals listed there is an independent law enforcement decision and not retribution? Well, because you have investigations and you have indictments. Oh, so the president tells the attorney general to indict Comey, and the attorney general gets an indictment of Comey, and that proves the indictment is honest? I mean, can you imagine going on TV and saying that? And then Blanche said this.

Do you think, or do the American people think that nothing was done on those cases until President Trump posted that truth in September? Now, these are ongoing investigations. Investigations take time. Dude, can we put that message from Trump back on the screen? Look at that. He literally wrote, no action. Nothing is being done. Okay, and then Blanche goes on TV and says, word for word,

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Bull and Branch.com slash Bulwark Takes with code Bullwark Takes. That's Bolandbranch, B-O-L-L-L-A-N-D, B-R-A-N-C-H dot com slash bulwark takes, code bulwark-takes to get 20% off Bolandbranch.com slash bulwark takes, code Bullwark takes. Exclusions do apply. But wait, wait, it gets better. Blanche says, if Trump does tell him to investigate somebody, he'll do it. He'll do it just because the president told him to do it. If the president comes to you and says, hey, I think you should look into X, Y, and Z person,

do you see it as your role to do that? Of course. That's exactly how cases are made. Cases are made by individuals, by organizations, identifying people that they think are committing crimes. The fact that president does it publicly and doesn't do it in secret shouldn't frustrate people. He's telling you exactly what he thinks. Okay, so Blanche did exactly what Trump wanted. He got an indictment of Comey on this ridiculous charge. That was April 28th. And then three days later, three days on May 1st, Trump said this. By the way, and our attorney general is doing a very

good job, isn't he? Todd Blanche. She's done a very good job. A lot of action. There's a lot of pent-up action. A lot of action, says Trump. Remember, Trump's message to Bondi complained that there was no action against Comey. So, he fires Bondi and he appoints Blanche. And Blanche announces an indictment of Comey. And Trump says, good job, a lot of action. Look, what happened here is totally obvious. Blanche is prosecuting people at Trump's personal direction. And then he's claiming that if he gets an indictment against those people, that means they're guilty. But, but if Trump gets indicted, Blanche says that's not proof that Trump is guilty. Oh, no, no.

If Trump gets indicted, what that proves, according to Blanche, is that the Justice Department was weaponized against Trump. When you saw a weaponization of this department, the likes of which had never been seen in history. And some of you are looking down now. And I get it because you had a president who was indicted four times by this department. You had a president who along with this department had assistance. So this department helped two other local DAs go after the president. He's right. Trump was indicted four times.

And those indictments of Trump, they weren't empty and two pages long like that indictment of Comey. The Trump indictments were jam-packed with evidence. And Blanche stands there and tells you that the fully documented indictments of Trump were weaponization. Now, why would he do that? Why would Blanche try to sell you this obvious double standard to protect Trump? The answer is simple. He was literally. Blanche was literally Donald Trump's lawyer. That's how he got to be the acting attorney general.

I mean, don't take it from me. Listen to what Trump said about him just last week. We have a man who's doing a great job, I'll tell you. I knew it because he kept me out of jail for years. Acting Attorney General Tard Blanche, he kept me out of jail. They would indict me left and right. He kept me out of jail. I mean, Trump just says it out loud.

Blanche worked for Trump to fight off indictments and keep him out of jail. And now Blanche is still working for Trump, but now his job is to deliver indictments against Trump's enemies. And he's not just keeping Trump out of jail. On Tuesday, Blanche signed an agreement that authorizes, get this, a $1.8 billion fund paid for it by you, the taxpayer to compensate people who claim, like Trump, that the Justice Department was weaponized against them. Okay, that includes people like the guys who beat up cops on January 6th. And the money in that fund will be administered by a commission of five people, five people. Guess who appoints four of those five people?

Todd Blanche. So at a hearing on Tuesday, Blanche was asked whether that money will go to people who attacked cops on January 6th. And here's what he said. Will you agree to encourage those commissioners to set a guideline that compensation will not go to individuals who are convicted of assaulting police officers? I expect... I just a yes would answer my question or no. A yes, we'll not answer that question. I mean, you're asking whether I will encourage...

I don't think that's a fair word. I don't think it's the Attorney General's job to encourage commissioners to do or not do anything. You heard him, the January 6th felons are eligible for the fund. And he's not going to tell the commissioners to block them. Your tax dollars are going to pay people who beat up cops to help Donald Trump overthrow an election. But please, please, don't ever suggest that Blanche is doing all of this to serve Trump.

Watch what happened. at that hearing when Senator Chris Van Hollen asked Blanche about this whole corrupt arrangement. So you're not going to, you're not going to submit this proposal to any federal judge or independent. There is no judge. Any independent authority? An independent, what does that mean, an independent authority?

What does that mean? It means not somebody who's getting to pick five of the members, who is the president's former personal attorney. That would be somebody who would be independent. I'm the acting attorney general, okay? The fact that I used to be President Trump's lawyer is just a fact, but I'm the acting attorney general. So don't say the president's former personal lawyer will do something.

The acting attorney general will do something. Mr. Attorney General, you are acting today like the president's personal attorney. And that's the whole problem. Exactly. Look, what happened here is real simple. Donald Trump is a criminal. He was indicted and convicted in 2024 because he's a criminal. And Todd Blanche was his lawyer.

So the criminal became president. and he put his lawyer in charge of the Justice Department to prosecute Trump's enemies and pay off Trump's criminal allies. And that's why, when Blanche goes on TV and pretends that all of this is totally legit, he sounds like such an idiot. See you next time.