‘Sh*tshow’: Todd Blanche’s Meeting With Senate Republicans Did Not Go Well

LEFT: John Thune (AP Photo/Tom Brenner) RIGHT: Todd Blanche (Photo by Lev Radin/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)

Capitol Hill reporters all agree: Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s meeting with Senate Republicans on Thursday did not go well.

Blanche sat down with the GOP caucus in the upper chamber to discuss the nearly $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” his Department of Justice will operate as part of a settlement President Donald Trump reached with the IRS. The cash will be doled out to those whom commissioners, appointed by Blanche, deem victims of unfair treatment by the government.

The settlement also shields Trump, his family, and the Trump Organization from further action by the IRS.

A number of Republican lawmakers have expressed concern over the agreement writ large and the fund in particular, as administration officials refuse to promise that the cash will be withheld from violent rioters who assaulted law enforcement officers on January 6.

And it doesn’t sound like Blanche assuaged their concerns on Thursday.

“Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is facing stiff resistance over the $1.8 billlion [fund] [sic] in tense Senate GOP meeting, I’m told,” tweeted CNN’s Manu Raju early on Thursday afternoon. “Rs also warn that a major immigration enforcement/reconcilation [sic] bill they want to pass could be derailed with the issue hovering.”

Just asked John Thune if the $1.8B fund should be eliminated. He said: ‘I don’t have anything for you.’ He didn’t answer as he entered his office if the reconciliation bill will pass Senate this week,” added Raju. “Am told most senators voiced opposition to the fund — hardly any came to its defense. Lot of unhappy Rs about the $1.8B fund.”

“Senate GOP meeting with Blanche appears to not be going well. Multiple GOP sources wondering if they may pull the reconciliation bill,” observed Fox News’ Chad Pergram.

Semafor’s Burgess Everett reported that “Sen. [Thom] Tillis confronted Acting AG Blanche about the weaponization fund at the Senate GOP meeting today,” and that the meeting as a whole was “being described as a ‘sh*tshow’ per people familiar with it.”

Punchbowl News’ Andrew Desiderio painted a particularly vivid picture of the sit-down:

Nearly 2-hour meeting with Acting AG Todd Blanche and Senate Republicans was incredibly hostile, per multiple attendees.

As many as 25 GOP senators spoke (this is very rare for these meetings), all in opposition to weaponization fund.

R’s pitched specific ideas such as dictating how the 5 commissioners are chosen & not allowing people convicted of violence against cops to be eligible for a payout.

GOP senators tell me they have no official guidance yet (Thune didn’t provide any during the Blanche mtg) but many of them believe they will be sent home for the recess because of how much time it will take to get agreed-upon language *and* have it scrubbed by the parliamentarian

According to Desiderio, one GOP senator texted him, “Our majority is melting down before our eyes.”

“Many R’s believe Trump has brought this upon himself — creating more ‘free agents’ out of a selfish desire to purge R’s not seen as loyal enough,” observed the reporter.

Senators’ post-meeting comments, meanwhile, proved terse:

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