Senator Schmitt Praises Acting AG Blanche’s Crackdown on Crime and Support for Rule of Law, Calls for Swift Confirmation

U.S. SENATE — Today, at the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for Todd Blanche to be U.S. Attorney General, U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO) praised the Acting Attorney General and the Trump Administration for working to crack down on violent crime, eliminate fraud, and uphold the rule of law. Following the Biden Administration’s unprecedented persecution of its political opponents and failure to prosecute criminals, Senator Schmitt emphasized how Blanche and the Trump Administration are restoring the Department of Justice (DOJ) to its proper mission and upholding America’s constitutional framework. Watch the Senator’s questioning HERE . “These calls to defund ICE, this hammer-and-sickle wave that came through New York a few weeks ago [and] that’s now dominating the discussion on the other side of the aisle. The central plank, of course, is ‘defund the police,’ overthrowing Western civilization. This is not your grandfather’s Democrat Party… It’s all meant to undermine and demoralize. I saw it in my time as Attorney General in Missouri where we had a Soros-funded prosecutor who refused to prosecute crime, and police officers—many retired early, fewer came into the ranks to protect and serve… you’re helping, I think, restore that with your focus on violent crime [and] your focus on fraud… “I heard one of my colleagues say that this is the most troubled Department of Justice in history. I happened to live through the previous administration, where you had a Department of Justice completely weaponized against political opponents. They tried to throw their chief political opponent in jail. Ruin his family’s lives. You were his lawyer to see some of that, and I was in a court room in New York to see some of that… Aimed against Catholics in this country who happened to attend a traditional Catholic Latin mass. Went after parents—under the Patriot Act—for showing up to school board meetings to object to Critical Race Theory or the masking of their kids… “So, this weaponization, let’s draw a distinction. When you go after your political opponents: that’s weaponization. When you hold people accountable, who weaponized the justice system, that’s not the same thing.” In Senator Schmitt’s line of questioning, he highlighted how—in just 100 days—Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has made significant strides to tackle endemic fraud. Senator Schmitt described how under Blanche’s leadership, the DOJ has taken actions like establishing the National Fraud Enforcement Division and carrying out the largest takedown of health care fraudsters in the Department’s history. Senator Schmitt also praised Blanche’s efforts to clear out the backlog of immigration cases that piled up under the Biden Administration, facilitating deportations of illegal aliens, as well as historic levels of denaturalization cases. During his questioning, Blanche committed to ensuring law enforcement and DOJ use all available resources to deport criminal illegal aliens and combat disastrous sanctuary policies; investigate illegal practices the left uses to improperly sway elections; litigate against racial gerrymandering; and protect free speech from Big Tech censorship regimes. Watch the Senator’s line of questioning HERE . ###