Is Trump building his own 'deep state' with picks for AG & intelligence?

[0:00] We need to talk about Donald Trump's Justice Department. [0:03] Trump's former personal attorney, Todd Blanche, [0:05] is currently running the department in an acting capacity. [0:09] But now Trump wants to fully appoint him as Attorney General. [0:12] Blanche took the job from Pam Bondi after Trump fired her, [0:16] it seemed, for not putting enough of his political enemies on trial. [0:20] Since taking over, Blanche has managed to get an indictment of James Comey [0:23] in the infamous Seashells on the Beach case, [0:26] moved to undo the final convictions from January 6th, [0:29] rolled back gun regulations, [0:32] pursued investigations into Trump's unsupported claims of election fraud, [0:36] and accused the Biden administration of weaponizing the justice system against conservatives. [0:41] This week, Blanche made headlines for actually backing down [0:45] on Trump's so-called anti-weaponization fund, worth $1.776 billion, [0:50] saying in word, but not in official writing, that the fund would not be happening. [0:55] But Trump might not be on the same page, it seems. [0:57] Yesterday, the president said he wasn't sure whether it was dead or on hold, [1:02] and added that he loved the fund. [1:04] Today, Democrats in the Senate tried to officially block the fund from happening, [1:08] but Republicans voted that down. [1:10] Meanwhile, the DOJ has reached a plea deal with one of Trump's officials from his first term. [1:14] Former National Security Advisor John Bolton has agreed to plead guilty to one count of retaining [1:19] classified information. [1:21] That's according to two people familiar with the matter. [1:23] The deal would include up to 60 months in jail and a fine of more than $2 million. [1:30] With that, I'm going to bring in our lead-off panel, Peter Baker, [1:34] Chief White House Correspondent for The New York Times, [1:37] David Drucker, Senior Writer at The Dispatch, [1:39] and former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, who spent 25 years as a federal prosecutor. [1:44] Great to see all of you tonight. [1:46] Joyce, based on what we've seen so far from Blanche, [1:50] what would you expect from him and this Justice Department if he is, in fact, [1:54] confirmed for the long term? [1:57] Well, there's no way to sugarcoat it, Antonia. [2:00] This is someone who's fully willing to carry out the president's agenda. [2:05] And when you think about it, the difference between this administration and the first Trump [2:10] administration is that Jeff Sessions, as attorney general, was surrounded by people who [2:15] insisted that he adhere to some of the norms. [2:18] His deputy attorney general did that. In this case, when Todd Blanche was the deputy attorney [2:24] general, he did not insist that Pam Bondi adhere to norms. Instead, he fully enabled the corruption [2:31] of the Justice Department. There's no reason to expect anything other than more of the same. [2:38] Peter, I want to get your thoughts on how Blanche may maneuver with what may be left of the idea of [2:45] this fund at this point. He's said that it's not happening, but would not put that officially in [2:50] writing, as Democrats had requested. Then, of course, Trump is continuing to flirt with this. [2:54] And then we also know, just from the reporting that's been building for months, that they have [2:58] been looking at routes to give restitution of some kind to January Sixers and others who feel that [3:05] they were wronged by the Biden administration in the past. So what are you watching for? And what do you [3:10] think are the likely sort of creative routes Blanche and others may go in order to get money into the [3:16] hands of some of these people who were set to benefit from that $1.776 billion fund? [3:21] Yeah, I think one thing we've learned in two Trump terms is that things that are dead are not really [3:26] dead just because they're in the coffin. You know, he has ways of coming back to things that we [3:31] thought he backed off on. Remember, he tried to get Greenland in the first term, then didn't get [3:36] anywhere. Suddenly, he comes back in the second term. When he doesn't get anywhere in the second [3:39] term, he comes back later in the second term. And I think that we can understand why there would be [3:44] some hesitation to accept an oral commitment that this is dead without something in writing [3:51] making that very clear. Now, there are courts that are involved in this, one here in the local [3:57] area of Washington, one down in Florida. And Joyce knows this better than I do. And it's possible [4:01] one of them may require something in writing that will clarify the future and commitments that [4:07] they're making here. But in the meantime, it's not surprising that lawmakers would be dubious. [4:11] He has, in fact, as you say, been trying to find ways to get money to these, you know, [4:16] allies of his who believe that they were mistreated in some way. He pardoned every single one of the [4:22] people who stormed the Capitol or gave them clemency. And I think that every time an aide said, [4:28] no, he won't do that, he went ahead and did that. Remember, before that pardon, there were people [4:32] up to all the way up to J.D. Vance, the vice president coming in of the United States saying, [4:36] oh, no, he won't actually pardon the people who were the most violent people. He might pardon the [4:41] people who are nonviolent. And it turns out they were wrong. So this is why people don't trust people [4:45] around Trump to be able to speak for him unless there's something in writing. [4:50] David, we have Bill Pulte here, too. And it seems like Republicans have, [4:54] or the Trump administration, the White House, they've accepted that he probably would not be able [4:58] to get through the confirmation process. But he's still going to have months ahead as, [5:03] you know, basically the acting lead, head of 18 different intelligence agencies. [5:10] And Trump had some interesting remarks that I think gave us a hint of what's to come. I want you to [5:14] take a listen. He's not going to be permanent because, you know, I don't think he'd want to [5:20] be permanent. But he's a very smart guy. And you may find out some things about the rigged [5:25] elections, et cetera, et cetera. David, what's he telling us is coming there? [5:33] Yeah, I think what he's telling us is that he's going to keep Bill Pulte in that position for as [5:37] long as he finds tenable, that he likes the idea of having somebody in there that's going to do what [5:42] he wants them to do with the position. And let's not forget, you know, ODNI, on the one hand, [5:47] a lot of Republican intelligent talks believe that the position has outlived its usefulness, [5:52] created in the aftermath of 9-11. It's a coordinated and management position. And both [5:59] Tulsi Gabbard and now Bill Pulte are going to use it, you know, at the behest of the president to go [6:03] look for things that, A, aren't there, and B, aren't really the purpose of the position. But I think [6:09] that Trump would be perfectly happy to have him confirmed as the permanent ODNI if not for the fact [6:16] that you're not going to get enough support from Senate Republicans to do it. [6:20] Joyce, I want you to expand on what's at stake here with someone like Bill Pulte leading 18 [6:29] different intelligence agencies, no background in intelligence whatsoever, a person who has [6:36] already used the housing agency that he is still going to be running while he takes on this other [6:39] massive job to try to settle the president's scores. You know, so much of the score-settling story in [6:46] this administration is focused just on the DOJ and FBI, and often rightfully so. But what does it [6:51] tell you to see that those kinds of patterns of behavior, those focuses, brought into a space [6:56] as important as the intelligence apparatus in this country? [6:58] Well, Bill Pulte has been phenomenally successful at the only thing that matters for someone who wants [7:06] a job in this administration. And that's demonstrating loyalty to Donald Trump and executing [7:13] his revenge agenda. Because it's Pulte who goes into the mortgage records with the access that he has [7:20] at Fannie and Freddie and comes out with this information that ultimately leads to the indictment [7:26] of Letitia James, the now dismissed indictment, and gives Trump the rationale to fire Lisa Cook, [7:33] the first Black woman to become a governor at the Fed. I mean, this is what Bill Pulte is good at. [7:39] Now, imagine what that looks like in the intelligence community with access to the IC's level of [7:46] information. You know, where this all comes to a head is with the FISA statute needing to be re-upped. [7:53] FISA is self-limiting. Congress has to reapprove it every set number of years. And there are legitimate [8:00] concerns that Section 702, which allows collection of intelligence from foreign terrorism targets, [8:08] and sometimes involves incidental collection of information about Americans who have telephonic [8:15] or email communications with these folks, that that sort of information is something that Pulte [8:21] would be able to take a look at. So this comment that Trump makes publicly today, the sort of quiet [8:29] part out loud, where he talks about finding evidence of rigged elections, I think that's not even the worst [8:36] of it. The worst of it is forward-looking and what they might gin up together to further damage the [8:42] process in the upcoming midterms and in 2028 with Pulte in this particular position. [8:50] Peter, why at a time when there are so many legitimate crises ahead of the American people, [8:57] first chief among them, of course, just the financial pressure that so many Americans are feeling, [9:01] now we have this news of the screw worm potentially causing immense havoc and devastation for ranchers [9:10] in Texas and elsewhere, beef prices potentially to rise at a time when they're already expensive and [9:16] cattle's at historic lows here. I mean, there are real problems for this president to focus on to [9:21] bring new ideas and people into the fold and put them to task. [9:26] But why are these political projects still at a time when his polling is the way that it is, [9:32] people are basically screaming from the rooftops about what it is that they need and they're angry [9:37] about, that this still seems to be what he wakes up every day, whether, I guess, maybe it's the [9:42] ballroom. But then number two is, it is the score settling, it is the personal projects, and it's kind of [9:47] warping the bureaucracy in ways that don't seem to serve your average American. [9:52] NICK SCHIFRIN- Yeah, I'm reminded that Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, told Chris Whipple [9:57] in Vanity Fair last year that she had had an agreement with President Trump that, after the [10:01] first 90 days, the score settling would be over, you know, get it out of the way and then move on [10:05] to things that the American public cares about. Well, obviously, it's been a lot longer than 90 days. [10:10] And I think that what you see here is that the priority he has is his, you know, his anger and [10:16] grievance over the way he feels like he was mistreated, his desire to take revenge against those he believes [10:22] were his tormentors, and his desire to, you know, put his name on history, in effect. And by putting [10:27] his name on buildings and on the currency and on, you know, national park tickets and so on and so [10:33] forth, these monuments and arches and so forth, it's his way of achieving a sort of immortality, [10:39] right? Lately, he's talked about, you know, whether he might even go to heaven. Clearly, as a man who, [10:45] just a couple of weeks, less than two weeks, turns 80 years old, like a lot of people at that stage in [10:50] life, he seems to be thinking about what he will be remembered for. And one thing he seems determined [10:55] to do is to leave his mark on the city of Washington in a way that he is remembered for a long time to [11:02] come.