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Attorney General Blanche Campaigns for GOP Candidates
Developing
In Short: Attorney General Blanche, who was confirmed by the Senate, has broken a long-standing tradition by campaigning for Republican candidates, including former RNC head Michael Whatley, who is running for Senate in North Carolina.
Attorney General Blanche, who was confirmed by the Senate, has broken a long-standing tradition by campaigning for Republican candidates, including former RNC head Michael Whatley, who is running for Senate in North Carolina.
Blanche’s campaign efforts for Whatley come as Whatley trails Democratic candidate Roy Cooper in polls.
In recent weeks, Blanche has not only given a White House press briefing but also actively campaigned for GOP candidates, a move that has drawn significant attention.
The norm of the attorney general remaining apolitical dates back to the 1970s, when Nixon’s first attorney general, John Mitchell, was involved in both political campaigns and the Watergate scandal.
The current political climate has seen a shift in norms, with Blanche’s actions reminiscent of the controversy surrounding Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s airport meeting with Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election.
Republican candidates are facing challenges in states and districts that typically vote Republican, with polls showing them underperforming.
President Trump is expected to use a midterm convention to energize the party and boost GOP turnout, potentially helping Republicans hold the Senate and minimize losses in the House.
What this adds
The attorney general’s political campaigning has become a focal point for furthest-right activists, with at least $15,000 donated to Blanche’s campaign.
GOP candidates are increasingly using anti-Muslim rhetoric in their campaigns, a trend documented by the Center for the Study of Organized Hate.
Background
GOP candidates are increasingly using anti-Muslim rhetoric in their campaigns, according to reports. This shift includes blanket calls for deportation and specific calls for stripping citizenship from Muslim Americans, as documented by the Center for the Study of Organized Hate.
What's still developing
- When Sen. Bill Cassidy’s (R-LA) voted to confirm Blanche, he asserted that if Blanche wasn’t the Senate-confirmed attorney general, Trump would likely go find an acting attorney general who was worse.
- Marshall Rawson’s candidacy, we found, had seemingly become a kind of cause célèbre among the furthest-right activists in American politics, who donated at least $15,000 to his campaign.
- Blanche, since winning Senate confirmation, has set about fully demolishing yet another norm: that the attorney general stay out of politics.
- Blanche’s political campaigning pales in importance compared with the department’s aggressive prosecution of the president’s enemies — from random protesters and social media shit-stirrers to former FBI directors.
- Remember the freakout that ensued when Bill Clinton and Obama attorney general Loretta Lynch chatted for 30 minutes on an airport tarmac while Hillary Clinton was under investigation?
- While nearly 50,000 more people voted in the Democratic primary than in the Republican contest, the short general election sprint begins as a close race.