Peter Welch

Mr. President, Positioning · 58 wordsI listened to the presentation by my colleague from Maryland and agree with everything he said. And the heart of the question is whether the person who has been nominated to serve as Attorney General will serve the people of the United States or will he serve the President to whom he has indicated blind, complete, servile loyalty?Positioning Claims · 80 wordsAnd the recitation of facts about what Mr. Blanche has done in this incredibly important job as Acting Attorney General has made clear what his client is, who that client is. There is no place at the top of the Justice Department for a person who pledges personal loyalty to anyone other than the American people. But, you know, the reality here is, the President won’t appoint anybody to the Attorney General’s position who won’t act as his personal attorney.Unearned certainty Procedure · 16 wordsAnd there is a sadness that I have about this whole story that is before us.Procedure Anecdote · 40 wordsIt is the story of a person who when he was a young man, a young attorney, Todd Blanche was extraordinarily talented, was very idealistic, was a prosecutor’s prosecutor, and who did abide by and uphold the rule of law.Anecdote Claims · 67 wordsHe became a new person in service of a President that I believe is corrupt. Two billion dollars of income to the President of the United States in his first year raises more than a mild question.¹ And this person now to be Attorney General, in his Acting Attorney General role, essentially provided tax immunity to the President and to all of his children, family, ²and affiliates. Positioning · 4 wordsIt is totally outrageous.Positioning Procedure · 16 wordsWhen you say it, you can’t even believe the words are coming out of your mouth.Procedure Claims · 4 wordsIt is absolutely unprecedented. Positioning · 13 wordsIt has nothing to do with the way public business should be conducted.Positioning Claims · 36 wordsBut Mr. Blanche, who has considerable talents, has used those talents to enable and to facilitate and to cover up and to revise and accommodate the corrupt goals of a President who, I believe, is corrupt. Procedure · 4 wordsAnd, by the way, ProcedureClaims · 26 wordsas I mentioned earlier, that is whom the President wants. He wants someone who is going to do his work for him unquestioned, no matter what. Procedure · 15 wordsBut, you know, there is another question that belongs right here in the U.S. Senate.Procedure Positioning · 15 wordsIs there no line that the U.S. Senate will not allow this President to cross?Positioning Claims · 20 wordsThe Senate confirmed Bondi; ³it confirmed Hegseth; ⁴it confirmed Patel; ⁵it confirmed Noem; ⁶and we are about to confirm Blanche.Logical leap Positioning · 46 wordsThe President is abusing his authority, in my view, in every day and in every way. And that is shame on him, but the U.S. Senate is failing to use its authority, its power on any day or in any way. Shame on the U.S. Senate.Positioning The ask · 16 wordsShould not the U.S. Senate use its advice and consent authority to demand competence and integrity? Claims · 17 wordsDid the Senate do that with Bondi, with Noem, with Hegseth, with Patel, and now with Blanche? The ask · 91 wordsShould not the U.S. Senate use its taxing authority to stop tariffs that the vast majority of this body believes is hurting the American people and is not the right of the Executive to impose? Should not the U.S. Senate use its constitutional power of the purse to stop the invasion by President Trump into the power of the purse? And should not the U.S. Senate use its constitutional authority over the awesome power to declare war and stop this illegal war in Iran that, in fact, President Trump is losing?⁷Unearned certainty Positioning · 12 wordsThe President is abusing his authority. We are failing to use ours.Positioning The ask · 9 wordsWe can stop capitulating today by rejecting this nomination.Logical leap Procedure · 4 wordsI yield the floor.Procedure