President Donald Trump's attorney general pick, Todd Blanche, finally appears to be on track after Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and John Cornyn (R-TX) extracted some fairly minor concessions.
But their entire blockade may prove to be for nothing, legal expert Liz Oyer told MS NOW's Alicia Menendez on Tuesday, because it actually put Blanche in a stronger political position.
Menendez opened the segment by noting for Oyer that Blanche, as the acting attorney general, "already has his fingerprints all over DOJ," and wanted to know "what changes" now if he gets confirmed in the role.
"What changes is he's basically now got a mandate," replied Oyer. "His leadership has a mandate."
Furthermore, she said, "these senators who got involved in trying to pretend they were going to block him actually made matters worse, because they have now endorsed the corrupt deal, the settlement fund he signed with Donald Trump. They've endorsed the immunity agreement. They've said they're satisfied with where things landed. They got no meaningful concessions. The documents that Blanche came forward with to save his confirmation were really just a sham. They did not change anything as a matter of law."
Despite that fact, she said, Blanche has now obtained "their blessing to go forth and govern in the manner in which he has, which is totally corrupt and serves only the interests of Donald Trump."
The upshot, Oyer concluded, is that "this opposition by these two senators has really backfired and empowered Blanche in a way that he was not before. He is going to be incredibly dangerous once he is fully unleashed, with Senate confirmation behind him."