Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) has a sharp message for acting Attorney General Todd Blanche: take January 6 seriously, or you won't be confirmed to your role permanently.
This comes after Blanche delivered a triumphant speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference about how he "cleaned house" and got rid of many federal prosecutors who worked on January 6 cases. He also bragged about the pardons issued to the January 6 rioters and told the crowd, "when folks say ‘you’ve done nothing,’ I say you have a very short memory."
Blanche is in "dangerous waters" after making those remarks, Tillis told Politico's Burgess Everett — and given his spot on the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, he has the power to mete out consequences.
"Tillis can block any Judiciary nominee on committee and says 'the principle here is that anybody who didn’t back the blue on January 6th is disqualified from consideration for me in the Judiciary Committee,'" said Everett in a post on X, adding that "Tillis said Blanche is 'not a politician in his current state. But when you start acting like a politician, you get treated like one.'"
“The more recent comments are really what drew my attention," said Tillis. "So that I have to parse through. The minute you give somebody slack, then you’ve lost the principle, right?"
Tillis, who is leaving office after this year, has grown increasingly exasperated with President Donald Trump and his Cabinet.
He has similarly threatened to block the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as Federal Reserve chairman. Tillis touts him as a qualified pick, but has warned Trump he will not allow any Fed nominees to go through until the administration ceases its politically charged criminal investigation into the central bank.