Less than 24 hours after being sworn in as Trump's attorney general, Todd Blanche proves his word is worth a warm cup of Republican-generated spit

(WTKR News 3, Facebook)

Many Americans probably have grown used to having a congenital liar as president. Now, it looks like we will have a similar truth-challenged individual as attorney general. If there is any positive to this, it's that Americans who have been following news about Todd Blanche's confirmation as AG probably are not surprised by this latest revelation; in fact, our guess is that many of them already assumed Blanche was cut from the same cloth as Donald Trump. That, however, does not make it reassuring to know that perhaps the two most powerful positions in our government are occupied by men who are predisposed to be untruthful. Does that mean rocky times could become even rockier? The New Republic (TNR) provides insights on that question under the headline "Surprise! Todd Blanche immediately breaks his promises to GOP senators; hours after being sworn in as attorney general, Blanche gave Donald Trump more protections.   Edith Olmsted writes: 

It’s been less than 24 hours, and freshly sworn-in Attorney General Todd Blanche has already issued entirely new legal protections for President Donald Trump.

In a memo published Monday evening, just hours after Blanche’s swearing-in ceremony, the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel argued that the president could claim executive privilege over communication between him and his “private advisers,” provided that the communications were confidential and related to his presidential “decision-making.”

As the TNR headline implies, members of Blanche's own party cannot trust what he says, Olmsted reports: 

The memo also seemed to expand executive privilege to apply to communications between the president’s “direct advisers” and civilians. If the Democrats take back the House of Representatives in the upcoming midterm elections, this memo could have major implications for any investigation into the president and other top administration officials. Clearly, the Trump administration is preparing to stonewall Congress.

It is unclear at the moment if Democrats will take back either house of Congress -- especially with the centrist and socialist wings of the party seemingly at war with each other. Even if a "blue wave" does sweep Trump's GOP enablers out of office, it's not clear that a memo authored by Todd Blanche -- whose approval ratings should sink into the negative numbers by that point -- would hold much sway with a Democrat-controlled Congress.

Still, Blanche's willingness to blow smoke up the fannies of Republicans who supported him shows that he does not mind making his so-called "colleagues" look like a bunch of rubes. More importantly, it adds to the evidence that Blanche cares about one person in government and one person only -- and that is Donald Trump. Olmsted writes:

Blanche’s latest move reflects poorly on all of the Republicans who voted to confirm him—but especially Senators Bill Cassidy, John Cornyn, and Tom Tillis, who bought into the attorney general’s promises to limit the scope of a different immunity for the president. Blanche has demonstrated that he isn’t the least bit interested in holding the president accountable for anything—let alone preserving transparency in government. But we already knew that, didn’t we?

In a statement Tuesday morning, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the memo revealed that Trump was “petrified of the questions a Democratic Congress will demand answers to.”

Let's pray that Trump's efforts to rig this year's midterm elections fail, and a Democratic Congress gets a chance to demand answers to tough questions about Trump's disastrous second term. The future of our democracy likely depends on it.