Amy Martinez

Hey, everyone, a quick note before we get to the stories of the day. We got some pretty big news here at NPR just about a year ago.

Layla Fadel

Yeah, this time last year, Congress was getting ready to vote on the future of federal funding for public media, and they eliminated more than a billion dollars budgeted for npr, PBS and stations across the country.

Amy Martinez

That funding is gone, but we're still here first thing, bringing you the news you need every day.

Layla Fadel

The NPR network has not backed down from its mission to inform the public with trusted in independent journalism.

Amy Martinez

Your support makes it all possible. So please give today@donate.NPR.org and thank you.

Layla Fadel

It wasn't Todd Blanche's qualifications that were front and center at his confirmation hearing to lead the Justice Department.

Amy Martinez

The focus was his loyalty.

Kerry Johnson

Are you and President Trump friends?

Amy Martinez

I'm his lawyer.

Franco Ordonez

Was his lawyer.

Layla Fadel

I'm Layla Fodel with a Martinez, and this is up first from NPR News. President Trump notified Congress that the U.S. is back at war with Iran. A majority of Americans oppose the war, but Trump's base is behind him. Will anything make that change?

Amy Martinez

And the president's pick for intelligence chief wouldn't acknowledge that Trump lost the 2020 election.

Jay Clayton

I'm not gonna get into that with

Amy Martinez

you, but you do have an obligation to be honest and forthright with the committee. That's from Jay Clayton's confirmation hearing. Why so much time spent on that question? Stay with us. We've got the news. You need to start foreign.

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Amy Martinez

The Senate Judiciary Committee grilled President Trump's nominee to lead the Justice Department on

Layla Fadel

Wednesday, but it Wasn't Todd Blanche's qualifications for the job that were the focus. Instead, the panel honed in on his close ties to the president and whether he would serve Trump or the American people.

Amy Martinez

NPR's Kerry Johnson has been following the hearing care. I mean, no shortage of controversy at the DOJ over the past year and a half, and Todd Blanche has really been at the center of it. How did that come up in the hearing?

Kerry Johnson

Yeah, Todd Blanche has been the Deputy Attorney General of the second in command at the Justice Department since last year. He assumed the top job in April after President Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi. Getting that promotion on a permanent basis requires Senate confirmation. So lawmakers got a chance to ask Blanche about a lot of problems he got. Question about prosecutions against the president's political foes, about how DOJ botched the release of files about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and about a nearly $2 billion slush fund the administration tried to set up to pay alleged victims of weaponization. That includes people who stormed the Capitol on January 6th.

Amy Martinez

How did Todd Blanche respond?

Kerry Johnson

Well, Todd Blanche basically said he's a creature of the Justice Department. He's worked there as an intern, a paralegal, and a prosecutor. And he told them, serving in the justice, an American dream. But Todd Blanche has really been dogged by questions about his relationship with President Trump. Blanch, of course, worked as Trump's personal lawyer for a couple years. He defended Trump in cases that involve election interference, classified documents. And Democrats say he's still serving Donald Trump instead of the Constitution. Then, under questioning, Blanche seemed to make a slip of the tongue. Here he is being questioned by Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana. Are you and President Trump friends?

Amy Martinez

I'm his lawyer.

Franco Ordonez

Was his lawyer, and now I'm the deputy Attorney General.

Kerry Johnson

Blanche went on to say he's not a yes man and that his time defending Trump should not define his long career.

Amy Martinez

So, Kerry, Democrats on the panel are trying to make the case against Blanche. How do they try to do that?

Kerry Johnson

Some of these senators actually worked inside the Justice Department earlier in their careers. So these issues are personal to them in a way. Sheldon Whitehouse from Rhode island used to be a U.S. attorney. Whitehouse talked about how do DOJ has lost stature with judges and juries over the past year.

Amy Martinez

Between judges appointed by every president harshly

Franco Ordonez

criticizing the department's work in your tenure,

Amy Martinez

grand juries rejecting indictments, judicial findings of

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outright misconduct, this seems to be the

Jay Clayton

most troubled Department of Justice in history.

Kerry Johnson

Todd Blanche says on his watch, DOJ has done a lot to prosecute violent crime and keep Americans safe.

Amy Martinez

So here's a wrinkle now, because after the death of Senator Lindsey Graham over the weekend, the Judiciary Committee is very closely divided now. So how do top Blanche's prospects look?

Kerry Johnson

That's true. There's one more day of hearings today that are going to feature witnesses arguing for and against Blanche's nomination. But safe to say most of the Republicans on the panel seemed inclined to support him. Senator John Cornyn of Texas is going to be critical. For now, Cornyn says he's undecided. Cornyn is worried about DOJ trying to resurrect that slush fund for January 6th rioters, which would use taxpayer dollars. And he's worried about the broad grant of immunity the DOJ gave Trump and two of his sons for any past tax audits. This week, a judge in Florida blasted the Justice Department's approach there. The judge wrote DOJ officials abdicated responsibility to zealously defend the interests of the U.S. in a sham deal that benefited Trump.

Amy Martinez

That's NPR's Carrie Johnson. Carrie, thank you.

Kerry Johnson

Thank you.

Amy Martinez

President Trump sent Congress a formal notification this week that the US Is once again at war with Iran.

Layla Fadel

The administration argues this gives them a new 60 day clock to use military action without congressional approval. But the greater concern for the president and his inner circle may not be approval from Congress, but from voters, particularly as the midterms get closer and closer.

Amy Martinez

NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordonez joins us now. Franco, so a restarting of full scale fighting, there's got to be some political implications here.

Franco Ordonez

I mean, there, I think it kind of depends on what actually happens next. I mean, the president would rather not be dealing with all this. I mean, he's made that clear as he's aggressively pushed for the ceasefire. Now, I will say if these new strikes actually kind of break the regime, if the Strait of Hormuz actually opens and gas prices drop down, then actually maybe the political implications could be kind of good for the president. But if fighting continues next week and beyond that and energy prices continue to rise, then obviously that would not be good for the president or for Republicans, for that matter. And just one other factor is whether voters actually feel the US Won or lost the war or is winning or losing. I mean, it's certainly not going to sit well with Americans if they feel the president started this war and then the US Lost. So the success of this latest offensive could also be very important from that political perspective as well.

Amy Martinez

Yeah. And the thing on that is that foreign policy really rarely dominates Midterm elections. I mean, could this year be an exception?

Franco Ordonez

I mean, I'd say yes and no. I mean, yes in that this is a big foreign policy challenge, but no, or really only because it's helping drive such major domestic challenges. I mean, voters are not necessarily going to point to the war for how they voted. I was Talking with John McHenry, a veteran pollster with Northstar Opinion Research. You know, he says exit polls will not show the war, but they'll more likely show voters citing higher energy prices in the economy, which are driven by the war.

Jay Clayton

Ultimately, the gas prices may be the determining factor in how this plays out politically because gas prices have a ripple effect on everything. Prices, you know, at every retail shop but at the grocery store will go up because, you know, a gallon of milk doesn't walk to the grocery store. It gets driven there by a truck. So the gas price is sort of the crux of the whole matter.

Franco Ordonez

Now, that could change, of course, if this continues to grow. And if, for example, Trump commits ground troops to the conflict. Now, he's been reluctant to do that, but he has threatened the possibility.

Amy Martinez

So, Franco, is this what we're doing now? Sporadic strikes and then just continued anxiety about the war all the time?

Franco Ordonez

I mean, I'll say that Americans, though, have been expecting that. I mean, there was a new Reuters poll that came out that said 4 out of 5Americans expect the war to drag indefinitely. I mean, less than 20% a expect the war to end in a matter of weeks.

Amy Martinez

Thing is, though, President Trump has said for months that the war is almost over. Obviously not because Iran continues to stop traffic going through the straits. So what has this done to Trump's overall support?

Franco Ordonez

Well, I'd say a majority of Americans oppose the war, but I'll just add that if you focus on Republicans, they largely continue to remain behind Trump. I mean, it's not necessarily that they're ignoring the evidence that you outlined, but they trust Trump's framing. And McHenry, the Republican pollster, tells me he doesn't expect that to change, no matter the reporting, no matter the facts on the ground. That Trump's core supporters trust how the president interprets those facts to them. And he says that they're likely to trust the president until they can't anymore.

Amy Martinez

That's White House correspondent Franco Ordonez. Thanks a lot.

Franco Ordonez

Thank you. A.

Layla Fadel

A major line of questioning for President Trump's pick to lead the intelligence community in 2026 was the election results from 2020.

Amy Martinez

Jay Clayton is the nominee for Director of National Intelligence he faced senators on Wednesday in a confirmation hearing. The question centered on Trump's repeated false claims that there was election fraud in 2020.

Layla Fadel

For more, we're joined by NPR's Greg Myrey. Good morning, Greg.

Greg Myre

Hi, Layla.

Layla Fadel

Okay, so we've heard President Trump assert repeatedly and without evidence that the 2020 election. So when Clayton was asked about this, what did he say?

Jay Clayton

Yeah.

Greg Myre

The Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee repeatedly asked Clayton straight up, who won the 2020 election. Clayton said he wasn't an election denier and that Joe Biden was certified as president, but he didn't say outright that Biden won. And so after several go rounds with senators along these lines, the tone escalated as Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff kept pressing

Amy Martinez

Clayton, who won the 2020 election.

Jay Clayton

Like I said, I'm not, I'm not going to get into that with you,

Amy Martinez

but you do have an obligation to be honest and forthright with the committee.

Jay Clayton

Is anything that I just said not honest or forthright?

Amy Martinez

Yes. You're not being honest or forthright. Who won the 2020 election?

Jay Clayton

I asked the question.

Layla Fadel

So I know the President is expected to again talk about this election in his speech tonight, an election he lost but refuses to acknowledge he lost. But it's, it's 2026. So why the focus on this in the panel? Could the Director of National Intelligence end up being part of

Kerry Johnson

into the 2020 election?

Greg Myre

Yeah, the short answer is yes. Now, Clayton was asked about Trump's speech that he's going to deliver tonight. And Clayton said he didn't know anything about it because he hasn't been confirmed yet. But the Director oversees the collective effort of the intelligence community, all 18 agencies. Those with a domestic focus like the FBI, those with a foreign focus like the CIA. So, yes, this office could be involved. And Layla, an important reminder. The 2020 election has been investigated repeatedly. No ev evidence has emerged of any serious irregularities in the casting or counting of votes. And this includes a 2021 report by this very office, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. It said Russia and Iran tried to influence American voters but did not penetrate the actual voting process. And that China also considered an influence operation, but ultimately decided against it.

Layla Fadel

What should we know about Jay Clayton? Background?

Greg Myre

Yeah, he's a lawyer. He's held a couple of high powered government jobs. He's currently the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. And this handles high profile legal cases in the Justice Department. And he previously led the securities and Exchange Commission. Now, Senator Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said he's worked with Clayton in earlier jobs and found him highly professional. But Warner stressed that the law stipulates this job must be filled by someone with extensive experience in the intelligence world.

Layla Fadel

So is Clayton qualified for this job?

Greg Myre

Well, he's never held a job in the intelligence community. Now he says he's worked extensively with intelligence agencies. For example, his current office is in charge of prosecuting the former leader of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro. So Clayton works with the FBI and others. Now. A couple quick notes. Republicans control the Intelligence Committee and can send Clayton's nomination to the full Senate without any Democratic support. And a committee vote is expected next week. And a reminder, this position opened up after the recent resignation of Tulsi Gabbard, who often seemed to be just out of step with President Trump.

Layla Fadel

NPR's Greg Myri. Thank you, Greg.

Greg Myre

Sure thing, Layla.

Amy Martinez

And that's a first for Thursday, July 16th.

Layla Fadel

Amy Martinez and I'm Layla Faldel. Today's episode of up first was edited by Ana Yukonanov, Kelsey Snell, Andrew Sussman, Alice Wolfley and Kyle Mohamed Alberdisi. It was produced by Ziad Buch and Nia Dumas. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hynes. And our technical director is Carly Strange. And our deputy executive producer is Kelly Dickens. Join us again tomorrow.

Jay Clayton

Foreign.

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