There is a specific genre of political entertainment that never gets old: watching Adam Schiff confidently build a rhetorical trap, step into it himself, and then act confused about why his foot hurts. Wednesday's attorney general confirmation hearing for Todd Blanche was a masterclass in the form, as USA Journal reported.
Schiff, doing what Schiff does best, used his allotted time to weave together a narrative about Blanche's alleged conflicts of interest and the unreleased Volume Two of Jack Smith's classified documents report. The implication was clear: Blanche is ethically compromised and personally responsible for burying the report. It sounded great. It had dramatic pauses and everything. There was just one small problem. None of it was true.
Blanche was not acting attorney general when the DOJ decided not to pursue the report's release. He was not in the job when Judge Aileen Cannon issued her rulings blocking it. He is recused from the case entirely. These are not obscure procedural details buried in some footnote. These are the basic facts of the situation, and Schiff apparently decided they were optional.
Blanche responded directly: "What you're saying happens to not be true. I did not do that."
Schiff pressed on anyway, because of course he did. This is the man who told America for years that he had personally seen direct evidence of Trump-Russia collusion that Robert Mueller's exhaustive investigation somehow never managed to find. This is a senator who was formally censured by the House of Representatives for misleading the public. Pressing forward despite being wrong is basically his cardio.
Blanche then delivered what might be the line of the entire confirmation process: "You can't accuse me of violating my ethical rules and then lie about what I did. The truth has to matter."
Telling Adam Schiff that the truth has to matter is like telling a cat it should really consider being a dog. You can say it. You can even mean it. But everyone in the room knows you are dealing with a fundamentally different animal.
Schiff, apparently sensing the walls closing in, went for the emotional appeal. He asked what happened to the Todd Blanche that people once respected. It is the kind of question that sounds devastating in a movie but in real life mostly just signals that you have completely run out of ammunition.
Blanche's answer was simple: "I am the same exact person I always was."
One of the two men in that exchange can honestly say that. The other has built an entire career on saying things with tremendous confidence that later turn out to be, shall we say, aspirational rather than factual. Getting fact-checked by the nominee you are trying to torpedo, on camera, in front of the full Senate Judiciary Committee, is not the win Schiff seemed to think it was going to be when he woke up that morning.
Some people learn from these moments. Schiff is not some people.
Read more conservative news commentary at: USA Journal News
Schiff, doing what Schiff does best, used his allotted time to weave together a narrative about Blanche's alleged conflicts of interest and the unreleased Volume Two of Jack Smith's classified documents report. The implication was clear: Blanche is ethically compromised and personally responsible for burying the report. It sounded great. It had dramatic pauses and everything. There was just one small problem. None of it was true.
Blanche was not acting attorney general when the DOJ decided not to pursue the report's release. He was not in the job when Judge Aileen Cannon issued her rulings blocking it. He is recused from the case entirely. These are not obscure procedural details buried in some footnote. These are the basic facts of the situation, and Schiff apparently decided they were optional.
Blanche responded directly: "What you're saying happens to not be true. I did not do that."
Schiff pressed on anyway, because of course he did. This is the man who told America for years that he had personally seen direct evidence of Trump-Russia collusion that Robert Mueller's exhaustive investigation somehow never managed to find. This is a senator who was formally censured by the House of Representatives for misleading the public. Pressing forward despite being wrong is basically his cardio.
Blanche then delivered what might be the line of the entire confirmation process: "You can't accuse me of violating my ethical rules and then lie about what I did. The truth has to matter."
Telling Adam Schiff that the truth has to matter is like telling a cat it should really consider being a dog. You can say it. You can even mean it. But everyone in the room knows you are dealing with a fundamentally different animal.
Schiff, apparently sensing the walls closing in, went for the emotional appeal. He asked what happened to the Todd Blanche that people once respected. It is the kind of question that sounds devastating in a movie but in real life mostly just signals that you have completely run out of ammunition.
Blanche's answer was simple: "I am the same exact person I always was."
One of the two men in that exchange can honestly say that. The other has built an entire career on saying things with tremendous confidence that later turn out to be, shall we say, aspirational rather than factual. Getting fact-checked by the nominee you are trying to torpedo, on camera, in front of the full Senate Judiciary Committee, is not the win Schiff seemed to think it was going to be when he woke up that morning.
Some people learn from these moments. Schiff is not some people.
Read more conservative news commentary at: USA Journal News
