Miami
Todd Blanche says administration will press ahead on election efforts after Supreme Court setback
The attorney general said the court ruling on election mail would not slow the Trump administration’s work ahead of the midterms. He also denied the White House was seeking a larger role in elections than past administrations.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said Tuesday that the Donald Trump administration will keep moving forward with its election-related efforts ahead of the midterms, despite a Supreme Court ruling that blocked a government-backed rule involving mail ballots.
Speaking at a White House Rose Garden briefing, Blanche said the decision does not affect ongoing criminal investigations into illegal voting, according to Roll Call. He said the administration’s stated aim on mail voting is to ensure secure elections, electoral integrity and a system in which each eligible voter casts only one ballot.
Blanche added that the administration’s work on the issue will not stop in November or afterward. He also pushed back on the idea that the current administration intends to insert itself into elections more than previous governments, saying the federal role would remain the one required by law.
Roll Call reported that Blanche was responding a day after the Supreme Court blocked the administration’s effort to give the U.S. Postal Service authority to impose new nationwide rules on election mail.
Before the briefing, Trump criticized on social media, without naming them directly, three justices he had nominated to the high court: Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Roll Call said Kavanaugh joined the majority that blocked the measure, while Gorsuch and Barrett did not publicly weigh in on the unsigned opinion. Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Clarence Thomas joined a dissent.
Blanche defended Trump’s right to criticize another branch of government and said he, too, disagreed with the ruling.
In the same appearance, the attorney general also addressed the debate over artificial intelligence and accused Democrats of elevating the issue for political gain before the midterms. He said the Justice Department would focus on crimes involving the technology rather than regulating the industry, arguing that prosecutors are not regulators.
Roll Call added that Blanche was the second Cabinet official to lead a White House briefing since former press secretary Karoline Leavitt left late last month. Vice President JD Vance was the first.
Sources
About this piece. Written by El Notero with AI assistance, from reporting published by the outlet cited above. El Notero did no original reporting on this story.
