参议员库恩斯：参议院今晚可完成政府拨款与多项投票

Forgive us for treating you as a bit of a reporter this evening, but I know this is moment to moment. What is the state of play right now in the Senate with regard to a timing deal on floor votes? Or are you getting on the floor tonight? So, Joe, uh, no, I don't think I'll be leaving any time soon. Uh, we're going to be fighting, frankly, with each other for the next couple of hours about who gets an amendment vote, at what threshold, and what's the impact.

How does this really matter? First, the most important thing we will do is to vote to keep the government open through December. Uh, I expect we will pass that before we leave. And I think that's important, not just for all the government employees who don't want to have to be furloughed again, but also to avoid the impact of a shutdown on our reputation and our operations globally. Um, second, um, we have passed the Lindsey Graham Russia Sanctions Act, as you referenced and as someone who has long supported Tougher sanctions on Russia to help deter them from their aggression against Ukraine.

I thought that was an important thing for us to get done today. I'm also an original co-sponsor of the Protect College Sports Act, something I've worked hard on with Republican Senator Ted Cruz and Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell. Anyone who is a college sports fan knows that between the transfer portal, sky high salaries for coaches, lots of different changes in conferences and playing, and the name, image and likeness payments that college players have earned, it's a rapidly changing landscape, and I think this is a good bipartisan compromise to stabilize college sports.

There's a number of other things, like Todd Blanchard's confirmation and the nominations you referenced. I think we can get them all done and get out of here tonight, but we'll see. Wow. It's not good to bet on the Senate getting its work done early. Well, as you talk about the College Sports Act, the president is a fan of your bill as well. Senator, he actually just posted on True Social saying the College Sports Act is a great bill, and the Senate will hopefully stay in D.C. until it passes.

Is that your expectation? Would that be tonight? That's my hope. Um, if you read further into President Trump's Truth Social post, he's also specifically pushing back on a mischaracterization of this bill by one of my colleagues. He doesn't name Josh Hawley, a Republican senator from Missouri. But Senator Hawley and several others are spreading the false rumor that this bill, if it became law, would actually prevent state laws, uh, that were passed in order to prevent people from playing a sport other than, uh, the gender they were born with.

Um, that is an issue that doesn't impact this law, and we shouldn't be staying here for another day or two just to take up a vote on the Hawley Amendment. It is unusual. But President Trump and I are on the same side on this one. This is a good compromise. We should take it up and pass it. Will you show up long enough? You at the seeing everything. Uh, Senator, you mentioned Todd Blanch as we wait for news on a timing deal.

I think is the state of play right now with all of the items you mentioned otherwise. Is he as good as the next attorney general? He may very well be confirmed here, but I think my Republican colleagues will come to regret voting for him. Todd Blanche, as the assistant attorney general and now as the acting attorney general, was responsible for the rollout of the Epstein files. I'll remind you, President Trump ran on releasing the Epstein files and then dragged his feet first under Pam Bondi, now under Todd Blanchard.

And Todd Blanchard mishandled it so badly that a number of the Epstein victims were harmed as a result. He hasn't been transparent. He hasn't been rapid. Frankly, the Epstein files have been a dumpster fire under Todd Blanch. And even worse idea, and even more poorly executed, was the $1.8 billion weaponization fund, a slush fund to make payments to those who felt they were wronged by the Department of Justice, specifically, including those who were convicted of assaulting police officers here on January 6th.

I pressed Todd Blanch about this in his confirmation hearing, and that was the issue that initially led Republican Senators Cornyn and Cassidy to oppose his confirmation. They accepted a thin paper assigned commitment by Todd Blanch that he wouldn't move ahead with the weaponization fund. So what's my beef? Well, President Trump keeps saying as recently as last weekend that he wants this weaponization fund to move forward and to make payments.

And he wants to get out of jail. Free card. The settlement with the IRS that prevents Trump and his family and his businesses from ever being held accountable for tax cheating. I'm concerned that Todd Blanchard is more loyal to Trump than he is to the Constitution and to justice. And that once confirmed, he will simply flip his position and do what President Trump wants. I hope that's not the case, but given experience, I suspect it will be.

Well, Senator, it sounds like you're not buying the argument that was made by your colleague Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who, of course, was leaving us guessing as to whether or not he would vote to confirm. Blanchard announced that he would on the Senate floor, saying in part, that any attorney general could face a similar problem in term of President Trump wanting to use the Department of Justice to go after perceived enemies, but also that Mr.

Blanche is best suited for the role because, as his former personal attorney, he would be able to be honest with the president and push back. That doesn't doesn't sound like a solid argument to you. No, because there's no evidence that Todd Blanche has done that. Yes. He was President Trump's personal criminal defense attorney. Yes, he sees himself as loyal to President Trump and his agenda. No, there's no evidence that that has led him to actually push back on terrible ideas like the weaponization fund or the indictment of either journalists who are alleged to have inappropriately leaked, um, or those who President Trump views as his personal political opponents.

I'll remind you, President Trump publicly berated Pam Bondi for not having succeeded in convicting people like James Comey, uh, or Letitia James Comey, the former FBI director. James, the New York attorney general who indicted and prosecuted Donald Trump. That's not a reason to then vote for Todd Blanch. When he also has shown a willingness to advance that agenda. We should be trying to move away from the weaponization, from the partisan utilization of the Department of Justice to go after political enemies not installed permanently as the Attorney General of the United States.

Someone who has shown more of an interest in being personally loyal to the president than standing up to him and saying no. You know, you mentioned, uh, the Russia sanctions bill, Senator, and it's not often we talk without getting to geopolitics. I'd like to ask you about a report today. If you could put your foreign policy hat on here, a report in the Wall Street Journal that Vladimir Putin has now become so cornered that our intelligence apparatus has assessed that he could try to test NATO's resolve with a limited assault on a NATO country in the next few years, to provoke NATO in this case, an assessment that changed earlier this year, according to officials.

As he is increasingly squeezed in Ukraine. Have you seen that intelligence and is that your expectation? I have been briefed on this matter. I cannot talk about what I have been told in a classified setting. I have, uh, the highest, uh, classification of access to intelligence in my current role as the senior Democrat on defense and intelligence appropriations. But I can respond to what's in the newspaper and to what's been said publicly.

Uh, look, a year ago, uh, the defense minister for Germany, one of our core NATO allies, warned that the Ger

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