President Donald Trump made a case for moving forward with his “anti-weaponization fund” during a flight aboard Air Force One on Sunday.
After a day of golf at his Bedminster Club, Trump answered reporters’ questions during a brief gaggle, while pausing to take a shot at ABC News.
REPORTER: You said the anti-weapon —
TRUMP: Who are you with?
REPORTER: I’m with ABC News. You said the anti-weaponization —
TRUMP: BBC?
REPORTER: ABC.
TRUMP: Oh, ABC. That’s worse.
REPORTER: You said the anti-weaponization —
TRUMP: I like BBC better than ABC News.
“The anti-weaponization fund is back on the table. What are your plans?” the reporter finally managed.
“No, if they don’t approve — Look, we have a man named Todd Blanche. He’s outstanding in every way. Most of you know who he is. You’re not gonna find a better person. And everybody agrees. And it’s because I backed Cornyn’s opponent and his opponent won in a landslide. That’s the only reason it’s happening,” Trump said.
“But I will say there are a lot of people that like — People were hurt so badly,” Trump continued. “Twenty-two suicides. They were destroyed. Their families were destroyed for doing things that, honestly, there’s never been an attack on any group of people in this country, in my opinion. Maybe one. There’s one group that was attacked violently and viciously, like these people were attacked. And this would be a reimbursement for the pain that they suffered. A lot of people like it.”
“If they don’t approve Todd, I’ll put it back on the table. A lot of people like it. A lot of big supporters of Trump like it,” he added.
Lame-duck Senate Republicans John Cornyn (R-TX), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) have all said they will not vote for Blanche unless they get written assurances that Trump’s $1.8 billion fund is completely dead. At issue are the people Trump wants to pay off, including the Jan. 6 rioters.
In a Friday interview on CNN, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said “the math’s just not there” on a Blanche confirmation.
“I’m a hard no on Blanche, and I mean, I haven’t encountered a single…Republican that’s like, ‘Oh, I love that $1.8 billion slush fund,’ or whatever you want to refer to it at all,” Fetterman said. “It doesn’t make any sense. I mean, it’s unconstitutional, honestly, from what it seems. And I don’t see him being confirmed.”
Watch above via Fox News.
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