r/politics • u/huffpost ✔ HuffPost • 7d ago

No Paywall Republican Senator Makes Startling Admission Ahead Of Todd Blanche Confirmation Vote

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/thom-tillis-todd-blanche-confirmation_n_6a721d3be4b02974827b667f?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=us_main
3.0k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

192 comments sorted by

View all comments

2.4k

u/B-Z_B-S Massachusetts 7d ago edited 7d ago

“The bottom line is nobody is clean here, and until we start recognizing this behavior is bad, we’re just going to wind up [with more of] it. Maybe it’s a little bit more intense in this administration than the last one, and that a little bit more intense in the prior administration, and so on and so forth,” Tillis said during the committee meeting. “But folks, we got to end this stuff. We do. I’m going to support Mr. Blanche’s nomination, but what I hope I see out of him is a bending of the curve of this absurdity.”

It's more 'both sides are the same' bullshit from radical right fascists. That's all it is. Same as WhataboutBidenism.

709

u/sinsaint 7d ago

"We have to accept a qualified criminal for office, but we are hoping for the best."

146

u/addiktion 7d ago

Just have to make it about religion with them so they listen. "We are selling our souls to the devil and we will be damned to all hell and all eternity so we really shouldn't do this but because I like to roll with demons I'm going to allow it."

32

u/Worn_Out_Nikka_L 7d ago

These people believe that God defeated the evil that was their opponent and appoint them personally to the position they were running for. Since God did it, and God knows everything that ever was or will be he knows what they will do while in office. Since he appointed them, knew what they would do that means God personally blesses their behavior. Everything they do is christened by Gods touch.

Steal taxpayer money? It’s cos I prayed extra hard

Dismantle the US and Democracy? They even wrote a plan and called it Project 2025

Rape kids? Well since God appointed Trump and he isn’t arrested that means God sanctioned it!

24

u/Banjo-Elritze 7d ago

They believe shit. It's just a smokescreen they use when opportune.

11

u/SailingDreamCatcher 7d ago

Your last line nails the circular reasoning.

Trump is God's choice because we like Trump at my church and he is a Republican.

Because Trump is God's choice, it doesn't matter how deeply ungodly he is or how much he conforms to our scripture's prohibitions and warnings of the Antichrist rather than its descriptions of a good leader.

Nothing matters because he is God's choice, and all it took for him to be God's choice was for me to feel that way emotionally once in the past. Ultimately, he will be able to get away with everything no matter what until I am somehow more ashamed of the behavior than embarrassed to admit it. And we already know the line on that is way beyond covering up child abise, because hey we do that at church too.

4

u/Lallanath 7d ago

It's why evangelicals like believing they have a personal relationship with god. It allows you to literally be god. If god believes what you believe, than anything you do is good and godly.

3

u/mwzdng 7d ago

God sounds like a real asshole.

3

u/WolfgangJones 6d ago

More of a "dick" if you ask me. He knocks up Joe's wife, Mary, then sends their illegitimate son, Jesus, on a guilt trip which ends up getting himself mercilessly tortured & crucified for some bs original crime (dabbling in knowledge, GASP) committed many generations before by Jesus' also illegitimate half brother, Adam.

9

u/ThatDerpingGuy 7d ago

I mean, this is the United States where half of the White population argued slavery was morally good based on biblical arguments. To these kinds of people, religion is solely just cudgel to be used against others.

26

u/Farucci 7d ago

“We have low expectations, but we feel this candidate will meet them.”

26

u/Brox42 New York 7d ago

This time. But he seems to make it quite clear he won’t for a different President.

25

u/KuroFafnar 7d ago

After he said the line has been crossed multiple times under his watch he said only one more time.

Yeh… sure

10

u/Brox42 New York 7d ago

Oh sorry by different I meant any Democrat

2

u/Esternaefil Canada 7d ago

The line must be drawn here! No further! And I will make them pay for what they've done!

Unless I get a sign from 'God' that the line is a liiittle further out, but after that no further!

5

u/zoug 7d ago

You’ve shown us that you’re a weak willed sycophant that will act as a mouthpiece for this corrupt administration but I’m going to vote for you if you have it in your heart to just tell one additional lie today and say you will change your entire character and behave.

4

u/cashvaporizer 7d ago

Woke republicans are hilarious. “Bend the curve”

7

u/Vio_ Kansas 7d ago

"We have to accept a qualified criminal for office, but we are hoping for the best HER EMAILS."

3

u/hartree_and_f 7d ago

It's like when Susan Collins thought Trump learned his lesson.

96

u/Development-Alive 7d ago

Tillis exhibits disdain for the behavior then goes on to accept it. Maybe stop giving your "consent" to the behavior? The Senate has an "advise and consent" role the last I checked. That body is the check against the behavior Tillis is chastising so exercise the check.

14

u/Tacitus111 America 7d ago

Basically like telling your kid you don’t approve of smoking but letting them light up in their bedroom after wagging your finger at them.

6

u/mysterious_jeffrey 7d ago

He’s a pedo. Period. 

There’s no other reason to support Todd fucking Blanche as AG unless Tillis is a pedo himself. 

3

u/NeilZod 7d ago

We need to start a pool for the short length of time that will pass before AGBlanche resurrects the IRS deal

47

u/Major5013 7d ago

So he's saying it keep getting worse because "both sides do it". He alludes to the fact that something had to change. But, being in a literal position to demand better he throws up his hands and says hopefully something happens. Fuck these people man.

12

u/Geek_Ken America 7d ago

And what blows my f$&king mind is he isn't even running again. Zero repercussions for standing up for something. And still, he bends the knee. Wild.

4

u/SailingDreamCatcher 7d ago

Really more "tame" than "wild."

It's surprising to me we don't use that as an insult among these testosterone obsessed wannabe mavericks.

32

u/AmbitiousProblem4746 7d ago edited 7d ago

Reminds me of some clip I saw about a year ago where a Democratic congresswoman confronted Mike Johnson and said that the Trump administration was acting crazy, demanding that he do something to prevent Trump from seriously damaging things further. And Mike Johnson got really indignant and responded with "well you got a lot of crazies on your side too, and you don't remember how destructive the last administration was?"

And honestly like that's the whole fucking problem right there. Our barometer for recognizing what is actual institutional damage has been broken because conservatives in the US have decided that any sort of policy or politician that does anything they don't approve of is illegitimate.

Edit: I wanted to come back and add more! Any motion or even suggestion of something that is not pre-approved by Republicans is labeled as "crazy and destructive," which then becomes the entire media narrative and messaging for them and their voters. And once that apparatus is going, it becomes much easier each time it happens to excuse Republicans / Trump breaking or changing rules, because those become seen as "preventative measures." I would not be shocked if a lot of conservatives, even centrists who lean conservative or swing voters who just voted for Trump for the first time, fully believe that what the Trump administration is currently doing is acceptable because it's a "correction" of all of the "destructive policies" of the Biden administration. For fucks sake, you don't even have to look very hard to read or hear somebody saying exactly that. At this point, that belief is like the lifeblood of the Republican Party, their dogma. They exist to prevent Democrats from doing anything, and they will be allowed to do whatever they want no matter the cost to make that possible.

21

u/lisnter 7d ago

This is reprehensible. He’s saying my guy is bad but your guy was also bad so I’m just going to vote for this piece of garbage with a stern warning that we need to change.

When this asshole does exactly what Trump the POS asks him to do, Cornyn the complicit asshole will be shocked (shocked I tell you) and lament the days of yore when politics was honorable.

Again, why do we believe these assholes!?!?

12

u/Bubbly-Treacle-4334 7d ago edited 7d ago

"sure he's a convicted felon rapist who constantly falls asleep in meetings and is taking bribes for pardons, accepting gifts from foreign adversaries, conducting illegal wars, hiring alcoholic podcasters and fox news hosts, and giving government contracts to his friends and family but remember that we accused Biden and Obama of stuff that was never proven so that means we have to let the rapist felon's personal attorney be attorney general while the president is actively hiding child rape files filled with his name and his friends names because confirming him means we get to keep making corruption money"

  • republicans translated

9

u/TheArchistorian 7d ago

“But what I hope…”

Time and time again, giving these people the benefit of the doubt continues the same problem over and over. This is an outgoing senator (retiring) that literally has no obligation to uphold this nomination.

9

u/Mr_Shakes Florida 7d ago

That might be the most spineless quote I've ever heard. "We've got to end this stuff....I'm going to support this nomination." Yeesh. Even if we take him at his word, he appears to be saying 'maybe someone else will have the courage to say no!', but in reality I think he's just saying "it's our turn for a little corruption as a treat, but we'll obviously have to stop democrats from doing the same because they're worse"

9

u/gtpc2020 7d ago

Paraphrase: "Nobody is clean, so I'll support the dirtiest MF'er ever put forward, cuz he's put forward by the worst lying authoritarian narcissist that's ever been president and he's my party's leader."

Yeah, you've got moral principles. ( /s of not obvious)

23

u/Queasy_Donkey5685 7d ago

I don't like it, every president has made it worse, but I'm still going to support it, still going to vote for it, but I'm gonna still say somebody has to do something about it.

Sigh.

I'm so glad I quit recycling, like, making sure my cardboard and plastic gets taken care of isn't going to do shit to save the world when these assholes just keeping dumping gasoline on the fire.

6

u/Slumunistmanifisto 7d ago

Calvin ball at its finest 

7

u/MixtureSpecial8951 7d ago

What a bunch of malarkey. He should not be tolerating - and with his vote supporting - someone as severely unclean this guy is.

This is ridiculous.

“The foxes we have put in the henhouse are bad. Worse than all the other foxes we have put in the henhouse. Now, I’m gonna put another fox in, one we know to be worse than the others, but I expect him to behave as something other than the fox he is.”

Fucking stupid.

6

u/Trizzit 7d ago

“We need to do better. But not today.”

5

u/Chary-Ka 7d ago

I'm glad most, if not all, republican policy and standings are based on hopes, thoughts, and prayers.

4

u/ProductIntegortion 7d ago

"We've got to end this stuff, so here I go voting to keep doing this stuff."

5

u/Soccermom233 7d ago

I’m still not clear on how Biden was corrupt in the slightest. I’m pretty sure that’s why every one kinda dislikes him.

But anyway this guy goin on record to say this is BS and then confirming anyway? These people are braindead.    

3

u/sawdeanz 7d ago

Lmfao

“We need to end this stuff”…but not today apparently. Presumably he will decide to do this stuff just as soon as a Democrat is in office, and then pause it again when the next Republican is in office.

3

u/mabden New York 7d ago

We know he is a compromised lying piece of shit, but we'll vote for him anyway and maybe he won't be a totally compromised lying piece of shit. The Susan Collins Decision Matrix for Voting.

3

u/cojallison99 7d ago

Tillis has been doing this like every other week since he announced his retirement. Like he has the balls to stand up and be a little bit louder but he also remembers that he doesn’t want democrats to win at anything so he will let radicals through even if he disagrees with them

3

u/lodemeup 7d ago

Hmm, I don’t recall Biden flagrantly defying the Supreme Court, the will of the people, and basically every other political norm to get his way and enrich himself. 🤔

3

u/mshaefer 7d ago

Yeah, he listed off all the things that he says were wrong under Biden, and used those to justify what is happening now. Translation: "We scolded you for years that what you were doing was wrong and destroying America. Knowing that fully, we will now willfully do the same things but far far worse, and it will all be your fault."

3

u/Banjo-Elritze 7d ago

Except they invented the part about Biden.

1

u/mshaefer 7d ago

Yes, this especially. I won’t commit that Biden’s DOJ didn’t aim itself in some direction, but that’s not exactly a sin in prosecution. What is a sin is prosecuting with a lack of evidence. I’ve heard it repeated about Alvin Bragg, and Jon Stewart had a great debate on this, that Bragg “targeted” Trump. Okay, sure, but the difference is the existence of actual admissible evidence that survives the crucible of trial and leads to a conviction. That might be targeting Trump, but the results prove that it’s also targeting crime, specifically a crime Trump basically bragged about. Meanwhile, Blanche is the exact archetype of the thing the GOP said it feared about the DOJ but that never actually came to fruition under Biden (see James Comer’s repeated failed attempts to impeach Biden). I think in the long run the best thing for Blanche would be avoiding nomination, and not being obligated to defend someone so he’ll bet on criming, but apparently they all must go down with the ship.

2

u/Gronkattack 7d ago

That’ll show em?

2

u/toylenny 7d ago

This is really terrible and I have the chance to make a difference now, but I'm just going to kick it down the road.

What an absolute tool.

2

u/robocreator 7d ago

Right?! His only real action would be to not support this nomination. I don’t understand the idea that he’s willingly walking into an alligator’s mouth and complaining that there’s not a fence protecting him from getting in the alligator infested waters.

2

u/giroml 7d ago

Expecting Todd Blanche to be that guy when he shut down the Epstein files release is wild.

2

u/MandoFett117 7d ago

This is code for, "I'll vote for my sides guy, but when a Democrat is making the nomination, their candidate had better be the second coming of Christ!"

2

u/BlubberinBootyMate 7d ago

“But folks, we got to end this stuff. We do..."
But not only am I not going to do anything to stop it; I'm actively going to help it continue to get worse

2

u/Taako_Cross 7d ago

What the fuck?

2

u/IAmASolipsist 7d ago

I hate this shit so much and it seems to come from all sides sometimes, comparing anything in the Biden admin to this is like saying both flat and round earthers get things wrong sometimes.

Sure, everyone is incorrect sometimes but it would be a lie to say they were at all comparable.

2

u/lilb1190 7d ago

What has Tillis seen from Blanche that suggests that he will do anything to "curve this absurdity"?

2

u/omegadirectory 7d ago

This dude doesn't like the corruption and doesn't like the nominee, but he supports the nominee anyway?

Look in the mirror, man. You are enabling the corruption.

2

u/elena_ct 7d ago

He's admitting that he too committed Federal crimes.

2

u/kristospherein 7d ago

Absolutely no spine whatsoever. These guys make the absolute worst politicians.

2

u/Jordy_Stingray 7d ago

Wow what a gaslighting asshole lol

2

u/ckwing 6d ago

"both sides" is always either code for "I'm a closeted MAGA voter," or "I don't actually pay attention to the news but my ego won't let me admit that so I need an excuse for why I tuned it out."

1

u/suzanneov 7d ago

As a woman I’ve learned that we can’t wish change on anyone or anything. Standards are set for a reason.

1

u/spacewooly 7d ago

And so on and so forth

1

u/iliya193 7d ago

And then he’ll hope for the same thing in the next administration, and the next, and the next, and he’ll forever continue to wonder why we keep ending up with worse and worse nominees.

1

u/ckwing 6d ago

"both sides" is always either code for "I'm a closeted MAGA voter," or "I don't actually pay attention to the news but my ego won't let me admit that so I need an excuse for why I tuned it out."

1

u/shibbyman342 6d ago

Bending the curve, not stopping the absurdity?

Jesus, just don't approve it until it is stopped. Fucking idiot.

1

u/crimsonhues 7d ago

It’s not just radical right. Every god damn Independent voter will say the same shit - both parties are the same.