LEILA FADEL, HOST:
President Trump says he's going to nominate acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to take on the role permanently.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Blanche is Trump's former personal lawyer. He's been at the Justice Department since early in the administration, so he's been on hand for the president's efforts to undermine court rulings and turn the department into a weapon for his retribution campaign. Blanche also oversaw the Justice Department's creation of a $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who claim to have been wrongfully targeted by the government - a fund that dismayed even many Republicans.
FADEL: Joining us now is NPR congressional reporter Sam Gringlas. Good morning, Sam.
SAM GRINGLAS, BYLINE: Hey, Leila.
FADEL: So Blanche testified before Congress this week that the fund is dead. Is that enough for some senators?
GRINGLAS: Well, Senate Majority Leader John Thune spent the last 24 hours telling his Republican colleagues that it should be enough and that they should feel confident moving forward today with a vote on billions of dollars for immigration enforcement, which had been stalled by pushback over this fund. But that did not satisfy some of these Republican senators, like John Cornyn of Texas. He said the only way to ensure the fund is dead is for Congress to put a stake through it. And, you know, not long after the Senate voted to proceed to debate yesterday, President Trump was asked whether this fund was actually dead.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It's - I'd have to ask the lawyers. I don't know. I know one thing. The weaponization...
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: But what's your...
TRUMP: Are you talking about the weaponization fund?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Yeah. What's your decision (ph)?
TRUMP: The weaponization fund, as far as I'm concerned, was a beautiful thing.
GRINGLAS: We've already seen two amendments by Republicans to try and block this fund for good, though even if they do attract enough votes to pass, it is unclear if Senate rules will allow them in this unrelated $70 billion measure to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years. So this dispute over money to potentially compensate people who stormed the Capitol on January 6 may imperil one of Trump's top priorities - funding immigration enforcement.
FADEL: OK, this seems to be another example of Trump undercutting Republicans in Congress and then, in turn, his own agenda.
GRINGLAS: Oh, totally. But Republicans like retiring Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina say what Trump is doing is self-sabotage. Tillis, who's also raised concerns about Blanche's statements on January 6, called out Trump's pick for acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, Wednesday on CNBC.
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THOM TILLIS: My God. You put forth this restitution fund when we're trying to get Homeland Security funded for three years and you think that's going to go well? In the same week, you put an incendiary attack dog like Pulte out on the agenda while we're trying to get 702 authorized and he would be one of the major users of it? It's, like, whoever these people are in the White House need to get the hell out of the White House.
GRINGLAS: Tillis is referring to an expiring section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act - or FISA. The White House, top Republicans and Democrats want to renew it, but now some Democrats say they won't unless Trump drops Pulte. Some Senate Republicans are also concerned about Pulte. Asked about his qualifications, intelligence chair Tom Cotton only said, I have no observations on the matter.
FADEL: Are you seeing other places where Republicans are frustrated with the president?
GRINGLAS: Yeah. Another example this week was over in the House, where four Republicans joined with Democrats to pass a war powers resolution to try to force Trump to pull back forces from the conflict with Iran. That still has to pass the Senate and Trump can veto it, so practically it doesn't mean much, but this is still a significant rebuke.
You know, Trump has shown he's happy to vanquish Republicans he deems insufficiently loyal, so you've got more lawmakers questioning whether trying to be loyal is actually worth it, and that's making for a really unpredictable time in Congress.
FADEL: NPR's Sam Gringlas. Thank you, Sam.
GRINGLAS: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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