William P. Barr served as U.S. attorney general from 1991 to 1993 and 2019 to 2020.
He serves on the Protecting Americans Action Fund Advisory Board.
Read the full op-ed here.
President Trump has selected acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to lead the Justice Department. To be confirmed, Mr. Blanche will likely need the votes of at least 50 of the 53 Republican senators, which will require persuading hesitant lawmakers to support him. As someone who has served as attorney general twice and cares deeply about the Justice Department, I believe Mr. Blanche should be confirmed. He is well-qualified and will run the department as effectively as anyone could under President Trump, providing much-needed leadership and stability.
The main thing going for Mr. Trump and his party right now is the administration’s ambitious domestic-policy agenda aimed at rolling back destructive progressive policies and restoring common-sense, prosperity and public safety. Such policies have long been core Republican priorities, but few understand how indispensable a well-run Justice Department is to achieving them.
Policy goals mean nothing unless backed by an effective Justice Department capable of performing the hard legal work of translating priorities into tangible results. This is true not only for the department’s crime-fighting initiatives, but also for the policy agendas of virtually all other agencies—be it the Department of Homeland Security’s securing the border or the Energy Department’s securing American energy dominance. Simply getting initiatives off the ground often requires Herculean legal efforts to overcome court challenges and other obstructive legal maneuvers.
The attorney general’s post isn’t an ivory-tower job, nor one for a mere political performer. It demands legal acumen combined with the practical experience, leadership and institutional savvy necessary to set strategy and marshal the legal campaigns required to advance the administration’s policy agenda.
Mr. Blanche has the necessary qualities for the job. He is a skillful and accomplished lawyer with extensive experience in the department as a prosecutor and deputy attorney general. Throughout his career he has shown the personal determination, discipline and thick skin this position demands.
During this administration, Mr. Blanche has already demonstrated effective leadership in the central role he has played running the department. As deputy attorney general until this past April, he was responsible for running all the department’s day-to-day operations, and he personally orchestrated key initiatives, such as the administration’s sweeping efforts against violent crime. Since then, he has continued his hands-on management style as acting attorney general. His performance has made possible the administration’s impressive progress on multiple fronts: re-establishing control over immigration, attacking cartels and transnational gangs, cracking down on massive fraud in government programs, eliminating discriminatory DEI programs, promoting American economic growth and energy dominance, eliminating unreasonable regulations and more.
Beyond Mr. Blanche’s effectiveness, there are practical reasons he should be confirmed. The president isn’t required to have anyone confirmed to fill the spot. Because Mr. Blanche is the deputy, the president could keep him running the Justice Department even if the Senate rejects him. Mr. Trump could appoint any number of officials to carry out the attorney general’s duties on an acting basis, without confirmation. Mr. Blanche would be more effective and a better steward of the department than anyone else the president could conceivably appoint to fill the position. Confirming him will give him more weight in the counsels of government at home and abroad.
I respect the senators who appear undecided. But no matter how frustrated they may be with the president, it would be a mistake to send a message by turning down Mr. Blanche. It wouldn’t force the president to make a better choice. It will simply invite more chaos and a less desirable appointment. Given the stakes, this is a decision that calls for carefully weighing the practical consequences of a “no” vote against those of a “yes” vote and assessing which would lead to the best outcome for the country.
Critics say that Mr. Blanche, having served as the president’s personal defense lawyer, won’t confront the president with hard truths. Exactly the opposite is true. A successful criminal-defense lawyer like Mr. Blanche isn’t a toady who sugarcoats the truth to his client. The job demands regularly confronting strong-willed clients with harsh reality. This necessarily involves clashes, but the lawyer’s dogged willingness to anchor his client to reality is what builds trust and makes the relationship effective.
The president takes hard advice best from those whom he recognizes have his best interests at heart. Having helped the president through the crucible of his legal battles, Mr. Blanche is likely in the best position of anyone in the country to deliver strong counsel to the president and have him accept it. Senators should view a trusting relationship as a positive, not a negative.
The left has portrayed Mr. Blanche as a man who will docilely carry out the president’s desires. But Mr. Blanche doesn’t shy away from giving the president straight-from-the-shoulder advice and, where warranted, pushing back on bad ideas. He doesn’t always prevail, but, frankly, no one has a better chance of getting through to Mr. Trump.
Much of the criticism of Mr. Blanche rests on the idea that the Justice Department should be independent of the president and that it’s inherently wrong for an attorney general to accede to the president’s views. But, under the Constitution, the president has ultimate responsibility to execute the law. The attorney general is the president’s subordinate, charged with helping him carry out his constitutional duties. There is nothing inherently wrong with the president’s weighing in or giving direction on legal matters. Nor is it necessarily wrong for an attorney general to defer to the president’s decisions—so long as he believes he is acting lawfully and upholding the Constitution.
The nation needs a serious, effective and competent attorney general. America’s interests are best served by confirming Mr. Blanche.