GOP senator hammered for caving to Trump with decisive vote

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), a moderate Republican who sometimes speaks out against President Donald Trump, is facing backlash from critics who fear he's about to approve the confirmation of Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Blanche was nominated by Trump to serve as attorney general last month, and on Thursday, was grilled by a Senate committee during his confirmation hearing. Tillis, as described by Zeteo on Friday, “made a surprise move” by withholding his support until Blanche met with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein, which Blanche had yet to do despite repeated requests.

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Blanche met with Epstein survivors that same day, but according to The Independent journalist Eric Michael Garcia, the meeting was largely unproductive.

“Today, Epstein survivors confronted Todd Blanche – and he treated it like a perfunctory audition for votes, not accountability,” said Lara Blume McGee, an Epstein survivor who attended the meeting, according to Garcia.

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“Blanche was condescending, repeatedly interrupted and tried to gaslight survivors instead of explaining why DOJ released materials that revealed survivors’ identities.”

Despite McGee’s poor reception of the meeting, it apparently was enough to satisfy Tillis, who later on Thursday commended Blanche for his “willingness to directly engage and listen” to Epstein survivors.

Andrew Donaldson, a writer and podcast host, called the ordeal "eunuch theater,” and Moe Davis, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and attorney, issued a scathing condemnation of both Tillis and Blanche.

“Thanks to [Tillis] we have T-hyped [Defense Secretary Pete] Hegseth and thanks to Tillis we’ll have ethically corrupt Attorney General Todd Blanche,” Davis wrote in a social media post on X to his more than 137,000 followers.

“Tillis has a spine as resolute as Gumby’s. If you think Thom Tillis gives a rat’s a-- about America you are precisely as stupid as Tillis thinks you are.”