Liberal Host Challenges Trump’s AG On His Loyalty, He Doesn’t Take The Bait

In a seemingly partisan attack on Sunday morning television, “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker badgered Attorney General Todd Blanche over whether he would pledge to remain completely “independent” from President Donald Trump.

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Welker grilled Blanche on his past as Trump’s personal defense attorney, demanding to know if the Department of Justice would operate free from White House influence, querying, “You of course used to be President Trump’s former personal defense attorney. Can you pledge that the Justice Department will always act independently of the White House?”

Blanche shot back, rejecting the premise of her question entirely. “No, I’m not going to pledge that,” he declared. “And no attorney general should ever pledge that. … If I were to pledge I will be independent of the White House, what that means is that if President Trump says, ‘I want the Department of Justice to go after every violent criminal in this country’ — which is what he has said — what you’re saying to me is I should say, ‘No, sir, I’m not going to do it.’”

“This narrative that’s mostly pushed by the Left and pushed by the media that the president’s going to pull me aside and ask me to do something illegal is completely a false narrative, not true, will not happen, and hasn’t happened,” he added.

Obama’s bagman Eric Holder would like a word…

Meet the Press is a joke. https://t.co/7WN8GsICmL

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) August 16, 2026

Yet, while the media routinely obsesses over hypothetical concerns regarding Trump’s control over the Justice Department, conservative critics point to history, arguing that the double standard is glaring. Under the previous administration, President Barack Obama used Attorney General Eric Holder and the DOJ as political weapons to advance a partisan agenda and bypass constitutional limitations.

While news anchors now demand strict walls between the White House and the DOJ, legal scholars and conservative watchdogs posited that rather than acting as an independent officer sworn to uphold the U.S. Constitution, Holder functioned as Obama’s personal defense attorney and political operative. During that era, the DOJ selectively enforced laws, as it chose not to enforce federal laws that conflicted with the administration’s political goals (such as certain federal drug laws or portions of immigration law) while it targeted political opponents.

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The controversial track record included Operation Fast and Furious, where the ATF “gun-walking” operation was allowed to proceed. Critics argued the DOJ allowed illegal weapons to flow into Mexico to build a public political case for stricter domestic gun control laws. When Congress launched an investigation into the botched operation, Holder refused to hand over documents, leading the House of Representatives to hold him in contempt of Congress.

Rather than demanding transparency, President Obama made the decision to invoke executive privilege to shield Holder.

Furthermore, press freedom advocates and conservative commentators previously raised alarms over the DOJ’s actions against journalists, including the secret seizure of Associated Press phone records and naming Fox News reporter James Rosen as a “co-conspirator” in a leak investigation.

Critics also pointed to electoral policy, claiming the DOJ used civil rights enforcement and voting rights lawsuits to mobilize the Democratic base and block state-level voter ID laws.

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