Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche kicked off the Thursday main stage speeches at the 2026 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, TX. CPAC Chairman Matt Schlapp interviewed DAG Blanche and thanked him for being President Donald Trump's defense attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James' weaponization lawsuits.
Schlapp led with the question about what he described as the tornado of chaos unleashed by the late Special Counsel Robert Mueller and RussiaGate. Schlapp sadly acknowledged that this tainted what should have been an honorable legacy of Mueller's service.
Blanche said:
"What you just said is right. First of all, thank you for letting me spend some time, and thanks for showing up, guys [to the audience]. This is a great event, and I'm honored to be here. Yeah, listen, the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax was a complete and total hoax. It almost brought down President Trump. That's how devastating it was for this country. And unfortunately, Mr. Mueller was the leader in that. He had a storied history that went back to the Vietnam War. [The fact that he spearheaded] that [weaponization] was a disaster. It was the worst sort of weaponization of not only the government, but Congress, other prosecutors, the FBI. And it was a stigma on our country that will take a long time to recover."
Schlapp talked about Mueller, former FBI Director James Comey, and how they contributed to the politicization of the FBI and the DOJ. He asked Blanche, "Do we have any hope that we get back to the idea that no matter what your party affiliation, that you will face one system of justice again?"
Blanche was emphatic in his response.
"Yes, of course we have hope! Yes, we have hope. I mean, listen, I think that what happened for the past four years was so bad and so awful. And a big part of that was what happened with the Department of Justice and the FBI and the weaponization that we saw. But, and the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, President Trump, and myself, we are changing things.
"Full stop, we are changing things."
Blanche leaned forward and focused on the audience, emphasizing that the change started with "We the People."
"And folks need to realize, and I think it's important to realize, that what was the first thing that we did to change things? It's what everybody in this room did. We reelected the president. Right? That was the change."
Blanche received sustained applause for this statement and said that he saw the power of We the People and how we changed the trajectory during the New York weaponization against President Trump.
"So, I lived it every single day for two years, what was happening. And this country, the people in this room, they're the ones that effected change. They're the ones that said, 'No.' You have a man that was indicted six separate times, and yet this country said, 'No way.' So, that was the first, that was the first glimmer of hope that we can be better."
Blanche also challenged the narrative among certain people on the Right that this DOJ is not doing enough.
"The other things that are happening: There is not a single man or woman at the Department of Justice who had anything to do with those prosecutions. Over 200 — Over 200, either left before we came in, because they knew it was coming, or were fired or took early retirement. They are no longer employed by this department. When it comes to the FBI, which takes a lot of criticism, especially because of what happened over the past several years, Director Patel has cleaned house there too. There isn't a single man or woman with a gun, federal agent still in that organization that had anything to do with the prosecutions. I want folks to realize what that means. President Trump, for the first time in modern history, has said, 'I am the president, and if you work in the executive branch, you work for me.' And guess what? We can all read the Constitution."
Blanche then placed the blame on former chief executives, both Republican and Democrat, who chose not to challenge the Deep State and blithely accepted the status quo.
"And unfortunately, past administrations, Republicans included, have just resigned themselves to putting up with partisan actors within the Department of Justice. We do not."
Blanche returned to the fact that it is Americans who kept their feet to the fire to see justice come about.
"So, if you want to talk about what happened in Manhattan against President Trump, I'm happy to do so. But I think it's better to talk about what happened after that trial. Which is, after that trial, the entire country, even many Democrats, agreed that it was insanely crazy. If you look at Fani Willis, her case was completely annihilated and destroyed for all kinds of reasons. And so, look, when you talk about Justice, they're working hard every day. And I don't just say, "working hard" as a cliche. I mean, the Attorney General or myself, every single day, seven days a week, are focused on bringing justice up. And it will come. And I know every single person in this room is saying to themselves, 'Why is it taking so long?'
"Raise your hand if you're just thinking that."
Many in the audience raised their hands, and a few shouts were heard in the affirmative.
Blanche was unperturbed and continued:
"Why is it taking so long? Here's the answer: For one: it's not taking so long. For one, we have already done more in one year than any administration has ever done before. If you look at what happened to the men and women convicted because of January 6th, by 5 p.m. on January 20th, every one of them was either pardoned or had their sentence commuted.
"So, when people say you've done nothing, I say you have a very short memory."
Blanche outlined the other gains of the Trump DOJ.
"When you look at the Christian community in this country, my father was a minister. I was raised in the Midwest. They were persecuted for four years. Within a week of coming in, Attorney General Bondi flipped that and said, 'No more.' We're not going to go after Christian organizations. We're not going to go after non-profits that are Christians. We're going to go after the banks that are debanking and not letting those organizations bank.
"So, that's something we've done."
Blanche discussed the insidious undermining of the Second Amendment and the weaponization against law enforcement. Blanche let it be known that this DOJ is no longer in the business of taking away gun rights or targeting law enforcement.
"We talked about the Second Amendment, which had been trampled on for an entire administration. This administration has done more in 12 months to fix that, where it comes to restoring gun rights to people that should never have them taken from them, to make it easier to not have to pay tax on various types of guns that should never have been taxed in the first place, to withdrawing from lawsuits that we don't belong in. That's the kind of thing. We had consent decrees all over this country where the men and women in blue were being told by some judge or some law firm that they had done something wrong. We have removed ourselves from every single one of those unless the judge said no, and then we're fighting that too.
"That is something that we have done that will matter long beyond President Trump's term in office."
Schlapp turned to the changes in prosecution of drug cartels and human trafficking. Blanche proudly declared:
"Folks, we are treating drug dealers like the narco-terrorists that they are. And so, I met with an Angel Mom this morning, an Angel Grandma, I think she's going to speak at some point. And the fact that these men, mostly men, are injecting and sending poison into our country, knowing that it will kill thousands and thousands of Americans, young people, middle-aged people, your neighbors, every single year, makes them terrorists. President Trump came in and said, 'I will stop that.'
"We are now treating terrorists and treating these narco-dealers as they should be treated. We're blowing them up. They were arresting drug dealers every single day like we haven't seen ever in our generation. I was in Los Angeles yesterday. That morning they hit two houses. A ton of fentanyl, cocaine. That's just a single day I happen to be there."
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Blanche made it plain that he wasn't bothered by people's questions or criticisms of the work he did at the DOJ; in fact, he welcomed it.
"So when people say, 'Why aren't you doing more?' I welcome that criticism. Keep on putting pressure on us. Do you think it makes me upset when you go on X and say, 'Come on, Blanche, why aren't we doing more?' You don't know me. That's what motivates me. And so we're going to keep on working hard, and you're going to continue to see results, and that will not stop."
Blanche returned to the fact that it takes Americans holding the administration, judges, and elected officials' feet to the fire that will turn the tide and make the difference.
"It really is the pressure that we, that people can put on. Even in this administration, everybody's afraid that the next administration, if we don't win, we're going to all be investigated. And the existing administration is afraid that they're going to get indicted. Why are they afraid? Because that's exactly what happened during the last administration. All of President Trump's cabinet, everybody that worked in the White House, his Secret Service detail.
"That is so extraordinarily un-American that if you set it right, it doesn't seem to be American. And it's not. And it will never, ever happen again because of what we're doing. But also, because of what you all did in saying we're not going to stand for it, and sending the president back to the Oval office. So, as a nation, we have started the process of doing that. And we're going to continue to do our part.
"But you all have to continue to do your part, too, and keep on standing up."
Schlapp rounded out the discussion with voter ID, the fate of election integrity, and the Red and Blue dichotomy. Despite the fight ahead, Blanche once again remained hopeful that with the work being done at the local, state, and federal levels of government, things will turn around.
"I think we've come to a place where the local jurisdictions, not the cops on the street, but the leadership and the mayors and the district attorneys in some of these cities, do not have your best interests. And it's terrible, it's disgusting, and I hope that it changes, but all we can do and it's not comforting to say this, but I'll say this: What President Trump said when they tried to kill him. Moments after, bloodied shirt, he stood up and said, 'Fight! Fight! Fight!' So, all you can do is Fight! Fight! Fight! and that's what I do every day. That's what the Attorney General does. What the president does.
"And that's what we have to do too. That's the only way we'll have success, and it's exhausting because fighting is tough, but that's what we have to do."
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