Todd Blanche says it would be an 'honor' if Trump nominates him to replace Bondi as AG

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Tuesday that it would be an "honor" if President Donald Trump decided to pick him to replace former Attorney General Pam Bondi on a more long-term basis.

Trump moved Blanche into the acting position last month, immediately after firing Bondi, but has not nominated an individual to formally replace her. Blanche served as Bondi's deputy attorney general. 

"As to whether or not I want this job, I did not ask for this job," Blanche said in his first press briefing since Bondi's departure. "I love working for President Trump. It's the greatest honor of a lifetime, and if President Trump chooses to keep me as acting, that's an honor. If he chooses to nominate me, that's an honor.

"If he chooses to nominate somebody else and asks me to go do something else, I will say, ‘Thank you very much. I love you, sir,'" he added.

The comment occurred during Blanche's press briefing on the creation of a National Fraud Enforcement Division at the Department of Justice. The division will include 93 prosecutors in every district across the country.

Blanche said Bondi's departure from the DOJ is still ongoing and that he has been communicating with her amid the transition.

Bondi's public popularity dropped early in her tenure after she organized a botched public relations stunt on the Epstein files in which she distributed binders of largely public information to conservative influencers.

She has since faced scrutiny over the DOJ's handling of the files after Congress passed a bill requiring their release. Other critics have pointed to the myriad legal difficulties her agency faced in prosecuting alleged wrongdoers involved in Russiagate and other supposed deep state operations.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.