Long headline. Start with short video. Then HCR long but deep one.
Ted Cruz, talking as if he's thinking of a 2028 run, and let Trump - JD twist in the wind --
Republican Senators yesterday are reported to have had a private meeting with todd blanche, that went not well for blanche bassing any upcoming Senate confirmation hearing, unless --- you tell me. I was not there. Cruz was, and he talked.
Ted Cruz says GOP senators were ‘screaming' at Todd Blanche during ‘anti-weaponization' fund briefing --- The private meeting came hours before the Senate postponed a critical vote to advance a partisan funding bill for ICE and Border Patrol.
By Brennan Leach and Kyla Guilfoil | NBC News • Published May 22, 2026 • Updated on May 22, 2026 at 9:07 pm[with an embedded video of disingenuous Trumpstering - but don't let it segue to other stuff]
Screaming, yelling and accusations of self-dealing.
That’s how Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Friday described a closed-door meeting with Senate Republicans and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on the Trump administration’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that’s drawn bipartisan opposition.
On his podcast “Verdict with Ted Cruz,” the Texas senator described the meeting as “one of the roughest meetings I’ve seen in my entire time in the Senate.”
“Fiery does not begin to cut it,” Cruz said. “My guess is there’re probably 45 senators in the room, at least half of them were blasting the attorney general, and they were pissed.”
Senate Republicans met with Blanche on Thursday to discuss the fund, which ultimately derailed a vote on a Republican bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, NBC News previously reported.
You tell me, why did Cruz speak when others stayed silent? Out of decency? Cruz? No.
After a second embedded video, the item continues -
Cruz said several of his GOP colleagues felt that they could not politically defend the fund because it appeared as though President Donald Trump “cut a deal with himself.”
[...] Cruz said on his podcast that if the Senate had gone forward with planned series of votes pertaining to the ICE and Border Patrol bill Thursday night, roughly half of the Republican caucus would have voted with Democrats in favor of amendments seeking to rein in the fund.
He emphasized “the degree of the jailbreak of Republicans who were bolting, who were saying we’re going to vote with the Democrats.”
Cruz warned that if the administration does not modify the anti-weaponization fund by the time Congress comes back into session, “they’ve got a full-on revolt in the Senate.”
[...] The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Cruz’s remarks.
A growing number of Republicans have raised concerns over the fund.
MSN carried a Raw Story item on the theme -
"There were fireworks at an epic level," Cruz said on a Friday episode of his podcast. "I got to say it's one of the roughest meetings that I've seen in my entire time in the Senate. There are a lot of Republican senators who were just p---ed."
The Thursday meeting took place to discuss Trump's proposed $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund. [actually $1.776 billion - why that symbolism?] During and shortly after the meeting, reporters shared that GOP senators poured outrage on Blanche.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), fresh off a primary defeat to a Trump-endorsed candidate, and retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) in particular were "p---ed" and "angry," Cruz said.
"Fiery does not begin to cut it," Cruz went on. "The senators I mentioned, they were p---ed, but almost every Republican senator was there."
He estimated that "probably 45 senators" were in the room, "blasting the attorney general, and they were p---ed," Cruz repeated.
"There were multiple senators who were yelling at the Attorney General, and it was not calm," Cruz described. "It was yelling, and they were saying, 'This feels like self-dealing.'"
The "anti-weaponization" fund was created as part of a settlement of Trump's lawsuit against the IRS, an agency he controls as president. Blanche's primary talking point in the meeting was that the Trump family isn't eligible for payments through the fund.
Cruz said that "unhappy" senators demanded to know if January 6 rioters would get payments.
"Todd Blanche was adamant, and he said, not just no, but 'hell no,'" Cruz recalled. "And he said this, not just to one senator. This was to three or five or 10. I mean, it was over and over again. He said, 'No, no, no, nobody who committed an act of violence, nobody who assaulted law enforcement.'"
No mention of the get out of jail tax thing Blanch, himself, signed. And there was no case and controversy pending when DOJ dropped the shit onto the table. HCR's video gets into that major detail.
MSN also carried two parallel reports on the Cruz statements about the blanche - GOP Sen meeting; here and here. The second of those carried reports noted:
“Nearly 2-hour meeting with Acting AG Todd Blanche and Senate Republicans was incredibly hostile, per multiple attendees,” Punchbowl News senior congressional reporter Andrew Desiderio reported.
“As many as 25 GOP senators spoke (this is very rare for these meetings), all in opposition to weaponization fund,” he noted.
For their part, Republicans “pitched specific ideas such as dictating how the 5 commissioners are chosen,” and “not allowing people convicted of violence against cops to be eligible for a payout.”
One prominent Senate Republican, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, confronted Blanche “about the weaponization fund at the Senate GOP meeting,” reported Semafor congressional bureau chief Burgess Everett.
“Meeting being described as a ‘s——’ per people familiar with it,” Everett noted. He added that the senator “hates the fund” and called it “stupid on stilts” earlier today.
Not only did the meeting not go well, the D.C. Examiner’s Ramsey Touchberry said that he hasn’t heard that any Republican changed their minds. The D.C. Examiner’s David Sivak described the Senate GOP as “super tight-lipped after the Blanche meeting.”
A third of the Senate will be up for reelection this November and can you see any of them, GOP in particular, running while explaining why Trump and offspring want to sanitize tax detail? What's there that worries them about a shitshow that was unleashed after Bondi had left? Something, many things?
And Trump's losing Bibi's war. Inflation rages against the public. Gax prices feed profiteering over the Iran situation being dragged out. And DOJ selling a smokescreen deal that is Trump contracting with himself for perks Congress never considered funding (including the bunker-ballroom).
HCR in her video does talk about Trump approval ratings in the 30% range - go figure why.
And he's looking as if he's moving for extrodorinary powers and perks, where we're yet to see a Reichstag fire.
Expect one? You figure that out on your own.
_________________UPDATE_________________
Tom Emmer, House whip and who other people like me live in MN6 with them keeping the crypto oracle guy in office and building House seniority, put out a glossy two-side full page mailer on delivering pork for two Minnesota counties. Crude, yes, but my concern is awaiting his two-side glossy on the 1776 slush fund and Trump and his mirror image acting AG crooking up a skip tax crime liability package, the two together.
Surely Mr. Emmer knows of this, and has an opinion, so when/if he shares that via campaign literature know now, Crabgrass will post about it.
Mr Emmer, what is your conscience saying to you about this, and how are folks in the district to gas their cars? Your full page two side did not explain that, so obviously the explanation is coming. Thank you.