Vox64%

Why Trump’s attorney general nominee is struggling 49%

By Cameron Peters67%

7/30/2026, 3:00:00 PM

BS Summary: This article contains 16 faulty reasoning types, including Biased Writer Voice, Fundamental Attribution Error, and Confirmation Bias, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 36.8% saturation with 151 hits. Analysis detected 846 faulty-reasoning hits from 410 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 48.2% and a BS Rank of 49% (11,722 of 22,840 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 51.30% of the article peer group.

This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. 
Subscribe here. 
Welcome to The Logoff: Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee is in trouble. 
What’s happening? 
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, whom Trump nominated for the permanent job last month, was set to receive a committee vote on Thursday on his way to being confirmed. 
Instead, lawmakers are punting on the vote after multiple key Republican senators expressed concerns  and Trump is now threatening to pull Blanche’s nomination until next year. 
Why are senators worried about Blanche? 
Nearly all of Trump’s nominees  even his most controversial picks, like HHS Secretary Robert F. 
Kennedy Jr. and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth  have been confirmed by the Senate. 
But Blanche, who is also Trump’s former personal lawyer, has a track record as acting attorney general, where he’s primarily distinguished himself by his unflinching devotion to Trump’s personal priorities: things like indicting former FBI director James Comey, creating a vast $1.8 billion slush fund to reward Trump’s allies, and immunizing the president and his family from scrutiny by the IRS via an unusual settlement deal. 
Not all of those schemes have gone well; the slush fund, for example, went down in flames in June. 
The IRS shield, however, is still kicking, and Sens. 
Thom Tillis (R-NC) and John Cornyn (R-TX)  both of whom sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee  are pushing Blanche to commit to changes to the settlement before they will support his nomination. 
So far, that hasn’t happened. 
What happens if Blanche’s nomination fails? 
It’s a black eye for Trump and a sign that the GOP, facing an increasingly dire midterms outlook, is growing less willing to go along with Trump’s increasingly conspicuous corruption. 
But a defeated vote or a pulled nomination won’t actually end Blanche’s tenure as acting attorney general  since he was previously confirmed by the Senate for the deputy attorney general job, he can likely stay in the acting role as long as Trump wants to keep him there. 
And with that, it’s time to log off… 
This story from the Atlantic, about a “tourism fixer” in Rome for whom just about any experience is in reach, was a great read (click here for a gift link). 
As always, have a great evening, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow! 
Confirmation Bias
16.1%
Anchoring Bias
0%
Availability Heuristic
11.2%
Representativeness Heuristic
0%
Hindsight Bias
4.6%
Overconfidence Bias
0%
Framing Effect
4.6%
Loss Aversion
0%
Status Quo Bias
0%
Sunk Cost Effect
0%
Optimism Bias
12%
Pessimism Bias
1.2%
Negativity Bias
36.8%
Self-Serving Bias
0%
Fundamental Attribution Error
23.4%
Actor-Observer Bias
0%
In-Group Bias
0%
Out-Group Homogeneity Bias
0%
Halo Effect
0%
Horn Effect
0%
Dunning-Kruger Effect
0%
Recency Bias
0%
Primacy Effect
0%
Blind-Spot Bias
0%
Ad Hominem
16.1%
Straw Man
0%
Appeal to Authority
0%
False Dilemma
7.3%
Slippery Slope
0%
Circular Reasoning
0%
Hasty Generalization
3.9%
Red Herring
0%
Bandwagon
0%
Appeal to Emotion
0%
Begging the Question
0%
Post Hoc (False Cause)
0%
Tu Quoque
0%
Burden of Proof
8.3%
Appeal to Nature
0%
Composition/Division
0%
Anecdotal
7.3%
No True Scotsman
0%
Ambiguity (Equivocation)
0%
Gambler’s Fallacy
0%
Middle Ground
0%
Personal Incredulity
0%
Special Pleading
0%
Genetic Fallacy
0%
Unattributed Quote
0%
Quote-first Misdirection
0%
Biased Writer Voice
32.9%
Indoctrination
0%
Politically Left Leaning Bias
6.3%
Politically Right Leaning Bias
0%
Attempt to Sell a Product or Service
14.1%

410 words analyzed.

Analysis

Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.