TikTok posts – Alvin Bragg didn’t say he would drop charges against Donald Trump; this video’s a deepfake

CNN analyst Andrew McCabe on Tuesday pointed out that the Department of Justice never responded to President Donald Trump's IRS lawsuit — and how that could impact Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's nomination.

The former deputy director of the FBI told CNN anchor Kasie Hunt that, as Blanche's nomination remains in limbo ahead of Thursday's vote, further questions about Trump's former personal attorney have come to light.

"Let's remember, there essentially was never really a true lawsuit here," McCabe said. "The president sued the IRS for $10 billion. The Department of Justice never even answered the complaint. So, there were never two opposing parties. The Justice Department never stood up and defended the United States in the way that it did in every other suit brought by the same leak from the same person."

This was unusual, McCabe explained.

"And because of that oddity, that's a very suspicious decision on the part of people like Todd Blanche and others," he said. "The lack of a true controversy meant that the entire thing was about to get dismissed. Before that could happen, they entered into these agreements. One of them, of course, created the weaponization fund, and the second one essentially granted complete immunity forever to Donald Trump, his family members and businesses."

McCabe described the situation further.

"It was basically a giveaway from the Department of Justice to the president," McCabe said. "How this thing stands or was ever conceived — I have no idea. I've been around many, many settlements of criminal matters, some of which involved IRS criminal matters, and have never seen any language like this. I think it's absolutely unprecedented and an incredibly bad idea."

The IRS settlement became a sticking point for some Republican senators during Blanche's confirmation hearing. On Tuesday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said there is no deal on Blanche's confirmation because of the settlement and the so-called anti-weaponization fund, Politico reported.

A political expert issued a dark warning on Monday as the country prepares for the November midterms.

President Donald Trump has made it clear that he intends to meddle in the 2026 midterms. He has called on the Postal Service to create a national voter database and send mail-in ballots only to people on that list, a move that the courts have upheld thus far. He has also repeatedly called on Republicans to pass the SAVE American Act, a bill that would rewrite the way U.S. elections are conducted.

David Rothkopf, a political analyst and columnist for The Daily Beast, argued during a new episode of "The Daily Beast Podcast" that Trump has weakened America's election security infrastructure and plans to use that to his advantage in the midterms.

“Buckle up, everybody,” Rothkopf warned. “The next 90 days are going to be a weird and wild ride.”

One looming issue for the midterms is that the Supreme Court has yet to rule on an appeal the Trump administration filed regarding new rules it set for mail-in ballots. Experts have speculated that the Court could rule on it using the so-called shadow docket, an emergency procedure that allows the court to issue a ruling without explaining its rationale.

Rothkopf noted that the efforts are all part of Trump's continued efforts to stay in power, which appear to be failing.

“Donald Trump is drowning in failure,” Rothkopf said. “Nothing he says or does is working anymore. And so he’s got to try these wild schemes to distract from it, to get attention, to hope it disrupts something.”