Election security, artificial intelligence take forefront at AG Todd Blanche press briefing 

Attorney General Todd Blanche briefed reporters at the White House Tuesday, the second time an administration official has stepped in for the job after former Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt left the role in late August.

Election security, fraud and artificial intelligence dominated the briefing, which Blanche opened by touting the Justice Department’s latest efforts on crime and voter fraud.

“Since President Trump returned to office, FBI data shows 4,260 arrests related to FTOs, including 1,039 individuals prevented from carrying out alleged terrorist attacks. That’s a 38% increase from the last administration,” he said, including a Tuesday arrest in Butler, Pennsylvania, of a man who allegedly planned to commit terrorism on behalf of ISIS. “In just the past 10 days, the Department of Justice has announced charges against 11 individuals for illegally voting in 2024 and 2022 or fraudulently registering to vote.”

Blanche said the Trump administration has “charged nearly four times” as many noncitizen voting cases in two years as the Biden administration did in four years and said the Justice Department is actively investigating “hundreds” of cases across the U.S.

Blanche’s briefing, held in the Rose Garden at the White House, follows a press briefing held by Vice President J.D. Vance earlier in September. Administration officials are filling in as a search is ongoing for a replacement for Leavitt, who departed the White House to spend more time with her two children after the birth of her daughter in May.

Trump has indicated he “may have developed” a shortlist of candidates for the position. “We have a lot of people that want it,” he said, speaking to reporters outside Air Force One over the weekend. He added that Cabinet secretaries will fill in in the meantime, naming Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President J.D. Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Education Secretary Linda McMahon as possibilities in the future.

Blanche on Tuesday also addressed the Supreme Court’s Monday decision to block the Trump administration’s push to restrict mail-in ballots before the midterm elections, noting that the court’s decision “doesn’t affect ongoing criminal investigations into illegal voting,” he said.

“There should be nothing surprising about what we’re trying to do when it comes to mail-in voting, which is we want to make sure that there is safe voting and that there is integrity, free and fair elections, and that there is one person placing one vote and that that person’s eligible to vote.”

The administration will “comply with the Supreme Court’s decision,” he said, while acknowledging that Trump is “very frustrated” with the ruling.

“He should communicate his concerns with the Supreme Court whenever he has them,” Blanche said, in reference to a Truth Social post that criticized the court’s ruling and the justices. “This isn’t the first time that he’s done it, and it won’t be the last. He’s also publicly very appreciative of the Supreme Court when there’s decisions that he very much agrees with. That’s what a democracy is about.”

Asked about recent reports that artificial intelligence is a national security threat, Blanche said AI is “extraordinarily beneficial to our society” and said the U.S. cannot afford to lose the AI race to China, casting AI concerns as a political ploy to influence the November midterms.

“This should not be breaking news that this AI issue that suddenly came up two months before an election,” he said, calling out Democratic lawmakers for racing “to a microphone to talk about AI after being eerily silent for months and months and months.”

“So to talk about the timing of this as being nothing but an effort to influence the midterms, I shouldn’t have to say that out loud,” Blanche said. “Of course that’s what it is.”

(Image credit: X/The White House)