A few days after the Trump administration unveiled its $1.776 billion compensation fund, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton appeared on CNBC for a memorable interview. The Republican prosecutor, recently tapped to go after assorted White House foes, said he expects Americans to support the payout because “they tried to destroy” Donald Trump when “they leaked his tax returns.”
That didn’t make a lot of sense — the president’s returns were leaked by one individual contractor, whom the Biden administration prosecuted and sent to prison — but Clayton nevertheless added, in reference to the fund, “I don’t think we’re going to be talking about this issue in a week.”
That was wrong, too: The initiative, which has been panned by members of both parties as a “slush fund,” clearly remains a major topic of conversation. In fact, 10 days after Clayton’s comments, former Vice President Mike Pence appeared on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” and shared some unsubtle thoughts about the fund with host Margaret Brennan.
“The idea of creating a fund that could compensate people who assaulted police officers and vandalized the Capitol, that is totally unacceptable,” Pence said. “My hope is the administration will drop it and drop the idea entirely.”
“I mean, it’s deeply offensive to me that you could have a fund that could even possibly compensate people who assaulted police officers or vandalized the Capitol on Jan. 6,” he added in an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press.” “I think that’s broadly held by most Republicans and most Americans.”
The former vice president has a unique perspective on the matter. Pence, who has criticized Team Trump in a variety of instances over the past year and a half, was hunted by Jan. 6 rioters during the assault on the Capitol, with some of them chanting, “Hang Mike Pence.”
As the president prepares to possibly send taxpayer-financed checks to those same insurrectionist rioters, Pence’s staunch opposition carries quite a bit of weight.
Complicating matters for the White House, Trump’s former vice president is hardly alone. Indeed, the “slush fund” is proving so toxic that its future remains very much in doubt.
On Friday, for example, a federal judge ruled that, at least for now, the fund cannot move forward as planned. That dovetailed with a Wall Street Journal report that said administration officials “have grown increasingly concerned about the viability of the fund,” adding that the idea has faced such strenuous opposition among GOP senators that Trump’s top aides “have discussed whether he should kill” the endeavor altogether.
As for congressional Democrats who are even more eager to derail the fund, MS NOW reported that party officials are “determined to force GOP lawmakers to answer for the issue — repeatedly.” From the report:
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Bills, amendments, investigations and lawsuits are all in the works, as Democrats say the appearance of corruption has broken through to the public.
“Everyone’s talking about it,” Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, told MS NOW. “People are absolutely talking about it. It’s absolutely a big issue.”
Unfortunately for Republicans, Democrats have a variety of vehicles in mind, including amendments on key legislation that the GOP majority is eager to pass.
In fact, in a “Dear Colleague” letter issued as this week got underway, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote, “This week, Senate Democrats will launch a coordinated effort to kill the slush fund before one cent goes out the door. And no matter what Republicans do, we will force them to vote.”
The New York Democrat focused specifically on a pending reconciliation package, which GOP lawmakers intend to use to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. Two weeks ago, Republicans intended to advance their own party’s proposal, but the effort was derailed by intraparty opposition to the fund.
With this in mind, Schumer added in Monday morning’s letter, “If Republicans return to reconciliation, we will be ready with amendments to shut the fund down. If they try to bury the issue, we will force them to the Senate floor. If they try to sneak behind appropriations, we will fight them there too. … Democrats are forcing Republicans to make one simple choice: Kill the slush fund or own it.”
For good measure, a trio of Senate Democrats — Arizona’s Mark Kelly, California’s Adam Schiff and Michigan’s Elissa Slotkin — are also poised to unveil the “Drain the Slush Fund Act,” which is also designed to deny all public funding to Trump’s project.
Clayton’s prediction that the political world would soon give up “talking about this issue” is looking worse all the time.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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