Blanche invokes Trump ‘love’ when asked about staying on after Bondi

By Fox News · Fox News

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche showered President Donald Trump with praise during a Justice Department anti-fraud press conference and said any decision on permanently replacing Pam Bondi was up to the president. "As to whether or not I want this job, I did not ask for this job. I love working for President Trump," Blanche said in his first public remarks since Bondi's firing. "It's the greatest honor of a lifetime, and if President Trump chooses to keep me as acting, that's an honor. If he chooses to nominate me, that's an honor." Blanche added: "If he chooses to nominate somebody else and asks me to go do something else, I will say, ‘Thank you very much. I love you, sir.'" PAM BONDI IS OUT AS AG — HERE ARE THE CONTENDERS WHO COULD REPLACE HER Blanche's remarks came after Trump announced last week that Bondi would be leaving her role and that Blanche, his formal personal attorney and the DOJ's deputy attorney general, would fill in indefinitely as acting attorney general. Officials can serve in an acting capacity for up to 210 days. Trump has not signaled a nominee to take the role permanently, but he could nominate Blanche. Fox News Digital previously reported that the president has also had discussions with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin about taking the job. Blanche noted that Bondi's transition out of the department remained ongoing. Bondi announced last week that she would take the next 30 days to shift responsibilities to Blanche. When asked why she was pushed out of her job, Blanche said "nobody has any idea… except for the president." Trump had fired Bondi after she failed to secure successful indictments against some of Trump's top political rivals and amid long-simmering frustrations with her handling of Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking case files. "As far as Pam Bondi's last day on the job, I am the acting attorney general," Blanche said, adding, "We've been regularly communicating over the past several days for an appro…