Tillis opposition puts Trump loyalist's nomination in jeopardy

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Axios

Updated 7 hours ago


Republican Sen. Thom Tillis (N.C.) told reporters Tuesday that he's opposed to Ed Martin's nomination for top prosecutor in D.C., threatening the viability of one of President Trump's loyalist picks.

Why it matters: Tillis is a member of the Judiciary Committee, which will vote first on the pick. A lone Republican holdout on the panel would mean Martin's nomination doesn't advance out of the committee.

Tillis told reporters that he left a Monday night meeting with Martin — who is now serving in the role in an interim capacity — concerned about the nominee's views over the proper punishment for Jan. 6 offenders.

"I have no tolerance for anyone who entered the building on Jan. 6, and that's probably where most of the friction was," he said, according to a post on X. "At this point, I've indicated to the White House I wouldn't support his nomination."

State of play: In February, Trump nominated Martin, a MAGA true believer who dismissed Jan. 6 investigators and says he will be tougher on violent criminals in the city.

And the White House showed no signs of backing away from the pick following Tillis' comments.

"Ed Martin is a fantastic U.S. Attorney for D.C. and will continue to implement the President's law-and-order agenda in Washington. He is the right man for the job and we look forward to his confirmation," White House spokesman Alex Pfeiffer told Axios.

The U.S. Attorney for D.C. has a big portfolio: white collar and national security investigations, for example, but also nearly all street-level crime in the District.

What we're watching: Martin's interim role is set to expire May 20, and Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has yet to schedule a committee vote on the nomination.

Read more: https://www.axios.com/2025/05/06/trump-ed-martin-dc-prosecutor-tillis-opposition

[LuvLoogie]

1. He will be confirmed. This is America.

[jls4561]

2. THOM Tillis' history of political courage can be written thusly:

[dchill]

5. . . . F I N I S

[Buddyzbuddy]

3. Bull! I welcome his no vote.

But if he truly feels this way about Jan. 6 he would have voted no for previous nominees.
He just doesn't have the integrity to tell the truth. Elections! I hope this is the beginning of the dam breaking.

[Bristlecone]

4. Hollis just wants something in exchange for his vote

He’s not a man of integrity around J6. He’s just another GOP opportunist that is building up some leverage.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. Maddow Blog-Trump says he's dropping Ed Martin's nomination amid bipartisan opposition

As a rule, Senate Republicans have rubber-stamped Donald Trump's worst nominees. As Ed Martin helped prove, there are rare exceptions.

Ed Martin's U.S. attorney nomination was cartoonishly ridiculous — and now it's dead.

Trump invested some real political capital into this absurdity, and in a sign of his growing weakness, this fiasco ends with nothing but embarrassment for him. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-05-08T16:12:05.652Z

Ed Martin's U.S. attorney nomination was cartoonishly ridiculous — and now it's dead.

Trump invested some real political capital into this absurdity, and in a sign of his growing weakness, this fiasco ends with nothing but embarrassment for him.

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-ed-martin-nomination-us-attorney-jan-6-rcna205197

Since Donald Trump’s second inauguration, the president has sent some truly outlandish nominees to the Senate for confirmation. In a handful of instances — Pete Hegseth, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, et al. — there were a smattering of GOP “no” votes, but in nearly every instance, the Republican-led institution ended up confirming Trump’s choice, following the White House’s demands.

Ed Martin, however, proved to be a bridge too far......

That’s not what happened. The president announced Thursday afternoon that Martin's nomination is ending, and he'll choose a new nominee in the coming days.
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:aunpu65mdrhwfie7ynymlzeh/post/3loobfqwzwk2a

Link to tweet

.....What Trump might not have fully appreciated was just how ridiculous Martin’s record had become. Indeed, his “greatest hits” package featured misguided and unnecessary fights with the dean of Georgetown University’s law school, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, former President Joe Biden, and Democratic Reps. Robert Garcia of California and Eugene Vindman of Virginia — and that’s before one adds Wikipedia and prominent medical journals to his increasingly bizarre list of targets. During his brief tenure, Martin also:

demoted multiple senior officials involved in Jan. 6 insurrection cases;

compared one of the criminal charges used against Jan. 6 defendants to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II;

falsely described himself as one of the president’s lawyers;

made dubious denials about his earlier praise for a Nazi sympathizer;

made more than 150 appearances on Russian propaganda outlets between August 2016 to April 2024;

weighed in on a civil case involving the White House, which had literally nothing to do with his office;

intervened in a dubious Environmental Protection Agency investigation;

made a dubious decision in a case involving Republican Rep. Cory Mills of Florida;

launched the wildly unnecessary “Operation Whirlwind”;

also launched the wildly unnecessary “Project 1512” initiative;

also launched a wildly unnecessary “election accountability” unit;

made a creepy public vow to wield his prosecutorial powers against those who get in Elon Musk’s way;

engaged in brazen conflict of interest in a Jan. 6 case, in which he effectively took both sides of a criminal case;

and kicked off a radically unnecessary investigation into Jack Smith and a law firm that gave the former special counsel pro bono legal services.

In a piece for New York magazine, Elie Honig recently described the lawyer as Trump’s “dangerous and ridiculous prosecutor.” Martin went out of his way to prove his many critics right, and it derailed his nomination.

As the dust settles on the White House’s latest personnel fiasco, it’s worth appreciating the scope of the president’s failure. Not only did the president nominate a spectacularly unqualified radical to lead one of the nation’s most important prosecutorial offices, and not only did he spend political capital that's suddenly in short supply, but Team Trump also appears to have failed to thoroughly vet Martin in advance — a familiar problem in this administration.

I am glad that this asshole was rejected