AG Blanche: AI Fearmongering Is a Democratic Plot to Influence Midterms

Attorney General Todd Blanche asserted Tuesday that escalating concerns about artificial intelligence posing an existential threat are a deliberate tactic by Democrats to influence the upcoming midterm elections. Blanche made these remarks during a press briefing held in the Rose Garden, stepping in as a temporary spokesperson following the recent departure of Karoline Leavitt.

"The president calls it a hoax, the way this has come around today and not three weeks ago," Blanche stated, addressing reporters during the outdoor briefing. "I was watching the news today. Every Democrat senator suddenly races to a microphone to talk about AI after being eerily silent for months and months and months." He added, "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. Of course that’s what it is. And that shouldn’t be what drives the decisions that we’re making around AI. We can’t lose the AI race to China."

Public discourse around AI's potential dangers intensified last week after Jacob Coxon, a former employee at Anthropic, posted on X that AI developers "earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade." Coxon warned of imminent "superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources." The rapid amplification of these warnings by Democratic officials led to Republican speculation that the disclosure was coordinated with organizations aiming to regulate AI.

Blanche emphasized that the Department of Justice's role is not regulatory. "We’re prosecutors, not regulators. So we’re not going to try to regulate AI," he said. "There’s a lot of criminal laws. And so, if anybody associated with AI violates criminal law, we’ll investigate that. We already have. There’s plenty of cases involving AI that we have charged individuals."

He described AI as "extraordinarily beneficial to our society" and noted that it "conveniently has become a flashpoint this week." Former President Trump, in a post on Truth Social, dismissed concerns about AI, stating, "The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!"

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) countered this view, arguing, "Even if we had a high IQ president right now, and we surely don’t, it wouldn’t be enough," advocating for regulation.

Blanche, positioned in the shade during the briefing, made light of the reporters' discomfort in the sun, joking about their sweating while he remained comfortable. He concluded his remarks by referencing Leavitt, stating, "She’s a lot better than me, and so thank you guys very much."