Asked whether the Justice Department might try to block states from certifying election results, Attorney General Todd Blanche answered, “Yes,” then invoked “some doomsday scenario.” He refused to rule out federal intervention.

There’s no harm in overreacting to this. There’s more harm in dismissing what they might actually be plotting.

Because this sure sounds like preparing the battlefield and conditioning the public for another bid to overthrow an election.

Speaking with reporters, Blanche was asked whether DOJ might try to block a state from certifying results.

“Yes. Of course there are scenarios that we could all come up with hypothetically — some doomsday scenario, for example,” he responded. “So I don’t think it’s proper to make any kind of conclusory statements about what’s going to happen in the future because I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. It is not DOJ’s intention — and it’s never our intention — to improperly interfere with elections or the state certification process, but to say that there’s no circumstances that we would ever do that — of course I’m not going to say that.”

“Am I planning my days around the election to be somewhere to not certify? Of course not, no,” he added.

Look at the pieces accumulating before this election: DOJ is demanding state voter data and suing California over ballots it claims could come from noncitizens. Blanche says the department may pursue more election cases. And now he won’t rule out trying to block states from certifying results.

Taken together, these moves look like preparation for a fight over the outcome: seed claims of fraud, put election officials under federal pressure, and keep in view a legal path to challenge or delay certification.

Attribution: Bruce Plante, PoliticalCartoons.com

Bruce Plante is an award winning, freelance editorial cartoonist in Oklahoma. Bruce drew cartoons for many years for The Tulsa World and the The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He drew for the Chattanooga Times-Free Press for 22 years.

along with Democracy in Ukraine

Attribution: Texas delays maternal mortality report – And the delay is until AFTER the midterm elections by Ann Telnaes.

Ann Telnaes creates editorial cartoons in various mediums — animation, visual essays, live sketches and traditional print. She has won the Pulitzer Prize twice for her editorial cartoons in 2001 and 2025. Ann was awarded the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year in 2016 and the international EWK Award, named after the legendary Swedish cartoonist Ewert Karlsson, in 2021.  Ann was also awarded the Herblock Prize for editorial cartooning in 2023.  After working for The Washington Post for over sixteen years, Telnaes resigned after a cartoon she submitted was rejected because it criticized billionaire tech and media executives, including Jeff Bezos, for trying to curry favor with President Trump.

Attribution: TRUMP BALANCES PUTIN AND ZELENSKY by Vladimir Kazanevsky, Ukraine, PoliticalCartoons.com

Vladimir Kazanevsky was born in 1950 in Ukraine. He works as a free-lance cartoonist and writer. Vlad`s art work has been exhibited worlwide, published in many magazines and newspapers and has won about 500 prizes from International cartoon contests in 52 countries.

scent, sense and cents-wise

Attribution: Musk Recognized While Hiding in Alley by Randall Enos

For 68 years Randall Enos has done cartoons and illustrations for TV, movies, books, comic strips, magazines, newspapers, posters and the like. Clients have included NBC, The New York Times, The National Lampoon, Playboy, Time, Rolling Stone and many more.

Bach Cello Suite No 5 in C Minor, performed by Yo-Yo Ma

Enjoy, Jack