President Donald Trump revealed Thursday that he plans to pull Ed Martin’s nomination for US Attorney for Washington D.C. after Republican North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis refused to vote for him.
Trump also told Daily Caller White House Correspondent Reagan Reese that he has a new nominee and that he may move Martin to a different position in the Department of Justice (DOJ).
“We have somebody else that will be great. I just want to say Ed is unbelievable and hopefully we can bring him into, whether it’s DOJ or whatever, in some capacity because he’s really outstanding,” Trump said. (RELATED: Trump Nom’s Confirmation Prospects On Life Support After Key Sen Comes Out Against Him)
Trump told Reese he was “very disappointed” and alluded to Tillis’s dissent.
“He’s a terrific person but he wasn’t getting the support from people that I thought,” he said.
Tillis told reporters Tuesday that he would not be supporting Martin’s nomination, primarily due to differences in opinion on the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots.
“If Mr. Martin were being put forth as a U.S. Attorney for any district except the district where January 6 happened, the protest happened, I’d probably support him. But not in this district,” Tillis told reporters.
Tillis expressed that he believed anybody who breached the perimeter of the Capitol should have gone to prison and said that he believed 200-300 people who Trump pardoned for their actions on Jan 6. did not deserve it.
“We have to be very clear that what happened on January the 6th was wrong. It was not prompted or created by other people to put those people in trouble. They made a stupid decision and they disgraced the United States by absolutely destroying the Capitol and I can’t have any patience for it,” Tillis said.
Trump lauded Martin’s tenure as acting U.S. attorney for DC. “He’s done a very good job, crime is down 25 percent in D.C. during his period of time.”
“I’m very disappointed in that but I have so many different things that I’m doing now with the trade, you know I’m one person I can only make, boom, I can only lift that little phone so many times in a day.”
Trump repeatedly expressed that he was let down.
“To me it was disappointing I’ll be honest. I have to be straight, I was disappointed, a lot of people were disappointed, but that’s the way it works some times.”
The White House will be announcing the new nominee some time in the next two days, Trump told Reese.
