Memphis has a fighter in Washington, and America’s top law enforcement officer said so out loud. Sen. Marsha Blackburn on Tuesday shared Attorney General Todd Blanche’s remarks from last week’s Memphis Safe Task Force roundtable, where he turned to her and said, “You are a shining example of what it means to truly represent your state.”
Blanche said Blackburn shows it “with more than just words, which is actions and phone calls and following up.” He joked that when she calls needing something, her pleasant voice comes with a purpose.
He also pulled back the curtain on how President Trump’s task force stays on track. “We get a dashboard every day,” Blanche said, “and if the dashboard doesn’t come, people start calling.” The numbers change every day, he explained, “so it holds all of us to account to make sure that we’re doing the right thing.”
The results speak for themselves. In its first year the task force made 13,598 arrests, including 144 for homicide, and located 196 missing children, according to U.S. Marshals figures released at the Oct. 16 roundtable, where Blanche made clear the federal surge is staying.
“The Memphis Safe Task Force is getting results because this administration is committed to its success,” Blackburn, the Republican nominee for governor, wrote. “We won’t stop until Memphis is the safest city in America!”
