A central question surrounding new US Attorney General Todd Blanche is whether he would cooperate with President Donald Trump's efforts to subvert another election outcome — and according to one of Trump's own former lawyers, the answer is alarming.

In 2020, when Trump sought to overturn his election loss to former President Joe Biden, his claims of systemic fraud were met with pushback from then-Attorney General William Barr. Under Blanche, however, who spent two years as Trump's personal defense attorney — including representing him in the Manhattan hush-money criminal case — before being confirmed as the nation's top law enforcement official, the dynamics could shift dramatically. Blanche's appointment itself broke with longstanding norm: attorneys general in modern administrations have typically arrived as institutional figures rather than from a president's personal legal team, a tradition designed to preserve the Justice Department's independence from the White House.

That assessment comes from Ty Cobb, who served as White House special counsel for nearly a year during Trump's first term, when the president was under investigation by then-special counsel Robert Mueller over alleged coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Cobb has since become an outspoken critic of both Trump and his decision to appoint Blanche as attorney general.

Cobb appeared in an interview released Saturday on Zeteo's "Mehdi Unfiltered," hosted by Mehdi Hasan. When Hasan asked, "Come 2028, does American democracy survive Donald Trump?" Cobb offered an even grimmer timeline.

"I'm not sure they survive it in 2026," Cobb responded.

Hasan pressed further, referencing Barr's refusal to go along with Trump's efforts in 2020: "If the midterms don't go Trump's way this fall, is there any world in which Todd Blanche stands up to Trump if he's asked to find some fake evidence of voter fraud, or are we screwed now?"

"We're screwed," Cobb replied bluntly.

"Great," Hasan said. "That's what I suspected."

Trump has on multiple occasions floated the idea of canceling the midterm elections outright. He has also enacted measures aimed at restricting mail-in voting and compelling states to hand over voter information, and has called for Republicans to "nationalize" elections in Democratic-leaning areas.

Cobb noted that Blanche "has already echoed [former Trump chief strategist] Steve Bannon's view that [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] should be on the street during the election," adding, "I think we'll almost certainly see that." A report by Democracy Docket documented Blanche's stance on deploying ICE agents to polling locations.

Hasan pointed out that the administration has routinely ignored court orders, particularly regarding its immigration enforcement policies. Cobb predicted that "the level of noncompliance" seen so far "is nothing compared to what we're about to see."

The 2026 midterms will determine control of both chambers of Congress, with the outcome directly shaping the scope of presidential oversight. A Democratic-controlled House would gain subpoena authority and the ability to launch investigations into executive branch actions — tools that were last wielded against Trump during his first term, resulting in multiple oversight hearings and referrals.

If Democrats retake the US House of Representatives and launch investigations, Cobb said he expects "a number of contemptuous acts" by the administration. "We can count on the Justice Department to pursue zero of those referrals," he added.

"That's assuming that the midterms actually produce a Democratic Congress," Cobb continued. He suggested that even if Democrats were elected legitimately, "whether they get seated or not by [Republican House Speaker] Little Mikey Johnson and his service to the president, that remains to be seen."

Cobb pointed to additional "dangers" surrounding the election, including the deployment of ICE agents. "Blanche has suggested that people should be happy to see ICE at the polls," he said.

In 2020, Barr refused Trump's requests to intervene in the election results. Cobb argued that no such restraint should be expected from Blanche: "There's no circumstance under which we shouldn't expect Blanche to seize ballots and seize voting machines and try to interfere in the process of the upcoming election."

"I think that the president has made it very clear that he doesn't want immigrants or people of color to have the ability to go to the polls," Cobb said. "He's going to do everything he can in blue states and elsewhere to try to prevent this election from going smoothly."