President Trump is threatening to sidestep two Republican holdouts blocking his pick for attorney general. Acting Attorney General – and Trump’s one-time personal attorney – Todd Blanche’s nomination is stalled in Senate the two weeks after he faced a largely contentious confirmation hearing before the Judiciary Committee.
The Hangup
As reported on Friday’s AM Update, the president said he may temporarily withdraw the nomination and try again after GOP Senators John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina leave office in January. Cornyn lost the Republican primary runoff in Texas to Trump-endorsed state Attorney General Ken Paxton in May, while Tillis is retiring at the end of his term.
The ultimatum arrived after the Senate Judiciary Committee postponed a planned Thursday vote on Blanche’s nomination because Chairman Chuck Grassley reportedly lacked enough Republican support to advance him.
At the center of the dispute is the agreement resolving President Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leaking of his tax returns. The Department of Justice announced in May that the settlement would create a nearly $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” offering compensation to people who claim they were unfairly targeted by the federal government.
The agreement also reportedly included protections against certain tax investigations involving the president, his family, and his businesses.
A federal judge later froze payments from the fund, and Blanche announced in early June that the administration would abandon its plan altogether. During the confirmation hearing, Sens. Cornyn and Tillis demanded Blanche put that promise in writing, while also narrowing the tax protections to existing audits and making clear they cannot shield future filings from examination.
Cornyn said the DOJ delivered revised language Wednesday night, but he claimed White House “higher ups” were resisting his counterproposal. “[The president] could fix this in a minute, but I don’t know… who he’s listening to or whether he’s motivated to do that. So we’ll see what happens,” he told MS Now Thursday, adding that his demands aren’t political but rather about “making sure that we maintain the integrity of our justice system and fairness for everybody involved.”
Trump’s Gambit
The president responded in a Truth Social post Thursday. “Todd Blanche is a star and everyone knows it! He has the potential to go down as one of the greatest Attorney Generals of all time,” he wrote, in part.
President Trump went on to say Blanche will continue to serve in an acting capacity. “I have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd’s name if they do not do the right thing,” he added.
Blanche, meanwhile, met with Cornyn and Tillis yesterday afternoon in an apparent attempt to break the impasse. It remains unclear what the three discussed and whether the meeting produced any progress.
The president’s plan amounts to a political gamble because the outgoing senators leave the Senate only after the midterm elections when Republicans could have a smaller majority or lose control of the chamber altogether.
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