Republicans are making clear that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche won’t have a cakewalk to Senate confirmation as members of the Judiciary Committee scrutinize everything from his Jan. 6 comments to his allegiance to President Donald Trump.
At least three members of the committee, tasked with vetting Justice Department nominees, are publicly undecided on whether to give Blanche a vote on the Senate floor. He was approved as deputy attorney general a year ago with unanimous Republican support, but the political climate has changed drastically since then.
Recommended Stories
Not only must Blanche win over Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who’s promised to write off any nominee who’s spoken approvingly of Jan. 6 defendants, but he must also get past Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who was freshly ousted by a Trump-backed challenger.
A third Republican, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), is far less of a wild card, but all three are so far noncommittal. Other Republicans on the Judiciary Committee expressed support for Blanche on Thursday.
“Most of our members are pretty deferential to who the president wants in some of these key positions,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), before pointing out that Blanche has served as acting attorney general since April.
“He’s obviously serving in the role already and clearly has experience in it, so that’ll serve him well,” Thune added. “But this is an environment where nothing’s a safe or sure bet these days.”
Trump reignited a debate over Blanche’s qualifications when he announced Wednesday night that he’d ask for Senate confirmation and expected a vote “very quickly.”
The biggest stumbling block presently is a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that Blanche announced last month. The Justice Department killed the plan this week amid a bipartisan uproar over its potential to compensate individuals who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but Republicans fear Blanche could revive the fund at a later date.
“I think what we need to do right now is focus on the 1776 fund, or he’s not going to have a very good time in the Judiciary Committee,” Tillis said. “Just think about what the Democrats will do to him.”
Blanche, who replaced former Attorney General Pam Bondi, will also face scrutiny over his reputation as a Trump loyalist. He rose to prominence as the president’s personal attorney and is associated with the prosecution of Biden officials including former FBI Director James Comey.
On Thursday, Cornyn joined Democrats in questioning Blanche’s independence and whether he would politicize the Justice Department as its permanent head.
“Being attorney general is probably one of the hardest jobs in the Cabinet, because you’re working for the president, but you’re also supposed to be able to tell the president no,” Cornyn told CNN. “So we need to talk about that.”
Tillis told the Washington Examiner he holds Blanche in high regard, calling him “instrumental” to resolving a dispute over Jerome Powell, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve. Tillis blocked the confirmation of Powell’s successor until the DOJ agreed to drop an investigation into Fed cost overruns in April.
Still, Tillis promised to sift through Blanche’s comments on the Capitol riot and previously flagged remarks he made at a conservative conference touting the pardons of Jan. 6 defendants.
“I mean, he’s got good credentials,” Tillis said of Blanche. “People are going to hammer him because he was the president’s personal attorney, but I’m just more about getting through the J6 stuff.”
“It’s not a gray area for me,” he added. “Either he equivocated and said harming these Capitol police officers was an OK thing, or he didn’t, and we’ll find that in the due diligence.”
The partisan split of the Judiciary Committee is what gives Tillis, or any other Republican, outsize sway over nominees. If a single GOP member votes “no” and all Democrats follow suit, then the panel deadlocks and the nomination effectively fails.
A loophole allowed former President Joe Biden to keep one of his acting Cabinet secretaries in place indefinitely despite a lack of Senate confirmation, and Trump himself has pushed the boundaries of the law with interim appointments.
But Thune said he expects the Judiciary Committee will process the nomination, and Trump has withdrawn other appointees in the face of GOP opposition. In one case, Tillis successfully vetoed Ed Martin over his Jan. 6 comments when Trump tapped him to be the DOJ’s top prosecutor for Washington, D.C.
On the Senate floor, Blanche shouldn’t expect any help from Democrats. Cabinet appointments have been controversial for the entirety of Trump’s second term, and even centrist Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), an occasional crossover vote, told reporters he’s a “no” on Blanche.
THREE REPUBLICANS BUCK GOP AS SENATE DEFEATS ATTEMPT TO BLOCK TRUMP ‘ANTI-WEAPONIZATION’ FUND
Blanche would also have to convince centrist Republicans such as Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) if the Judiciary Committee advances his nomination later this year.
Both have raised concerns about the “anti-weaponization” fund and voted to block it on the Senate floor Thursday.
