Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) has put wind in the sails of Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general, announcing in a Friday floor speech that he will cast the decisive “yes” vote on the Senate floor.
The decision amounts to a major victory for President Donald Trump from an unlikely ally. Cassidy, who voted to convict the president in his 2021 impeachment trial, recently lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger and has since become a less reliable Republican vote.
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It also comes hours after Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) became the second Republican to announce she would vote “no” on Blanche, who has served as acting attorney general since April. Blanche can only afford to lose two GOP senators on any party-line vote due to the absence of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
In his speech, Cassidy nodded to his rocky relationship with Trump and predicted that he would be criticized for his vote. But, he said, Blanche would have more “leverage” if he was confirmed to the attorney general post and that he was a better nominee than others Trump might have chosen.
Cassidy revealed that he’d spoken with Blanche “five or six times” and said he was particularly swayed by the counsel of Bill Barr, who served as attorney general during Trump’s first term.
“Mr. Blanche is not perfect, and he will tell you this,” Cassidy said. “But the choice is not between perfection and Mr. Blanche. It is between Mr. Blanche and another acting attorney general who may not run the department effectively under President Trump, and who indeed may not be as good as Mr. Blanche.”
The biggest hang-up to Blanche’s nomination has been an “anti-weaponization” fund and its expected payouts to Jan. 6, 2021, defendants, as well as the tax immunity granted to Trump and his family in a May settlement. Blanche addressed both concerns in a document that unlocked the votes of Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Thom Tillis (R-NC), putting in writing that the fund was dead and that there were, in fact, limits on the audit immunity.
But Blanche, the president’s former personal attorney, has faced further skepticism about whether he can run the Justice Department apolitically. Cassidy, in particular, has raised concerns about the agency’s investigation into Cassidy Hutchinson, a one-time star witness to the Jan. 6 committee.
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“I am particularly concerned about episodes of apparent lawfare, DOJ bringing suits against political enemies,” Cassidy said on Friday. “Both parties, presidents of both parties, have been guilty of this. It must stop.”
He added that he was not “entirely satisfied” by his conversations with the administration but suggested his concerns were eased by the assurance that certain “cases that have been publicly reported to be under investigation by the Department of Justice have been dismissed or no longer being pursued.”
