Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche faces a treacherous path to confirmation, with a skeptical Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) now forced to rally his fractious caucus behind a nominee increasingly viewed with suspicion by his own party. According to Washington Post reporting by Theodoric Meyer and Perry Stein, Blanche’s nomination is on shaky ground. A handful of increasingly restive Republican senators are signaling willingness to defy Trump on this high-profile pick—and a single GOP senator could block him entirely in committee. Blanche’s central problem: his role in designing the controversial $1.8 billion fund meant to compensate people allegedly wrongly prosecuted or investigated by the government. The proposal triggered rare Republican revolt over fears the money would reward Capitol rioters from January 6, 2021. According to the Post, the math is shaky for Blanche’s prospects. With Republicans’ narrow Senate majority, Blanche can afford to lose only three GOP votes if all Democrats oppose him—which Senate Judiciary Committee ranking Democrat Dick Durbin (D-IL) expects they will. But Blanche may never get a floor vote. The Judiciary Committee is expected to hold a confirmation hearing next month after the July 4 recess. Any single Republican senator could block him in committee, killing his nomination before it reaches the full chamber. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), one of the fund’s strongest Republican critics, is signaling he remains unconvinced.
“I have to be convinced that Todd is not the president’s personal attorney who happens to be attorney general, but that Todd is the attorney general who used to be the president’s personal attorney,” Cassidy told reporters—a pointed reminder that Blanche previously served as Trump’s personal defense lawyer. Two other committee Republicans are raising serious red flags. Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and John Cornyn (R-TX) have both publicly opposed the weaponization fund. Tillis has additionally raised alarms about Blanche’s January 6 rhetoric, including a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in which he praised Trump’s pardons of Capitol rioters. The Post reported that Tillis previously blocked Ed Martin, Trump’s nominee for U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, over Martin’s defense of January 6 rioters. “I have no red lines right now, but we’re going to have an interesting conversation,” Cornyn told reporters—language that signals potential trouble ahead. Even Thune, tasked with shepherding Blanche through confirmation, acknowledged the minefield. “He’ll have to make his arguments,” Thune said on CNBC. “And I think the one thing that obviously people are paying a lot of attention to is this question around the weaponization fund and the questions that he’s answered around that already. I would expect that will continue to be a factor through the course of the confirmation process.”
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