Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said Friday he intended to vote to confirm Todd Blanche to be attorney general, ending a weekslong back-and-forth with the White House to win over GOP holdouts. All eyes were on Cassidy’s Friday morning floor speech after his fellow Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska announced they would vote against Blanche, citing myriad concerns such as the Epstein files, the so-called “anti-weaponization” fund and questions of his independence. With Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., still absent after a hospitalization, Senate Republicans could afford to lose only two votes in their ranks if all Democrats vote against Blanche. Had Cassidy not supported Blanche, Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., would lack the votes to confirm him before the August recess. Now he can move ahead and hold a final vote on the Senate floor. In his speech, Cassidy acknowledged what he described as Blanche’s “poor judgment in approving the anti-weaponization slush fund and exempting the president from IRS audits” as well as “episodes of apparent lawfare [with the] DOJ bringing suits against political enemies.” But he said he had “slept on it overnight” and decided it would be better to have a Senate-confirmed attorney general instead of an acting one. Blanche, who is currently the deputy attorney general, has been serving as acting attorney general since April. President Donald Trump will be “unrelenting” in going after his political enemies no matter what, Cassidy said, but added that “this will be true no matter who the attorney general is.” Having Blanche permanently confirmed in the position would give him “more leverage to push back,” according to Cassidy. Blanche, experts say, could have remained as acting attorney general for many months, if not longer, and Trump had threatened to merely wait out the holdouts. “This does not demean the Senate’s role. Important issues have been discussed through this process, and Mr. Blanche has made commitments,” Cassidy said. Murkowski, however, said in a statement Friday morning that she is not convinced Blanche would “check the worst impulses of this administration.” “I hope Mr. Blanche is able to achieve that, if confirmed, but I simply do not have confidence that will be the case,” she said in a post on X. Blanche’s bid cleared a major hurdle earlier in the week when the Trump administration won over the votes of Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C. They extracted a deal with the DOJ they said satisfied many of their concerns over the weaponization fund and the scope of tax audit immunity for the president and members of his family. The DOJ said in a statement posted Sunday night that it has “rescinded” the $1.8 billion fund meant to compensate people targeted by the federal government. The fund was part of a settlement brokered by Blanche that resolved Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS tied to the release of his tax returns during his first term in office. Democrats argued that the Justice Department’s written agreements with Cornyn are only “decorative” and do not ensure that the fund is really “done.” Murkowski aired similar concerns of the fund’s revival in her statement. “I am also keenly aware that the Department’s nearly $2-billion dollar slush fund — which likely would have rewarded January 6 protesters — is only off the table because this nomination is pending and the Senate has leverage,” she said. “Once we vote, that will end, and there is no telling what the future holds.” Cassidy seemed appeased by Blanche’s “efforts to kill the slush fund” and by the deal Cornyn and Tillis had extracted. “Part of it is a leap of faith that what somebody’s telling you during the nominations process, they’ll stick with after they get confirmed," Cornyn said Thursday. "We’ve seen a few examples where that has proven not to be the case. RFK [Jr.] comes to mind,” he said, referring to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Cassidy, a gastroenterologist who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, was also a key deciding vote in Kennedy’s confirmation. Murkowski and Collins had a longer list of grievances against Blanche, which included his release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein, which Democrats and other critics have said was mishandled. Murkowski also cited “the sweeping immunity protections granted to the President, his family, and their businesses; the statements that have been made to anti-abortion groups; and the repeated targeting of individuals ranging from former administration staff to sitting U.S. Senators.” “More than 1,200 former Department of Justice employees have opposed his nomination, arguing that he has undermined the institution,” Collins wrote. Cassidy acknowledged his own “history with Mr. Trump,” who successfully supported a challenger who defeated Cassidy in a Republican primary earlier this year, but said “that history does not matter one bit.” “Most of the time, it’s clear Mr. Blanche has become a referendum on how people feel about President Trump. If you don’t like the president, you don’t like Mr. Blanche. If you do like the president, you do. I have not approached it that way,” Cassidy said from the Senate floor. “This process should be about Mr. Blanche and how he will go forward in a difficult job, and how the American people can be best served.”
