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Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) announced on Friday morning that he will support Todd Blanche’s nomination to serve as attorney general, all but ensuring that the controversial nominee will have the votes he needs to be confirmed.
“All considered, I will vote for Mr. Blanche,” Cassidy announced.
Cassidy was the last Republican senator to remain undecided on Blanche, keeping his colleagues in suspense for days about how he would vote.
On Friday he revealed that answer to be “yes,” despite concerns he raised in recent weeks about Blanche’s willingness to serve as an effective check on Trump after previously serving as his personal defense attorney.
Cassidy’s support paves the way for Senate Republicans to advance his nomination on Friday or sometime over the weekend after they finish voting on a Russia sanctions bill, a stopgap measure to fund the government and a bipartisan bill to reform the rules for compensating college athletes.
The Louisiana senator announced his “yes” vote after two other centrist Republicans, Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), announced they would oppose Blanche.
Collins and Murkowski voiced serious concerns about his ability to preserve the political independence of the Justice Department.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) needed Cassidy’s vote to advance Blanche because Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) remains absent from the Senate because of a serious health issue.
Without McConnell, Thune has an effective majority of only 52 seats.
All 47 members of the Senate Democratic caucus, including centrist Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) are expected to vote against Blanche.
Cassidy said he spoke with Blanche about a half dozen times in recent weeks about his confirmation and aired the concerns he had been harboring.
Specifically, Cassidy said he was concerned about allegations of “lawfare” at the Justice Department, such as an effort to indict former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who gave damaging testimony about Trump in 2022 before a House special committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Cassidy made his announcement on the Senate floor shortly before senators were expected to vote on the controversial nominee, who advanced out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote Tuesday.
He and Murkowski met with Blanche in the basement of the Capitol Wednesday to discuss their concerns with his nomination.
Cassidy later huddled with his staff on Thursday to mull his looming decision, telling reporters that he hadn’t yet decided how to vote.
Murkowski announced her opposition to Blanche early Friday morning in a press release, explaining that she did not feel confident that Blanche, Trump’s former personal criminal defense lawyer, would serve as an effective check on the president.
“The politicization—even weaponization—of the Department did not start with this administration but has accelerated during it,” she said in a statement.
“I take issue with the handling of the release of the Epstein files; 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,” she said, referring to the Justice Department’s effort to indict Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) for recording a video urging U.S. service members to disobey unlawful orders.
Collins announced her opposition to Blanche on Tuesday.
Collins called Blanche “a capable lawyer,” she said the Department of Justice under his leadership has “become increasingly political.”
She argued that Blanche’s leadership has “further eroded the department’s independence” and noted that he approved the order to shield Trump, his sons and the Trump family business from IRS audits, protections “unavailable to other American taxpayers.”
She also pointed to Blanche’s role in approving the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund and his recent pledge to an anti-abortion organization that he would seek to prohibit the mailing of abortion medication to women nationwide.
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