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President Trump’s pick for the next U.S. attorney general is on shaky ground as two GOP lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee demand a written guarantee that a proposed Justice Department “anti-weaponization” fund is dead.
A “no” vote in committee from either Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) or Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) could block acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination, and the panel canceled a planned Thursday morning vote due to their opposition.
But the two have broken with Trump on more than just acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination. And they aren’t the only lawmakers scorned by the Trump administration who have taken issue with some of the president’s positions as they prepare to exit Congress.
They’ve come to be known facetiously as the “YOLO caucus.”
Here’s what to know about the group of lawmakers, and Blanche’s nomination.
What’s the ‘YOLO caucus’?
The so-called “YOLO caucus” encompasses Republicans across both chambers of Congress who are exiting Congress at the end of the year and are seen as no longer beholden to Trump.
Some chose to retire while others lost GOP primaries to Trump-backed challengers.
In the Senate, they include Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who lost their primaries this year, and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who announced his retirement last year while at odds with Trump over his “big, beautiful bill.”
All three have since broken with Trump on a number of high-profile issues.
In the House, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) has long been a thorn in Trump’s side and lost a primary to a Trump ally, while Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) is retiring at the end of the year.
Cornyn and Tillis take on Blanche
While various members of the “YOLO caucus” have defied Trump on other matters, Cornyn and Tillis hold the keys to Blanche’s confirmation.
Trump said Thursday that he would consider pulling back the nomination after Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) canceled a meeting to weigh Blanche’s appointment to a permanent role overseeing the DOJ.
He pointed to a refusal from both Cornyn and Tillis to commit either way on Blanche’s nomination in a Truth Social post.
“Todd Blanche is a STAR, and everyone knows it! He has the potential to go down as one of the Greatest Attorney Generals of All Time,” the president wrote.
“However, John Cornyn, of Texas, and Thom Tillis, of North Carolina, both of whom I refused to Endorse, and whose political careers have been ended by my action, are refusing to vote for this Great Nominee, who will remain, in any event, as Acting,” Trump continued.
Debate over ‘anti-weaponization’ fund
At the center of Cornyn and Tillis’s opposition is a proposed $1.8 billion fund to pay people who claim they were victims of a “weaponized” Justice Department, but that critics say would be a way to funnel money to Trump allies. It came as part of a settlement between Trump, the Justice Department and the IRS.
Blanche has said the fund, which faced opposition from both parties, is dead but Cornyn expressed skepticism about Blanche’s claim that it was a “moot issue” confirmation hearing before the Judiciary Committee earlier this month.
“The settlement agreement can’t be changed without written consent of the parties. There is no such written consent of the parties, and he admitted that it could be enforced as a matter of contract,” Cornyn told reporters outside the hearing room on July 15.
“I think it’s really important to correct the record, which I tried to do, and I think he was straightforward in answering my questions, but they don’t lead inevitably to the conclusion that it’s dead,” the senator continued. “It could be revived at a future date.”
The Texas lawmaker has become a more outspoken critic of the White House since his loss to a Trump-backed challenger, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), in the state’s Republican primary earlier this year
Tillis, the other Republican hold-out on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has refuted accusations that his opposition to Blanche’s nomination stems from his disputes with Trump.
“The fact of the matter is, I’ve never asked for the president’s endorsement, and he gave it to me in spite of that,” the senator told reporters Thursday, according to The Independent. “And the moment the president would have used that sort of tool he’d have gotten a Tillis response, and he never did.”
Both lawmakers say they won’t vote for Blanche to advance out of committee until they get assurances the fund has been formally and permanently abandoned.
Even if he advances, the acting attorney general will need the support of a simple majority of senators.
Cassidy told CBS News’s Nikole Killion Thursday that he was “very concerned about the weaponization of the Justice Department” in the current moment.
“Shouldn’t every American be afraid of the weaponization of the Justice Department? If there’s not adequate answers for that, then probably there needs to be somebody else,” Cassidy said.
“But, if he can give good answers and kind of make that commitment to Tillis and Cornyn and explain to Cassidy why are they weaponizing on these people, then you know you could go forward.”
Cassidy lost his reelection bid to Trump-endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.) in May, and he has used the months since this defeat to frankly criticize the Trump administration and some GOP policies he has opposed.
The Republican senator would not commit to a vote on Blanche’s nomination, telling reporters Thursday that he was “still in the information-gathering stage.”
Other Republican senators also indicated this week that while Cornyn and Tillis were the faces of the fight, they also had concerns with the nomination or the fund.
Better luck in January?
Blanche and Cornyn met with Blanche on Thursday, so it’s possible there’s a deal on the horizon.
But if Trump follows through on his proposal, Cornyn reminded reporters on Thursday that Paxton’s victory in the general election is not a given. If elected in November, the attorney general has promised to be a strong ally of the Trump administration’s legislative priorities.
However, Paxton faces a strong challenge from Democratic state Rep. James Talarico this November. The Cook Political Report shifted its rating of this race from “Likely Republican” to “Leans Republican” after Cornyn’s loss in a May runoff, and the Democrat has widened his lead in recent polling.
“I mean, he may think that he’s got us where he wants us. But the fact is, there’s no guarantee who the senators are going to be that will replace Sen. Tillis and myself, and he may have a weaker hand next year than he does now, and it’s unfortunate because we tried not to escalate this fight,” Cornyn said Thursday.
Tillis, whose seat is rated “lean Democratic,” similarly warned of the move backfiring.
“He’s perfectly entitled to do that, he just needs to game out what the numbers look like in the next Congress versus a willing group of people who wants to confirm him now if they do nothing more than follow up on what we all thought was true, that [the $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund] is inoperative,” he said.
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