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Republican Sen. Thom Tillis (N.C.) said Sunday he has a “positive predisposition” toward acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, whom President Trump has nominated for the full-time post.
“I’m going to go through the nomination process. I have got a positive predisposition towards Blanche,” Tillis, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told host Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
The retiring North Carolina Republican noted Blanche was “one of the key reasons” why the Justice Department dropped its criminal probe into former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. When the investigation was ongoing from January through late April, Tillis blocked the confirmation of Kevin Warsh, who succeeded Powell last month.
But Tillis noted Sunday that if he gets “even a whiff” that the Justice Department will not be independent under Blanche in the full-time role, then “that could influence” his vote on whether to confirm Trump’s former personal attorney.
Tillis, a frequent GOP critic of the Trump administration, recently lambasted the Justice Department over the creation of its since-abandoned “anti-weaponization” fund.
The outgoing lawmaker expressed concern about the possibility of individuals convicted of assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol receiving taxpayer dollars through the $1.776 billion fund — which the Justice Department established as part of a settlement in the president’s lawsuit against the IRS.
After the president dismissed former Attorney General Pam Bondi in April, Tillis vowed to not support any nominee for the post who equivocated on Jan. 6.
The Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold two confirmation hearings with Blanche on July 15 and 16. On Thursday, Tillis met with Blanche and said it was “good” to discuss the latter’s nomination.
“I appreciated the opportunity to hear his vision for the Department of Justice and discuss the important work that lies ahead,” the North Carolina senator wrote on social platform X.
On Sunday, Tillis called Blanche a “very competent attorney.” But he also stressed the need for the attorney general nominee to guarantee the Justice Department will not pivot back to the fund.
Since the department scratched the idea earlier this month, Trump has called it a “great idea.”
Tillis told Tapper, “Right now, I’m confident in what we see with Blanche if we can address these distractions that have to get off the table before his confirmation, particularly the 1776 fund.”
“Let’s just put it away. The president, the acting attorney general, others in the administration said that they have determined it’s inoperative, they’re not going to move forward with it. Let’s make it inoperative,” he added.
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