After pushback, Trump may pull Blanche nomination to lead DOJ

President Donald Trump may temporarily withdraw his nomination for Todd Blanche to serve as U.S. attorney general after the nomination again failed to advance in the Senate. Republican senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis were opposing Blanche’s nomination, but both would be out of office in January, the president said Thursday. In the meantime, Blanche could keep serving as acting attorney general, Trump said.

Trump’s comments came after the Senate Judiciary Committee postponed a scheduled Thursday vote on Blanche’s nomination. The move was at least the second time the committee pushed back the vote. Without the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, the Republican-to-Democrat ratio on the committee is now 11-10, meaning that Blanche needs support from every Republican to move forward.

Why have Cornyn and Tillis opposed Blanche’s nomination? Both said they needed assurance that Trump’s proposed fund for victims of what the president called “government weaponization” would not be implemented. The $1.8 billion fund was part of a settlement between Trump and the Internal Revenue Service, which was negotiated with his own Justice Department. Blanche has repeatedly said that the Trump administration permanently dropped plans to create the fund, after two Capitol police officers who were on duty during the Jan. 6 riots sued to block it.

The senators also wanted greater clarity in the language of the settlement to ensure that the IRS can investigate Trump’s future tax filings if needed.

Dig deeper: Read my report on the Capitol officers’ lawsuit and the details of the settlement.