Acting AG Todd Blanche Narrowly Clears Confirmation Threshold After Murkowski, Collins Defect

Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee Todd Blanche on Thursday secured the votes he needed to be confirmed by the Senate.

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Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana turned out to be the decisive vote, and he announced his decision to support Blanche as head of the Department of Justice in a speech on the Senate floor Thursday morning.

“Mr. Blanche is not perfect, and he will tell you this, but the choice is not between perfection and Mr. Blanche,” Cassidy said. “It is between Mr. Blanche and another acting attorney general who may not run the department effectively under President Trump, and who indeed may not be as good as Mr. Blanche.”

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Blanche’s confirmation hinged on Cassidy’s vote after Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska both announced that they would vote against him, citing concerns about the weaponization of the Justice Department and the previous creation of an anti-weaponization fund that lawmakers feared would by used to pay January 6 rioters. Blanche has said that fund is defunct.

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