Congress
No Platner paperwork yet
Graham Platner has not yet officially submitted the paperwork to withdraw from the Senate race, according to a spokesperson for Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows’ office.
“A public declaration is not an official withdrawal, and a candidate must formally withdraw to the Elections office in writing, including signature,” the spokesperson said in a statement shortly after 8:40 p.m. on Wednesday. “To date, no official withdrawal notice has been received from Mr. Platner.”
In the 11-minute video announcing he was suspending his campaign, posted at 8:10 p.m., Platner said, “I want to make clear, though, I intend to file my paperwork to withdraw.”
Bellows is one of several Democrats being floated as a possible replacement for Platner. In a statement Tuesday, Bellows said she would “seriously consider” entering the race.
Todd Blanche took a crucial step towards confirmation as attorney general late Sunday, after Sen. John Cornyn said he had reached a deal with the Justice Department to rein in a controversial settlement agreement President Donald Trump reached with the IRS earlier this year.
The pact was announced Sunday by a Cornyn spokesperson and by Blanche in a X post. Documents posted by Blanche appear to meet the Texas Republican’s demands to nullify a $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” and to limit the scope of an IRS audit immunity deal applying to the president and his family.
The announcement appears to clear the way for Cornyn to approve Blanche at a scheduled Tuesday meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee. With Democrats entirely opposed, any Republican defection could be fatal to the nomination.
Senate GOP leaders are hoping to confirm Blanche, who has been serving as acting attorney general since predecessor Pam Bondi resigned in April, before the end of the week.
“Sen. Cornyn has reached an agreement with the Department of Justice, which will be issuing a formal order permanently terminating the anti-weaponization fund and making clear in a binding written document that the scope of the audit settlement is limited to only the plaintiffs, including the President, and the IRS,” said Natalie Yezbick, the Cornyn spokesperson.
Blanche said in the X post that he and his team “addressed any concerns or outstanding questions” senators had and issued an order that said the payout fund “is rescinded and shall have no force or effect.” It also stated that the “DOJ’s interpretation” of the settlement is that the audit deal applies only to “the named parties in the lawsuit.”
The deal emerged after a 72-hour period where Trump repeatedly attacked Cornyn and said publicly that he regretted that the fund, intended to pay out settlements to Trump political allies, had been withdrawn. He suggested Friday that he would simply withdraw Blanche’s nomination and resubmit it next year — after Cornyn and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), another critic of the settlement, leave Congress.
Tills, another swing vote on the Judiciary Committee, has said he plans to follow Cornyn’s lead. He said in an X post Saturday that “President Trump clearly intends to resurrect the payout pot for punks” and that “it’s unfortunate that Todd Blanche, who I consider qualified for the job, will not be confirmed because of this reversal. Hopefully, we can resolve this by Tuesday.”
Senate appropriators released text Sunday of a stopgap funding bill to avert a shutdown come Oct. 1 and punt broader government funding negotiations until after the midterms.
Under the bipartisan plan, federal agencies would be funded through Dec. 11 at current levels, with some exceptions. Senate leaders have set an initial procedural vote for Monday night and want to pass the bill by the end of the week — just before senators are scheduled to leave town for a five-week recess.
The legislation includes language to block President Donald Trump from finalizing a plan to put political appointees in charge of approving grants. The prohibition would last for the duration of the funding patch.
Senate Democrats wanted that addition, and top Republicans — including Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins of Maine and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski — publicly voiced support for blocking the regulation the White House is working to finalize for the new fiscal year.
It’s unusual for Congress to pass a funding patch so far ahead of the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year. But House Republicans kicked off action last month by passing their own bare-bones funding extension to pressure senators into early negotiations on a plan to avert a funding lapse just weeks before the midterm elections.
The Senate plan is the product of bipartisan negotiations between the chamber’s top appropriators. House Republicans advanced their version without consulting Democrats.
Unlike the House version, the Senate proposal includes language Democrats have demanded ensuring no new funding goes to immigration enforcement agencies. Republicans funded those programs through a party-line package this spring after the collapse of bipartisan negotiations on changes to the way the Trump administration carries out immigration enforcement.
The Senate proposal includes some of the funding increases and authorizations the White House sought for specific programs. It does not contain major military boosts the administration requested, however, including an extra $1 billion for a “Trump-class” battleship.
Jordain Carney contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump said early Saturday he would push to get the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” codified into law if the Senate does not confirm his attorney general pick, Todd Blanche.
The fund has emerged as a key issue stalling Blanche’s confirmation, with Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who are both departing the Senate after the midterms, withholding their support in the Senate Judiciary Committee unless the White House commits to shelving the proposal in writing.
Now, Trump says the fund is back on the table, and maybe he’ll even keep Blanche on in an acting capacity if he can’t get his way in Congress next week.
“If Senators Cornyn and Tillis, both upset because I wouldn’t Endorse them (they lost, and quit, respectively!), aren’t going to approve Todd Blanche, one of the most respected professionals, according to everybody, in the Country, to be the United States Attorney General, then I will keep Todd as Acting A.G., and push hard to get the Anti-Weaponization Bill, which takes care of those who have been so badly treated by the Crooked Joe Biden (and Obuma!) Administration (I get nothing, although I was treated horribly!), PASSED,” he wrote.
“Todd Blanche was a voice of reason!” Trump wrote. “It will immediately be back on the table, and I will get it done.”
The missive comes a day after Trump reluctantly declared the fund “dead” in a Cabinet meeting at Camp David, making Saturday’s post a notable reversal in tactics as he moves from a negotiating posture to digging his heels in.
The fund stems from a settlement negotiated earlier this year that envisioned roughly $1.8 billion being doled out in payments to people who claimed they were unfairly targeted by the federal government during the Biden administration, which could include everyone from people who broke into the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and assaulted police officers to Hunter Biden.
The Justice Department has since indicated it does not intend to move forward with the payments, with Blanche testifying before a congressional committee in June, “We’re not moving forward with the fund, period.”
But Tillis on Saturday wrote that the president’s latest social media barb was proof that he “clearly intends to resurrect the payout pot for punks either by inappropriately establishing another bogus fund or pushing Congress to vote for a bill that the majority of Republicans in the Senate would be against.”
“It’s unfortunate that Todd Blanche, who I consider qualified for the job, will not be confirmed because of this reversal,” the two-term North Carolina senator wrote.
But he teased that a deal may not yet be out of reach: “Hopefully, we can resolve this by Tuesday.”
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