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\n

Senate Republicans are hopeful they will be able to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general by the end of the week. But he\u2019s not in the clear yet, as several undecided GOP senators continue to mull it over.<\/p>\n

Blanche\u2019s prospects were nonetheless much improved Monday \u2014 less than 24 hours after some GOP senators were predicting he was unlikely to get confirmed as a war of words escalated between President Donald Trump and holdout Republicans.<\/p>\n

But then Blanche cut a deal<\/a> with Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) late Sunday night to clarify a controversial settlement between Trump and the IRS, giving Blanche the votes he needed to get through the Judiciary Committee<\/a> Tuesday.<\/p>\n

He still needs to get through the full Senate, where he can only lose two Republican votes given likely unified opposition from Senate Democrats and Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n

Several GOP senators who raised alarms last week about Trump\u2019s public threats to rekindle the \u201cAnti-Weaponization Fund\u201d Cornyn and Tillis worked to kill declined to say Monday how they\u2019d vote on Blanche.But in a positive sign for the acting attorney general, several are looking to Tillis and Cornyn, who are now supporting him, as a lodestar for their own deliberations ahead of likely floor votes later this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think certainly the fact that he has signed this order, basically disbanding [the fund] \u2014 that\u2019s a pretty good step,\u201d said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), before adding that she would \u201clike to find out a little bit more about the negotiations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murkowski said she plans to speak with Tillis and Cornyn.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m curious about what went on over the weekend,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Blanche has made efforts to ingratiate<\/a> himself with Murkowski. In July, he trekked to Alaska, in part at Murkowski\u2019s urging, to better understand public safety and tribal jurisdiction matters. He recently announced a nine-figure settlement benefiting Alaska natives\u2019 health care that Murkowski was pleased with.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just appreciated the fact that he went to the state,\u201d Murkowski said. \u201cHe was only there for two days, but I had asked him in my initial meeting to go up to the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who like Cornyn lost his primary earlier this year to a Trump-backed challenger, declined to discuss Blanche Monday. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) added that she also wanted to talk to Tillis and Cornyn and read the agreement they struck with Blanche.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil I do that, I am not going to make a judgement,\u201d Collins said.<\/p>\n

Another Republican who hasn\u2019t yet committed to supporting Blanche is Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah). He met with Blanche last week but hasn\u2019t yet weighed in since Sunday night\u2019s agreement. He had indicated before Sunday\u2019s deal that he would be closely tracking Tillis and Cornyn during Tuesday\u2019s Judiciary Committee meeting.<\/p>\n

Getting Blanche\u2019s nomination on a trajectory to pass the Senate this week would relieve some of the pressure on Senate Republicans, who are juggling a long to-do list and a shrinking runway to get it done. Trump, amid last week\u2019s standoff, demanded that Senate Republicans confirm Blanche, including warning during a Cabinet meeting that they \u201cwill never get anybody like him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tillis told reporters Monday that \u201cthe back-and-forth over the weekend was not helpful” but that the talks \u201cended up at an acceptable place.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Blanche gets out of the Judiciary Committee Tuesday as expected, the soonest the Senate could confirm him as attorney general is Saturday unless Democrats unanimously agree to help speed up a final vote.<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday that he\u2019s hopeful the Senate will be able to confirm Blanche but didn\u2019t give an ironclad guarantee as the remaining undecided members review the agreement and talk to Tillis and Cornyn.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’d like to figure out a way, a path forward to get him done,\u201d Thune said.<\/p>\n

Democrats are likely to use Tuesday\u2019s Judiciary Committee meeting, and the days leading up to a full Senate vote, to hammer Republicans over the deal Cornyn and Tillis struck. Many predicted Monday that Trump wouldn\u2019t stick by the agreement that limits the scope of the IRS settlement and nullifies the $1.8 billion payout fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many loopholes. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if the president went ahead with the program,\u201d said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.<\/p>\n

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) warned the remaining undecided Republicans about the deal: \u201cI don’t think that that commitment is worth what it’s written on.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Democrats can drag Blanche\u2019s confirmation into the weekend, they aren\u2019t able to prevent him from being confirmed if at least 50 GOP senators support him. But they are determined to use the debate to hit at one of their central midterm campaign messages \u2014 corruption \u2014 with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer calling Blanche the \u201carchitect of Trump\u2019s grifts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tillis suggested Monday he still has questions about who in Trump\u2019s orbit played a role in the roller coaster negotiations over the past week. While the retiring senator is prepared to support Blanche, he said that he\u2019s \u201cnot done analyzing the anatomy of this deal and who played a role in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m not going to speak for other members, but I think that it’ll be a solid vote,\u201d he added about Blanche\u2019s chances of being confirmed.<\/p>\n

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), who appeared skeptical during a Sunday morning talk show interview that Blanche would get through the Senate, did a 180 Monday when asked whether he would get confirmed: \u201cYes, I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senate Republicans are hopeful they will be able to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general by the end of the week. But he\u2019s not in the clear yet, as several undecided GOP senators continue to mull it over. Blanche\u2019s prospects were nonetheless much improved Monday \u2014 less than 24 hours after some GOP senators were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26729\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}