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\n

The Senate Saturday confirmed Todd Blanche to be attorney general, following a weeks-long struggle with a handful of wary Republicans.<\/p>\n

The Senate voted 50-49 to approve him, with GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joining with Democrats in opposition.<\/p>\n

Blanche, President Donald Trump\u2019s former personal attorney, has been serving as acting attorney general since Pam Bondi\u2019s ouster in April. Questions about Blanche\u2019s potential conflicts of interest from representing Trump, as well as his role in the creation of a $1.8 billion \u201cAnti-Weaponization Fund\u201d as part of Trump\u2019s settlement this spring with the IRS, created headwinds to his confirmation among a key group of Senate Republicans.<\/p>\n

Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican who lost re-election after Trump endorsed a primary challenger, helped Blanche clinch his 50th vote<\/a> Friday. He said Blanche wasn\u2019t perfect but that he wasn\u2019t sure Trump would pick someone better to lead the Justice Department.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe choice is not between perfection and Mr. Blanche,\u201d Cassidy said on the Senate floor. \u201cIt 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cassidy\u2019s support came after Blanche had already spent weeks negotiating with Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas, who vetted his nomination as members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Cornyn struck an agreement with Blanche<\/a> Sunday for the DOJ to curtail the payout fund and rein in a deal to exempt Trump from IRS audits.<\/p>\n

Cassidy\u2019s support came hours after Murkowski announced that she would oppose<\/a> Blanche\u2019s nomination, putting it on the brink of potential failure. Between unified opposition from Democrats and Sen. Mitch McConnell\u2019s absence for health reasons, Blanche could only lose two Republicans and still be confirmed.<\/p>\n

Hours before Friday\u2019s vote, Murkowski told reporters she spoke with Blanche multiple times but that she was \u201cgood with where I am.\u201d She said there was no \u201cone\u201d thing that motivated her decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there was one thing, we might be able to go back to the White House and say \u2018Hey, can we work on this one thing,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cBut for me it was a compilation.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that she believed the anti-weaponization fund is \u201cpretty dead\u201d but \u201cwhat is not so clear\u201d are the audit immunity provisions of Trump\u2019s IRS agreement, \u201cwhich I just think are viewed by so many in this country as kind of a special and sweet deal for the president and his family.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Senate Saturday confirmed Todd Blanche to be attorney general, following a weeks-long struggle with a handful of wary Republicans. The Senate voted 50-49 to approve him, with GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joining with Democrats in opposition. Blanche, President Donald Trump\u2019s former personal attorney, has been serving as […]<\/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-26800","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\/26800","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=26800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26800\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}