WASHINGTON ― Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) announced Friday morning that she won’t vote to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general.
Whether Blanche’s nomination will be confirmed by the Senate now appears to hinge on Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who refused to say Thursday how he might vote.
In a statement, Murkowski listed several things she doesn’t like about Blanche, but, in short, she doesn’t want to put a henchman for Donald Trump at the top of the Justice Department.
“The country needs an Attorney General who will check the worst impulses of this administration,” Murkowski said. “I hope Mr. Blanche is able to achieve that, if confirmed, but I simply do not have confidence that will be the case.”
Republicans control 53 seats in the Senate. With Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) absent due to illness, and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) also planning to vote “no” on Blanche and all Democrats opposed, that means just one more Republican “no” would sink the nomination.
Blanche met with both Murkowski and Cassidy for an hour in a Senate basement on Wednesday. Neither senator gave any hint about their thinking.
Since becoming acting attorney general in April, Blanche has overseen criminal cases against Trump’s political enemies, including a case against former FBI Director James Comey that appears to be based entirely on Comey posting a pictures of seashells on a beach. Blanche handled the department’s release of the Epstein files, stifling the statutorily required disclosure of documents that mention Trump. And in May, he announced a sham “settlement” of a lawsuit by Trump against his own administration, rewarding Trump with a $1.8 billion fund to pay off Jan. 6 rioters and immunity from any ongoing tax audits, potentially saving the president millions.
“The politicization ― even weaponization ― of the Department did not start with this administration but has accelerated during it,” Murkowski said. “I take issue with the handling of the release of the Epstein files; the sweeping immunity protections granted to the President, his family, and their businesses; the statements that have been made to anti-abortion groups; and the repeated targeting of individuals ranging from former administration staff to sitting U.S. Senators.”
Murkowski said she also believed Trump and Blanche could revive his $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” as soon as Blanche is confirmed. Despite Blanche’s insistence the fund wouldn’t move forward, Murkowski said it’s “only off the table because this nomination is pending and the Senate has leverage.”
The Alaska senator has a habit of sometimes breaking with her party on high-profile votes, but Cassidy, not as much ― except he was one of seven Republicans (along with Murkowski) who voted to convict Trump in 2021 for inciting a mob attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Cassidy has supported Trump in his second term, even voting to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary despite concerns about his quack views on vaccines. But Trump supported a Republican challenger against Cassidy in the Louisiana primary this year, and Cassidy lost, meaning his Senate career will soon be over.
When Trump joined senators for a lunch meeting at the Capitol in June, he and Cassidy got into a shouting match over the Iran war.
“I lost my temper — that’s inappropriate, it’s the Irish in me — but I again matched his tone and his volume, and it went back and forth,” Cassidy told reporters afterward. “But at some point, my guys said, ‘All right, Bill, sit down,’ and so I sat down and tried to de-escalate.”
