{"id":27855,"date":"2026-08-04T23:24:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T18:24:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=27855"},"modified":"2026-08-04T23:24:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T18:24:39","slug":"todd-blanche-is-one-vote-away-from-confirmation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=27855","title":{"rendered":"Todd Blanche is one vote away from confirmation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.politico.com\/00\/02\/5781d3f2447a9f6e83113b24073c\/u-s-congress-32976.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Todd Blanche picked up an important GOP vote Tuesday for his nomination as attorney general \u2014 Sen. John Curtis of Utah \u2014 likely leaving him just one vote shy of securing confirmation.<\/p>\n<p>Curtis said in a statement he plans to \u201csupport\u201d Blanche and was pleased with the nominee\u2019s \u201creceptivity and understanding\u201d of issues raised, including ending the \u201cAnti-Weaponization Fund\u201d created under a May settlement Blanche brokered between the IRS and President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>The announcement came moments after the Senate Judiciary Committee voted on party lines to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/08\/04\/congress\/todd-blanche-senate-judiciary-01023540\" target=\"_blank\"><u>advance Blanche\u2019s nomination<\/u><\/a> to the full Senate.<\/p>\n<p>Crucial to that vote was Blanche agreeing in writing that the $1.8 billion payout fund was nullified and that another aspect of the settlement \u2014 an IRS audit immunity agreement \u2014 was scaled back. That gave GOP Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina enough comfort to vote for Blanche.<\/p>\n<p>The remaining undecided Republican senators are Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. All three said Tuesday they are still grappling with their decisions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m still considering everything,\u201d Collins said. \u201cI watched part of the markup this morning to hear some of the statements, but I don\u2019t have any decision to share with you right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Murkowski declined to say how she would vote, and Cassidy told reporters that he had \u201cnothing about Todd Blanche\u201d to say.<\/p>\n<p>Cornyn said he has already spoken with Collins and Murkowski and that additional conversations are expected.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSenator Collins, she&#8217;s one of the most diligent individuals I know, certainly here in the United States Senate, and we had a good conversation.\u201d Cornyn said. \u201cShe&#8217;ll have to speak for herself as to her ultimate conclusion. And I&#8217;ve also been exchanging messages with Senator Murkowski, and I know we&#8217;ll have further conversations about this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><i>Jordain Carney and Calen Razor contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Todd Blanche picked up an important GOP vote Tuesday for his nomination as attorney general \u2014 Sen. John Curtis of Utah \u2014 likely leaving him just one vote shy of securing confirmation. Curtis said in a statement he plans to \u201csupport\u201d Blanche and was pleased with the nominee\u2019s \u201creceptivity and understanding\u201d of issues raised, including&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static.politico.com\/00\/02\/5781d3f2447a9f6e83113b24073c\/u-s-congress-32976.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}