{"id":31335,"date":"2026-08-07T18:00:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T13:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=31335"},"modified":"2026-08-07T18:00:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T13:00:22","slug":"murkowski-will-oppose-blanche-threatening-his-confirmation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=31335","title":{"rendered":"Murkowski will oppose Blanche, threatening his 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:\/\/images.axios.com\/WcVEegunb9ZxAJbzSf90Hub9Ny8=\/0x81:2661x1578\/1366x768\/2026\/08\/07\/1786098270457.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) will vote against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/08\/03\/trump-anti-weaponization-fund-blanche\" target=\"_blank\">Todd Blanche&#8217;s nomination for attorney general<\/a>, becoming the second known Republican to oppose him.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters:<\/strong> Murkowski&#8217;s opposition puts <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/08\/01\/blanche-tillis-trump-anti-weaponization-fund\" target=\"_blank\">Blanche&#8217;s confirmation in jeopardy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>With Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) still absent from the Senate, Blanche cannot afford to lose any more GOP support.<\/li>\n<li>Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/08\/04\/todd-blanche-attorney-general-senate-republicans-susan-collins\" target=\"_blank\">has already announced her opposition<\/a>, and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) has yet to announce his position.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What they are saying:<\/strong> &#8220;The country needs an Attorney General who will check the worst impulses of this administration,&#8221; Murkowski <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/lisamurkowski\/status\/2085667540265504961\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> Friday in a 6 a.m. post on X. &#8220;I hope Mr. Blanche is able to achieve that, if confirmed, but I simply do not have confidence that will be the case.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Zoom in:<\/strong> Majority Leader John Thune has not yet scheduled a final confirmation vote before the Senate is set to leave for its August recess.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;We intend to vote on him before we leave, and I am hopeful and optimistic that we will get him confirmed,&#8221; Thune said on Fox News Thursday.<\/li>\n<li>Earlier this week, Blanche appeared to be on track after the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced his nomination.<\/li>\n<li>Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) dropped their opposition after reaching a written agreement with Blanche that President Trump&#8217;s proposed $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund would be terminated.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Friction point: <\/strong>But Collins&#8217; announcement threw the nomination&#8217;s fate into doubt.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who has occasionally supported some of President Trump&#8217;s nominees, has said he will vote against Blanche.<\/li>\n<li>Blanche met with Murkowski and Cassidy on Wednesday night, but neither senator indicated at the time how they would vote.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The intrigue:<\/strong> McConnell&#8217;s office said Thursday that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/08\/06\/mcconnell-discharged-rehab-center-health\" target=\"_blank\">he was discharged for the hospital<\/a> but did not give a date on when he would return to the Senate.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>McConnell has not publicly said how he would vote on Blanche.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Editor&#8217;s note: This story has been updated with new details throughout. <\/em><\/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>Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) will vote against Todd Blanche&#8217;s nomination for attorney general, becoming the second known Republican to oppose him. Why it matters: Murkowski&#8217;s opposition puts Blanche&#8217;s confirmation in jeopardy. With Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) still absent from the Senate, Blanche cannot afford to lose any more GOP support. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) has&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/WcVEegunb9ZxAJbzSf90Hub9Ny8=\/0x81:2661x1578\/1366x768\/2026\/08\/07\/1786098270457.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31335","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\/31335","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=31335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}