{"id":33532,"date":"2026-08-09T00:29:55","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=33532"},"modified":"2026-08-09T00:29:55","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:29:55","slug":"sen-bill-cassidy-will-support-todd-blanche-attorney-general-nomination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=33532","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Bill Cassidy will support Todd Blanche attorney general nomination"},"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:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Bill-Cassidy-Todd-Blanche-08.07.png?w=900\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n        <iframe id=\"instaread_iframe\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Audio Article\" style=\"display:block\" data-pin-nopin=\"true\"><\/iframe>\n    <\/p>\n<p><\/instaread-player><\/p>\n<p>Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) announced Friday morning he will support Todd Blanche\u2019s nomination to serve as attorney general, all but ensuring the controversial nominee will have the votes he needs to be confirmed. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll considered, I will vote for Mr. Blanche,\u201d Cassidy announced, and then added with a tone of resignation: \u201cI will be criticized for this vote. What\u2019s new?\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Cassidy said he wasn\u2019t entirely happy with Blanche\u2019s record as deputy attorney general and then acting attorney general.<\/p>\n<p>But he argued that the Justice Department needs to have a Senate-confirmed leader and reasoned that President Trump could appoint an even more controversial nominee if Blanche\u2019s nomination is defeated.<\/p>\n<p>Cassidy was the last Republican senator to remain undecided on Blanche, keeping his colleagues in suspense for days about how he would vote.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, he revealed that answer to be yes, despite concerns he raised in recent weeks about Blanche\u2019s willingness to serve as an effective check on Trump after previously serving as his personal defense attorney.<\/p>\n<p>He said Blanche showed \u201cpoor judgment\u201d in approving a settlement among Trump, his family, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to establish a $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund and to exempt Trump and his family from future IRS audits over past tax returns.<\/p>\n<p>But Cassidy noted that Blanche acknowledged \u201cmistakes\u201d and later testified that the anti-weaponization fund is dead and will remain so.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Cassidy\u2019s support paves the way for Senate Republicans to advance his nomination Friday or over the weekend after they finish voting on a Russia sanctions bill, a stopgap measure to fund the government and a bipartisan bill to reform the rules for compensating college athletes.<\/p>\n<p>The Louisiana senator announced his yes vote after two other centrist Republicans, Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), announced they would oppose Blanche.<\/p>\n<p>Collins and Murkowski voiced serious concerns about his ability to preserve the political independence of the Justice Department. \u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr3_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) needed Cassidy\u2019s vote to advance Blanche because Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) remains absent from the Senate for a serious health issue.<\/p>\n<p>If Cassidy had threatened to vote no, it could have put pressure on McConnell, who was <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/6015029-mitch-mcconnell-discharged-rehabilitation-center\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">discharged from a rehab facility<\/a> this week, to make a quick return to the Senate to vote on Blanche \u2014 though he hasn\u2019t said publicly whether he would support the nominee.<\/p>\n<p>Without McConnell, Thune has an effective majority of only 52 seats.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr4_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>All 47 members of the Senate Democratic caucus, including centrist Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), are <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/6011168-fetterman-blanche-ag-doj\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">expected to vote against Blanche<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Cassidy said he spoke with Blanche about a half dozen times and texted with him \u201cmany more times\u201d in recent days about his confirmation and aired the concerns he had been harboring.<\/p>\n<p>He also said he consulted with colleagues who opposed Blanche, such as Murkowski and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), as well as those who supported him, such as Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who secured a written commitment from the Justice Department not to establish the anti-weaponization fund.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr5_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Specifically, Cassidy said he was concerned about allegations of \u201clawfare\u201d at the Justice Department, such as an effort to indict former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who gave damaging testimony about Trump in 2022 before a House special committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m particularly concerned about episodes of apparent lawfare, DOJ bringing suits against political enemies, both parties, presidents of both parties have been guilty of this. It must stop,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Cassidy made his announcement on the Senate floor shortly before senators are expected to vote on the controversial nominee, who <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/6007353-judiciary-committee-blanche-nomination-attorney-general\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">advanced out of the Senate Judiciary Committee<\/a> on a party-line vote Tuesday. \u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr6_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>He and Murkowski met with Blanche in the basement of the Capitol on Wednesday to discuss their concerns with his nomination.<\/p>\n<p>Cassidy later huddled with his staff on Thursday to mull his looming decision, telling reporters that he hadn\u2019t yet decided how to vote.<\/p>\n<p>Murkowski <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/6015924-lisa-murkowski-todd-blanche-attorney-general-nomination-block\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">announced her opposition to Blanche<\/a> early Friday morning in a press release, explaining that she did not feel confident that Blanche, Trump\u2019s former personal criminal defense lawyer, would serve as an effective check on the president.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr7_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cThe politicization\u2014even weaponization\u2014of the Department did not start with this administration but has accelerated during it,\u201d she said in a statement. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI 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,\u201d she said, referring to the Justice Department\u2019s effort to indict Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) for recording a video urging U.S. service members to disobey unlawful orders.<\/p>\n<p>Collins <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/6009239-collins-opposes-blanche-ag-confirmation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">announced her opposition to Blanche<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr8_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Collins\u00a0called Blanche\u00a0\u201ca capable lawyer,\u201d but she said the Department of Justice under his leadership has \u201cbecome increasingly political.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She argued that Blanche\u2019s leadership has \u201cfurther eroded the department\u2019s independence\u201d and noted that he approved the order to shield Trump, his sons and\u00a0the Trump family business from IRS audits, protections \u201cunavailable to other American taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She also pointed to Blanche\u2019s role in approving the $1.8 billion \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund and his recent pledge to an anti-abortion organization that he would seek to prohibit the mailing of abortion medication to women nationwide.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/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. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) announced Friday morning he will support Todd Blanche\u2019s nomination to serve as attorney general, all but ensuring the controversial nominee will have the votes he needs to be confirmed. \u00a0 \u201cAll considered, I will vote for Mr. Blanche,\u201d Cassidy announced, and then added with a tone of resignation: \u201cI will be&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Bill-Cassidy-Todd-Blanche-08.07.png?w=1280","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33532","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\/33532","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=33532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}