Friday, August 7, 2026

Todd Blanche is a go to be attorney general

It's all over except for the bang of the gavel.

In the early hours of Friday, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska announced that she would vote against Todd Blanche's confirmation to become attorney general.

Her stated reasons seemed fairly obvious: she lacked confidence about how he handled the Jeffrey Epstein files; she did not trust he would protect abortion rights after he made comments to anti-choice groups; and she continued to not trust his remarks about the "anti-weaponization" fund that Blanche has so far declared dead. 

But far from signaling the end of Blanche's road, everyone seemed to expect that it would tee up Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) announcing his support for Blanche.

Despite the fact that President Donald Trump endorsed against him in his primary, ending his career, Cassidy said it was better to have someone permanent in the role.

"I'll be criticized for this vote, what's new?" he said, almost flippantly during his floor speech that mirrored his announcement that he would confirm Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

Cassidy's announcement makes the entire confab about Blanche's confirmation look like a charade.

Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas), both of whom will leave the Senate this year, spent weeks wringing their hands about the slush fund, or as Tillis called it "the payout pot for punks."

But in the end, the written statement from Blanche seemed to be enough, even as their Democratic colleagues warned it was a ruse.

And in just the same way that Murkowski's opposition paved the way for Cassidy's support, Tillis and Cornyn's support for Blanche teed up Sen. Susan Collins's support for Blanche, which allows her to avoid a tough vote as she faces re-election in a blue state. 

"Once Susan Collins says she wasn't going to vote for him, you knew somebody else was going to fold because she never is decisive," Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona told The Independent. 

Read more here. 

By Eric Garcia

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