Cassidy says he’ll support Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination

Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche attends a press conference at the Justice Department, in Washington, DC, on June 11.

Sen. Bill Cassidy argued on Friday that his decision to support Todd Blanche for attorney general came down to his conviction that he was well-qualified for the job, but he also aired concerns over some of Blanche’s past actions.

The Louisiana lawmaker criticized Blanche for “poor judgment” in aiding the creation of a controversial “anti-weaponization” fund meant to benefit Trump’s political allies, as well as a settlement that protected Trump from certain IRS audits.

“Mr. Blanche said these were mistakes and he has made efforts to kill the slush fund,” Cassidy said in his Senate floor speech.

“Mr. Blanche is not perfect, and he will tell you this,” Cassidy said. “But the choice is not between perfection and Mr. Blanche; it is between Mr. Blanche and another acting attorney general who may not run the department effectively under President Trump, and who indeed may not be as good as Mr. Blanche.”

Cassidy said he made the decision after several conversations with Blanche, as well as discussions with other Republican lawmakers and Bill Barr, who served as attorney general during Trump’s first term.

He added that he remains worried about the Justice Department’s targeting of Trump’s political enemies.

But he contended that Blanche was well-versed in the law and had the qualifications to run the sprawling Justice Department. He also said he believed Barr when he argued that Blanche — the president’s former personal lawyer — would be uniquely able to push back effectively on Trump.

“He said that any attorney to represent a client well has to have tough conversations and confront a client with difficult truths,” Cassidy said of Barr, even as he conceded that both Barr and Blanche had told him that ultimately, “decisions are made by the president.”

“This is not a referendum on President Trump,’ Cassidy said. “It is a decision regarding Mr. Blanche in very specific circumstances. All considered, I will vote for Mr. Blanche.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was not at the Justice Department — or in the country — when Sen. Bill Cassidy announced his intention to support Blanche’s nomination.

Blanche is instead in Colombia, leading a US presidential delegation to the inauguration of the country’s new president, Abelardo de la Espriella.

The delegation includes other senior administration officials, including the DEA administrator, a US diplomat and several national security officials.

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy explained his support for Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general this morning, arguing that his support is not a referendum against President Donald Trump.

Watch Cassidy’s full speech in the clip below:

Sen. Bill Cassidy explains his vote supporting Todd Blanche's nomination for attorney general.

6:27 • Source: CNN

Sen. Bill Cassidy explains his vote supporting Todd Blanche's nomination for attorney general.

6:27

Sen. Bill Cassidy, during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee confirmation hearing, on Capitol Hill, on July 16.

GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy’s announcement that he will vote to confirm Acting Attorney Todd Blanche’s nomination came after weeks of him withholding support for one of President Donald Trump’s priorities.

Since Cassidy lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger, the outgoing senator has become one of the president’s sharpest critics in the halls of the US Capitol, and he’s clashed with Trump on a range of issues, including what the Louisiana senator has described as the administration’s weaponization of the Justice Department.

Cassidy has also pushed back on the US-Iran war. When Trump visited the Capitol in June, the two unleashed anger at each other in a shouting match in front of dozens of their Senate GOP colleagues.

According to Cassidy, the shouting match came after Trump demanded to know why members of his own party, including the Louisiana senator, voted with Democrats to rebuke the president’s military authority in Iran.

“I stood and said, ‘You have not told the American people what’s going on,’” Cassidy recalled after the meeting.

Hours later, however, after a meeting with Vice President JD Vance, the Louisiana Republican switched his vote on a similar Iran war powers resolution, voting against advancing it and allowing Republicans to effectively walk back their rebuke of the president.

Cassidy was also one of just a few Republicans who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial.

CNN’s Sarah Ferris, Manu Raju, Morgan Rimmer, Lauren Fox, Adam Cancryn and Alison Main contributed to this post.

In announcing he would support Blanche’s nomination, Cassidy appeared to choke up, furrowing his brow and struggling with the final words of his short speech on the Senate floor.

“I’ll be criticized for this vote. What’s new?” Cassidy said.

“But,” Cassidy added in a more somber tone, looking down and clicking his mouth, “people of Lousiana can be assured that I worked hard to understand the issue and to make the right decision.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy speaks on the floor of the US Senate, on Friday, in this screengrab taken from a video.

GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy said Friday that he will support Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general, clearing the way for his narrow confirmation to the high-profile role.

“I will vote for mr. Blanche,” the senator said in a speech on the Senate floor. “Mr. Blanche is not perfect, and he will tell you this, but the choice is not between perfection and Mr. Blanche; it is between mM. Blanche and another acting Attorney General who may not run the department effectively under President Trump, and who indeed may not be as good as Mr. Blanche.”

The Louisiana Republican’s decision comes after weeks of scrutiny of Blanche’s actions that had thrown his candidacy into doubt, and will hand a major victory to President Donald Trump and his senior aides.

Blanche could not afford to lose Cassidy’s vote after GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins pledged to vote against him, leaving him unable to lose another vote for his Senate confirmation.

A Trump loyalist who once served as the president’s personal lawyer, Blanche had come under fire over his role in the creation of an “anti-weaponization” fund meant to benefit Trump’s political allies and the unprecedented settlement agreement between Trump and his own administration over an IRS contractor’s leak of the president’s tax information.

Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche swears-in before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on his nomination, on July 15.

Blanche’s nomination hit turbulent waters from its launch, including through the protracted death of the $1.776 billion fund designed to pay those who had believe they have been victimized by past Justice Departments.

In the initial step to his nomination, Senate Republican John Cornyn held up the initial vote to move the nomination out of the Judiciary Committee, forcing Blanche to affirm the fund was dead — despite Blanche’s testimony and statements to that effect following immediate criticism of the fund from Republican lawmakers.

The fund was announced as part of a contorted settlement between the IRS and President Donald Trump over his leaked tax information in 2020. Included in the settlement was a memo from Blanche prohibiting the IRS from prosecuting Trump, his businesses and family members.

When Blanche sent lawmakers an order last week declaring the memo was dead, as Cornyn demanded, both Cornyn and Republican Sen. Thoms Tillis announced they would vote in favor of Blanche’s nomination.

Cornyn said in his statement that as part of Blanche’s order, the Justice Department “has acknowledged” the tax immunity is limited to Trump “and the scope does not extend beyond the defendants in the lawsuit, the IRS and the Treasury.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy is speaking on the Senate floor now and is expected to shortly announce his decision on whether to support or oppose Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination.

Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson poses for a portrait in New York on September 26, 2023.

GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who is announcing how we will vote on Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination, has so far withheld his support over concerns of the administration weaponizing the Justice Department.

“I am very concerned about the weaponization of the Justice Department,” Cassidy told reporters on July 30. He particularly questioned the need for the federal probe into Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide who was a star witness in a congressional investigation into the January 6 Capitol attack.

Attorney General Nominee Todd Blanche leaves a meeting on Capitol Hill on July 29.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has for weeks been actively courting senators whose support is key to his nomination — Sen. Bill Cassidy included.

Cassidy, who lost his primary election to a Trump-backed opponent, had emphatically raised concerns about what he called the “weaponization of the Justice Department.”

Among his specific concerns is a federal investigation into Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide and key witness in the congressional investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. It is still unclear whether the Justice Department will move for an indictment of the ex-aide.

Blanche also launched a broad effort to win over Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska. The acting attorney general spent two days in the state earlier this month. He then dropped two Biden-era lawsuits about the state’s oil and gas production, settled two outstanding lawsuits in the state and awarded millions of dollars in grants to local law enforcement.

Blanche met with Cassidy and Murkowski earlier this week to address any remaining concerns they had about his nomination.

Still, Murkowski announced early today that she would not vote in Blanche’s favor. That announcement deeply frustrated those in the Justice Department who had dedicated significant amounts of time in the futile effort to earn her support.