WASHINGTON — Instead of meeting Texas Sen. John Cornyn’s demands, President Donald Trump may temporarily pull Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination for the full-time job. This comes after the Senate Judiciary Committee pushed back a vote on Blanche’s nomination.
“This doesn’t need to be this hard,” Cornyn told reporters Thursday on Capitol Hill.
Cornyn’s hold up apparently got the attention of the White House.
“If this were just between me and Todd Blanche, we would have worked this out, but apparently he’s getting some pushback from higher-ups at the White House,” Cornyn said. “I don’t know who.”
Cornyn and Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina are delaying Blanche’s nomination to officially lead the Department of Justice (DOJ). They demand in writing that the Justice Department will not move forward with a fund to compensate the president’s allies who claim political persecution, and that the DOJ will narrow a settlement that gives the Trump family immunity from tax audits.
“It’s what he testified to under oath, so it’s not like this is something new and different,” Cornyn said. “It causes me concern if they don’t want to put it in writing. That this is not something that is going to be enforceable in the long term because, as you know, people can change their mind later on.”
President Trump posted on social media that he has “no objection to temporarily withdrawing” Blanche’s nomination and “putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office.”
The post prompted Cornyn to write, the president “is mistaken if he believes concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to me and Senator Tillis.”
“He’s worried about such a fund being abused or weaponized by frankly any presidency or any politician,” said Republican strategist Brendan Steinhauser. “But I think that he feels free to pursue this because he knows that these are his last few months in office.”
Steinhauser, who worked as Cornyn’s campaign manager in 2014, acknowledges that Cornyn has more political freedom now. Cornyn lost his primary to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who got the president’s endorsement. But Cornyn insists his pushback is not political retribution.
“Sen. Cornyn does have a long track record of kind of an independent spirit on things. He has voted with President Trump, as he likes to cite, more than 99% of the time. But he has that 1% of issues that he pushes back on,” Steinhauser said.
“I don’t think he would be doing this unless he thought it was the right thing to do, and he thought he could make an impact here,” Steinhauser added. “The next few weeks and months are really about his legacy.”
The dispute over Blanche’s nomination comes ahead of the midterm elections, when control of Congress hangs in the balance.
“It’s a real possibility that Democrats could have a really good year and potentially could take the Senate, so it is a risk counting on Republicans holding the Senate next year, but I think the president seems like he’s willing to take that bet,” Steinhauser said.
It is unclear whether Blanche has the support of the full Senate. He could still lead the Justice Department as the acting attorney general for up to 210 days.