{"id":792409,"date":"2026-07-30T01:29:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T01:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/792409\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T01:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T01:29:10","slug":"judiciary-committee-delays-blanche-nomination-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/792409\/","title":{"rendered":"Judiciary Committee Delays Blanche Nomination Vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Senate Judiciary Committee has officially delayed<\/a> a vote on Todd Blanche\u2019s nomination to become attorney general, as he struggles to secure the support of two key Senate Republicans.<\/p>\n

Standing in the way of Blanche\u2019s promotion from acting attorney general are Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), with Cornyn saying that Blanche and the Justice Department haven\u2019t done enough to ease his concerns over the proposed $1.8 billion \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund and a deal shielding President Donald Trump from future tax audits.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley] works to set President Trump\u2019s nominees up for success in committee, not failure,\u201d a spokesperson for the committee said. \u201cSenators Cornyn and Tillis want written assurances from the Department of Justice regarding the Trump-IRS settlement. Tomorrow\u2019s markup is postponed as work continues to secure sufficient support in committee to favorably report Attorney General-nominee Todd Blanche, who is highly qualified for the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

A \u201cno\u201d vote by either Cornyn or Tillis would likely doom Blanche\u2019s nomination.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve stonewalled it,\u201d Cornyn told reporters on Wednesday. \u201cThey\u2019re making this a lot harder than it needs to be. \u2026 They claim to be negotiating in good faith, but something\u2019s not working, and I don\u2019t know where the problem is. We\u2019re trying to make it easy on them. They simply refuse to take our help.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Texas Republican had hoped for a resolution Wednesday morning as he was scheduled to meet with Blanche, but instead he canceled that meeting, alleging that DOJ was not \u201cresponsive\u201d to his asks \u2014 particularly on the scope of the tax audit proposal. He also said that he sent the Justice Department line-by-line edits to their proposal on the \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund and the audit immunity deal.<\/p>\n

Later in the day, Cornyn huddled with Tillis and Grassley to brief them on the situation. Grassley delayed the vote hours later, with Cornyn continuing to wonder why Blanche\u2019s team has not been sufficiently responsive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would think [Blanche] wants to be confirmed,\u201d Cornyn said. \u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s going to be confirmed if he doesn\u2019t at least try to be responsive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cornyn has insisted Blanche put in writing that the anti-weaponization fund will not go forward, adding that Blanche\u2019s word that it\u2019s \u201cdead\u201d and \u201cmoot\u201d is insufficient. Cornyn has noted repeatedly that the agreement between the IRS and the president could be revived later via a breach of contract lawsuit \u2014 meaning that a change must be made in writing.<\/p>\n

Amid the tumult, Blanche held meetings elsewhere on Capitol Hill, including with Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah), another holdout if Blanche\u2019s nomination were to make it out of the Judiciary committee, and Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyoming).<\/p>\n

Cornyn, the former No. 2 Senate Republican, has long been an ally of leadership, but has been putting his new-found freedom to use after he lost his primary in May. He dispelled speculation on Wednesday that he will fall in line despite his ongoing skepticism of Blanche and the DOJ\u2019s deal with Trump. <\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe they think they can roll me,\u201d Cornyn told reporters, adding that\u2019s not the case. <\/p>\n

Other Republicans on the committee think Cornyn will stick to his guns.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I were the Justice Department, I would believe him,\u201d said Sen. John Kennedy (R-Louisiana). \u201cHe\u2019s as serious as four heart attacks and a stroke \u2014 and an aneurysm.\u201d<\/p>\n

The delay has major implications for Blanche, as it means his nomination process to become the full-time attorney general will spill beyond the August recess. Republican leaders had been hoping to get him over the finish line before they leave for the five-week break late next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Senate Judiciary Committee has officially delayed a vote on Todd Blanche\u2019s nomination to become attorney general, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-792409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}