President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to withdraw Todd Blanche\u2019s nomination to be attorney general until two Republican senators who have expressed concerns about Blanche leave office in January.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd\u2019s name, if they do not do the right thing, and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office,\u201d he said Thursday on Truth Social<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Senate Judiciary Committee postponed<\/a> a vote to advance Blanche\u2019s nomination over objections from Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. A single Republican \u201cno\u201d vote would mean the nomination fails to advance.<\/p>\n The pair have expressed hesitancy to support Blanche over concerns with Trump\u2019s settlement with the Internal Revenue Service regarding the leak of his tax returns. <\/p>\n Responding to Trump\u2019s post, Cornyn said on X<\/a> that the president \u201cis mistaken if he believes concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to me and Senator Tillis.\u201d<\/p>\n Tillis slammed Trump\u2019s proposal as \u201cabout as politically tone deaf a posture as I have seen in this administration.\u201d<\/p>\n He argued that the move would give journalists and Democrats \u201cgold to mine between now and the election.\u201d The North Carolina senator also said that Trump could \u201croll the dice\u201d on the Senate confirmation process once he and Cornyn are out of office, but added, \u201cit\u2019s all on him.\u201d<\/p>\n With midterm elections less than 100 days away, it\u2019s unclear whether Republicans will still control the Senate come January. If Democrats flip control of the Senate, they could block Blanche\u2019s nomination.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I\u2019m focused on is the main thing, and the main thing is the 1776 fund needs to go away, or they\u2019re going to hang this yoke around our candidates\u2019 necks, and rightly so,\u201d Tillis said. <\/p>\n \u201cI believe the only logical conclusion I can draw from this setback is that, in fact, there is somebody who wants to enable it at the right time,\u201d he added. \u201cThat\u2019s unacceptable.\u201d <\/p>\n Cornyn voiced the same concern on Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that they\u2019re balking at putting that in writing tells me that they were hoping to get by with this settlement agreement and his testimony and then revitalize those provisions at a later date and that\u2019s, I don\u2019t think, good-faith negotiations,\u201d Cornyn said. <\/p>\n \u201cI mean, it suggests to me as they are looking for an out to do something different than what Todd Blanche testified to at his hearing, and that\u2019s a problem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Cornyn met with Blanche later Thursday afternoon, a source familiar with the meeting told NBC News. Tillis was also part of the meeting, according to another source familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n As part of the IRS lawsuit settlement, the Justice Department created a $1.776 \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund. The DOJ backtracked after bipartisan criticism, but Cornyn and Tillis are pushing for the Justice Department to formalize the verbal commitment in writing.<\/a><\/p>\n