The U.S. Senate, at 4:30 a.m. Saturday, approved the nomination of Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, Todd Blanche, to the post of attorney general of the United States.
Blanche was confirmed by a one-vote margin, 50-49, though, of course, a 50-50 tie would have been broken in Blanche’s favor by Vice President JD Vance.
The one missing vote was that of Mitch McConnell, the former Senate Majority Leader who, for all we know, is incapacitated or dead, though he has been casting votes by proxy this week.
Presumably, McConnell’s proxy vote was in the bank if Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana MAGA, but not MAGA enough, senator who was supposedly the last one on the fence about Blanche, hadn’t decided to cast his lot with the beleaguered nominee.
Two self-styled moderate Republicans, Susan Collins, who is up for re-election in Maine this fall, and Lisa Murkowski, whose term ends with the 2028 cycle, voted with the 47 Senate Democrats in opposition.
Don’t be fooled: Collins is currently trailing her Democratic opponent in her re-election bid; and Murkowski’s political fortunes in Alaska are always on thin ice.
Their “no” votes were engineered to give them political protection; the Blanche confirmation was a done deal, despite the kayfabe public back-and-forth involving those two, and then also, Cassidy, Texas Sen. John Cornyn and North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis.
The Three Amigos were the last public holdouts on the GOP side; they came around when Blanche promised in writing that the Justice Department would abandon Trump’s proposed $1.8 billion Jan. 6 reparations fund, and another piece of the settlement designed to shield Trump and his family from IRS tax audits.
As if Team Trump hasn’t violated promises – written or otherwise – before.
You have to wonder what dirt the Trumpers have on Messrs. Cassidy, Cornyn and Tillis, all of whom are lame ducks – Cassidy and Cornyn because they lost primary battles to Trump-endorsed challengers, Tillis just because he seems tired of it all.
Good news on the latter three’s behalfs: we’ll never see the photos of whatever it was they don’t want us to see the photos of.
What’s particularly odd to me with the push from Trump to install Blanche in the AG job is that Blanche failed the boss as his personal attorney in the New York state trial on hush-money charges and the federal cases brought by the Justice Department under the Biden administration.
Trump, publicly, and often, likes to say that he doesn’t want to surround himself with losers, but Blanche is a multi-time loser on Trump’s own personal behalf.
Todd Blanche must be the best Trump can do.
Sad!
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Chris Graham
