President Trump says he is willing to pull Todd Blanche's nomination for attorney general. The news comes as two key Republicans are withholding their support over concerns about the Justice Department's deal with President Trump to end his IRS lawsuit.
Trump said Thursday he was willing to end the nomination, but he was by no means conciliatory in his tone, saying he would keep Blanche on as acting attorney general and renominate him later. In addition, Trump took aim at the two Republican senators withholding their support — John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, both of whose support Blanche would need to advance in his nomination in committee.
"I have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd's name, if they do not do the right thing, and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office," Trump wrote in a social media post.
Both Cornyn and Tillis are leaving Congress in January. Tillis announced his retirement last year, after publicly clashing with Trump over his massive tax-and-spending bill. Cornyn lost his primary this year to a Trump-backed challenger.
In his post, Trump bragged that both senators' "political careers have been ended by my action."
Blanche, Trump's former personal lawyer, has been a contentious pick to lead the Justice Department amid questions about his handling of the Epstein files, the targeting of Trump's political foes and the broader politicization of justice.
Tillis and Cornyn this week voiced their opposition to Blanche over an agreement the Justice Department struck to end President Trump's IRS lawsuit over his leaked tax returns.
The settlement included the creation of a nearly $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund, which Cornyn and Tillis have vocally opposed for weeks. That fund would compensate people who alleged they were unfairly targeted by the government, meaning money could have gone to defendants charged with wrongdoing in the Jan. 6 riots.
A second, related part was a sweeping immunity deal for Trump, his family and businesses from audits of past tax returns.
Blanche has said the fund is not moving forward, but Cornyn and Tillis wanted written guarantees from the Justice Department about the scope of the tax immunity deal — guarantees that they said the DOJ would not provide.
"For some reason, I don't know whether it's the staff of the DOJ or who it is, but they simply, they know what they need to do, but they simply refuse to do it," Cornyn told reporters this week.
In response to Trump's Thursday post, Cornyn responded with his own post: "POTUS is mistaken if he believes concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to me and Senator Tillis."
Democrats have been united in opposition to his nomination, while Republicans have, by and large, been supportive.
In addition to criticizing the anti-weaponization fund, Tillis had also been vocal in criticizing Blanche's handling of the scandal around the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Late Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, announced the planned vote on Blanche was postponed as work continues to secure sufficient support for his nomination.
While Trump says he would renominate Blanche once Cornyn and Tillis are gone from the Senate, that plan would be far more difficult if Democrats win the Senate in November — a distinct possibility given this year's map and Trump's low approval ratings.
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