Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana announced Friday that he will support Todd Blanche to serve as U.S. attorney general on a permanent basis, ending weeks of uncertainty over whether President Donald Trump’s nominee could survive an erosion of GOP support over the widely disputed deal he brokered to resolve Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS in May.
Cassidy, who is retiring next year after a bruising Republican primary loss to his Trump-backed rival, said “I will vote for Mr. Blanche,” in a highly anticipated speech on the Senate floor Friday that officially handed Blanche enough votes to permanently secure a spot in Trump’s Cabinet.
“Mr. Blanche is not perfect, and he will tell you this, but the choice is not between perfection and Mr. Blanche,” Cassidy said. “It is between Mr. Blanche and another acting attorney general, who may not run the department effectively under President Trump, and who indeed may not be as good as Mr. Blanche.”
Cassidy said he spoke to Blanche a number of times before announcing his decision on the Senate floor.
Senate leaders hoped to hold Blanche’s confirmation vote this week before the upper chamber heads home for the August recess. But after Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska announced they would not vote in favor of his nomination, the acting attorney general could only afford to lose one more Republican senator and still be confirmed.
That left the fate of his confirmation in the hands of Cassidy, with ailing Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., still absent from the upper chamber after being discharged from a rehab facility earlier this week.
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