The Senate voted mostly along party lines 50-49 to confirm Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general, capping off weeks of intense talks regarding his leadership capacity and delay in promising to kill President Donald Trump’s controversial IRS settlement deal provisions.
Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins joined Democrats early Saturday morning to vote against his confirmation. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) was still absent following his release from a rehabilitation facility earlier in the week.
Blanche took over as acting attorney general after the president ousted Pam Bondi in April. But his full promotion to the country’s top law enforcement post was dubious after Republican holdouts took issue with the IRS’s settlement with Trump that gave him and certain family members immunity from tax audits and created a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that could pay out those who felt they had been wronged by the federal government, including Jan. 6 riot participants.