To a shameless degree, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has spent the last two months with a singular focus: convincing Donald Trump to nominate him as Pam Bondi’s official successor.
The result has been a public audition of sorts in which Blanche, one of the president’s former defense attorneys, went to almost cartoonish lengths to use his office in ways designed to please the White House, up to and including indicting people the president doesn’t like.
Asked about his unsubtle campaign in April, the Republican lawyer told reporters, “If President Trump chooses to keep me as acting [attorney general], that’s an honor. If he chooses to nominate me, that’s an honor. If he chooses to nominate somebody else and I go back to being the DAG [deputy attorney general], that’s an honor. If he chooses to nominate somebody else and asks me to go do something else, I will say, ‘Thank you very much. I love you, sir.’”
The groveling might’ve been cringeworthy at times, and it might have shredded any claims Blanche might have made about being a credible and serious person, but it was also effective. MS NOW reported:
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he will nominate acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to serve in the role permanently. “We are going to make him permanent attorney general,” Trump said during an event in the Rose Garden. A video of the announcement was posted to social media by a White House aide. […]
MS NOW reported the planned nomination earlier Wednesday, citing a senior administration official. CNN was the first to report the news.
To be sure, as of this writing, the political world is still waiting for the official announcement, but by all accounts, it’s now more a question of when, not if.
In fact, for most observers, it’s time to shift the focus to Blanche’s confirmation fight.
At first blush, this might seem like a no-brainer: It’s a Republican-led Senate. Even if a GOP member or two, worried about their re-election prospects in a challenging environment, break ranks, there’s reason for Blanche to be optimistic.
Yes, Trump’s grip over Capitol Hill isn’t nearly as strong as it used to be, and yes, Senate Republicans have balked at some of the White House’s most outlandish nominees. But Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley said Thursday that he believes Blanche will have the support he needs, and the Iowa Republican’s assessment hardly seemed unreasonable.
But the closer one looks, the more roadblocks come into view.
Let’s not forget, just a few days after the Trump administration unveiled its since-withdrawn $1.776 billion compensation fund, Blanche went to Capitol Hill to brief Senate Republicans on the details and answer their questions. He likely expected some modest pushback, since a handful of GOP senators had already gone on record announcing their opposition to what they described as a “slush fund.”
