WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed Todd Blanche as attorney general 50-49 on Saturday, with Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana casting the vote that put him over the top. Two Republican senators — Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — voted against Blanche, leaving the nomination in doubt before Cassidy announced his support in a Senate floor speech Friday morning.
Cassidy said Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" that the decision was not straightforward. "This is not a black-or-white decision," Cassidy said. Blanche had been serving as acting attorney general since the ouster of Pam Bondi earlier this spring, and Cassidy framed his confirmation vote as a choice between imperfect options and unstable leadership.
Two specific Justice Department proposals nearly cost Blanche the nomination. The first was an anti-weaponization fund that would have distributed money to Trump supporters, including people prosecuted for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. Blanche rescinded that fund before the vote. The second was an IRS immunity plan that would have shielded President Trump and his family from tax enforcement actions. Blanche narrowed the scope of that plan as well.
"No American should be targeted by the law, and no American should be above the law," Cassidy said of the original IRS proposal. "That frankly, almost weighed to vote 'no.'" The White House praised Blanche after the vote, with spokeswoman Lauren Bis calling him "an American patriot who has played a critical role at the Department of Justice in advocating for sanity, law and order."
Cassidy said he now believes the process to reinstate the anti-weaponization fund is effectively dead. That assessment matters because Democratic critics and some Republicans had warned that Blanche's confirmation could open the door to reviving it. Cassidy said he is convinced that will not happen, though he stopped short of explaining why he reached that conclusion.
On the question of the November elections, Cassidy said he is cautiously optimistic that Blanche will enforce election laws without bias. Democrats have warned that the Trump administration will use the Justice Department to tilt the electoral environment. "Of course there's always existential anxiety," Cassidy said. "I cannot predict the future, and this is not a black-or-white decision, but I am confident on that."
Cassidy tied his vote to a basic standard for the Justice Department's daily operations. Federal prosecutors in Louisiana, he said, have direct communication with the department and are receiving the resources they need. "If you want a DOJ that is actually doing its job, you need stable leadership and leadership which is effective," Cassidy said. "There's a lot of positive things to say about Todd Blanche."
Cassidy is retiring after next year. He lost a Republican primary to a Trump-backed challenger, removing him from future Senate races and from the pressure that constrains most members who cross the White House. That independence gave his announcement unusual weight — he had no primary to protect and no Senate seat to defend.
The final 50-49 tally reflected how divided the Republican conference remains on Blanche. Collins and Murkowski have broken with the party on several Trump nominations since January 2025. Their opposition here was enough to put the vote in doubt until Cassidy spoke. No Democrat voted yes.
Blanche came to the Justice Department from private legal practice, where he had represented Trump personally in federal criminal cases. Democrats argued that history disqualified him from serving as the country's chief law enforcement officer. Republicans who supported him countered that his handling of the acting role — including pulling back the anti-weaponization fund and scaling down the IRS immunity plan — showed he would exercise independent judgment.
The confirmation gives the administration a permanent attorney general for the first time since Bondi's departure. Whether Blanche maintains the concessions he made during the confirmation process — on the anti-weaponization fund and the IRS plan — will determine how durable Cassidy's confidence turns out to be.
