ALBAWABA - With a narrow vote coming down to just one person, Todd Blanche, U.S. President Donald Trump's ex-lawyer, has been narrowly confirmed as the new United States Attorney General.
In a close 50-49 vote, Todd Blanche won the confirmation to be the next U.S. Attorney General, ending a lengthy standoff between Senate Republicans and the Trump administration over his appointment.
Blanche won the confirmation even as two Republicans, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, joined the rest of the Democrats in the Senate in voting against him; the deciding vote was Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy’s.
Blanche said he was "deeply honored by the trust and confidence President Trump has placed in me".
The main reasons for Blanche's opposition are his handling of the Epstein case files and his supposed $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund whose purpose was to allow "victims of government persecution" to get compensation in the case of any litigation against them.
After an uproar in the Senate regarding the fund and its potential to be misused by the Trump administration to benefit those who were prosecuted for participating in the 6 January attack on Congress in 2021, Blanche walked back on it in order to secure his nomination.
But skeptics are unsure if the proposed fund is truly dead, with some arguing that Blanche will attempt to reinstate the fund after he guarantees his position as U.S. Attorney General; or revive it under a different name altogether.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer had words to say about Blanche’s nomination through a post on X, saying Blanche’s nomination would be an "excuse on a silver platter to keep up his pervasive, breathtaking corruption,
"Todd Blanche has no intention of stopping Trump's corruption. He advanced his career enabling it," he wrote. "Every senator who voted to confirm him has now branded themselves as an enabler, too."
