Speaker 1: We now turned to the nomination of Todd Blanche to
Speaker 1: be Attorney General.
Speaker 2: The clerk will call the.
Speaker 3: Role alright, alright.
Speaker 2: No no by proction no no.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no no. The nomination will be favorly
Speaker 1: reported before we adjourned. I have some letters I want
Speaker 1: to put in the record, uh from Uh. Well, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to bother read it. It's not worth worth reading.
Speaker 1: At this point. The meetings adjourned.
Speaker 3: Todd Blanche is now one step closer to officially serving
Speaker 3: as US Attorney General. I'm Von Hilliard. As you just saw,
Speaker 3: Blanche got the approval of the Judicial Committee on an
Speaker 3: eleven to nine party line vote. We're now just waiting
Speaker 3: for Senate Majority Leader John Thune to schedule a full
Speaker 3: floor vote that could come here within this next week.
Speaker 3: Republican Senators Tom Tillis and John Cornyn, you saw them there,
Speaker 3: dropped their initial opposition insisting memos blanched releached released this weekend,
Speaker 3: met their demands of clarifying the President's tax immunity deal
Speaker 3: and puts in writing that the so called Anti Weaponization
Speaker 3: Fund is dead as well. But there are questions about
Speaker 3: whether that is really the case. I want to get
Speaker 3: to our panel. Here at the top MS NOW colleagues,
Speaker 3: Congressional reporter Michael Schnell, Senior legal reporter Lisa Rubin, legal analyst,
Speaker 3: and former federal prosecutor Paul Butler is here in White
Speaker 3: House reporter Jake Traylor. Michael, I want to start here
Speaker 3: with the full floor vote that we now anticipate for
Speaker 3: Todd Blanche. You saw Tom Tillis and John Cornan fall
Speaker 3: in line, but Mitch McConnell is not at the US Senate.
Speaker 3: Would it be three defections that would be required of
Speaker 3: Republicans And at this point do you expect him to
Speaker 3: pass the full Senate?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Vaughan.
Speaker 4: Given the current breakdown of the Senate, and given the
Speaker 4: fact that we don't expect Senator McConnell to be back
Speaker 4: at least this week when the vote would likely happen
Speaker 4: or in the next few days, Republicans can only afford
Speaker 4: to lose two votes and still get Todd Blanche confirmed.
Speaker 4: And now I'll say this committee vote was certainly the
Speaker 4: main hurdle that Todd Blanche had to get over, particularly
Speaker 4: with Tom Tillis and John Cornyn. But I would say
Speaker 4: that Todd Blanche is not out of the woods just yet.
Speaker 4: There still could be some complications in his quest to
Speaker 4: become the permanent attorney general. That's because there are some
Speaker 4: Republicans who remain on the fence and have not yet
Speaker 4: said how they plan to vote on its confirmation. Top
Speaker 4: of that list is Bill Cassidy, the Republican from Louisiana
Speaker 4: who just lost his reelection to a Trump backed challenger
Speaker 4: and has not been shy about voicing his disagreements with
Speaker 4: the President. Since I spoke to him yesterday, he said
Speaker 4: he had no comment on Todd Blanch. He told our
Speaker 4: team again this morning he still has no comment. Bill Cassidy.
Speaker 4: In the past his voice concerns about that anti weaponization fund,
Speaker 4: about that audit immunity, but he's also said that he's
Speaker 4: worried that Todd Blanche is going to act as President
Speaker 4: Trump's personal attorney when he's Attorney General and not be
Speaker 4: an unbiased, independent figure. In addition to Bill Cassidy, you
Speaker 4: also have people like Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins who
Speaker 4: have not yet said how they planned to vote. I
Speaker 4: spoke to Susan Collins yesterday. To Lisa Murkowski yesterday, Murkowski
Speaker 4: said that well, tod While this deal that Todd Blanch
Speaker 4: struck with Tillis and Cornyn is a step in the
Speaker 4: right direction, she still wants to learn more. Susan Collins
Speaker 4: wanted to talk to John Cornyn and Tom Tillis before
Speaker 4: making up her mind. So certainly a big hurdle crossed
Speaker 4: today for Todd Blanche, but is not going to be
Speaker 4: a cakewalk just yet, as some of those Republicans are
Speaker 4: keeping their cards close to their vest.
Speaker 3: Michael, you're outside of the committee hearing. I know that
Speaker 3: the members you're going to anticipate walking out of those doors.
Speaker 3: But Profess, it's the math accurate that it would be
Speaker 3: three Republican defections that would be required to join Democrats.
Speaker 4: They would only be able to lose two Republicans if
Speaker 4: McConnell is still absent. In assuming all Democrats vote no
Speaker 4: and there's full attendance,