Susan Collins, the Republican senator from Maine, on Tuesday said she will vote against as Attorney General, hours after his nomination cleared a key Senate vote.
“While I believe Mr. Blanche is a capable lawyer, the Department of Justice has become increasingly political,” Collins said in a statement.
“Mr. Blanche has taken several actions that have further eroded the Department’s independence, and that is the basis for my vote to oppose his confirmation,” the statement added.
Collins, who is up for reelection in a state Donald Trump lost in 2024, cited Blanche’s approval of a deal shielding Trump and his family from Internal Revenue Service audits, the creation of a $1.8 billion so-called anti-weaponization fund and a promise to an anti-abortion organization that he would seek to prohibit the mailing of abortion drugs as reasons for her opposition.
Collins also said attempts to indict Democratic Senators Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin “over their ill-advised, but constitutionally protected, videos encouraging resistance to unlawful orders.”
Todd Blanche gets more Republican support
Earlier, John Cornyn from Texas and Thom Tillis from North Carolina, the two Republicans who had initially opposed Blanche’s nomination over Trump’s proposed $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund, agreed to support him after reaching a written agreement with the Acting USAG.
They also said that Blanche agreed to narrow the scope of the IRS settlement’s audit protections for Trump.
Another Republican, John Curtis from Utah, who had previously indicated he had concerns about voting for Blanche, said Tuesday that he would also support him.
Todd Blanche can’t afford losing more votes
This has left just two Republicans – Bill Cassidy from Louisiana and Lisa Murkowski from Alaska who haven’t said how they will vote.
All Democratic Senators are expected to oppose the nomination of Blanche, and with Mitch McConnell, who is recovering from a fall in June, still absent, the Trump nominee can only afford to lose two GOP votes.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 12-10 along party lines in support of the nomination of President Donald .
Vice President JD Vance, in a post on X following the committee vote, said Blanche “will continue to serve the American people and the Trump Administration loyally, and he will make a great Attorney General.”
The full Senate, where Republicans hold a majority, is expected to vote later this week to confirm Blanche as attorney general. He has been serving as acting attorney general since Trump fired Pam Bondi in April.
Prior to joining the Department of Justice, Blanche represented Trump in his New York trial over alleged “hush money” paid to porn star.
He was also on the legal defense team in two federal cases brought against Trump by special counsel Jack Smith. Both cases were dropped after Trump won the 2024 presidential election.
(With inputs from agencies)
