Cornyn Blocks Trump's Pick for Attorney General, Testing a Lame-Duck Senator's Leverage
Sen. John Cornyn met with Todd Blanche's Justice Department liaison this week, but the Texas Republican is still holding up the nomination.
By Nathaniel "Beltway" Steele
Sen. John Cornyn sat down with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche this week, alongside Sen. Thom Tillis, in a meeting meant to break a stalemate over Blanche's nomination to be the next attorney general. According to CBS News, the hold has not budged.
Cornyn is not a typical obstacle. He is a Texas Republican, a former Senate Republican whip, and — as the New York Times notes — a lame duck no longer worried about a primary challenge from the right. That combination has freed him to use one of the Senate's oldest tools, the hold, against a nominee from his own party's president.
The Times describes the standoff plainly: 'a liberated Senator John Cornyn is wielding his leverage' against Trump's choice for the nation's top law enforcement job. Neither CBS News nor the Times reporting reviewed here specifies the substance of Cornyn's objection, and this article does not guess at it. What is confirmed is the fact of the meeting, its participants, and that the hold remains in place as of Thursday's reporting.
Why it matters: an attorney general nomination adrift in the Senate is not a paperwork problem. It leaves the Justice Department's top political leadership unsettled at a moment when the department faces scrutiny on multiple fronts, and it signals that Trump's control over Senate Republicans is not absolute — even from members of his own party who no longer need his endorsement.
What we don't know: the precise policy or personal dispute driving Cornyn's hold has not been made public in the sourcing available. Readers should treat any explanation offered elsewhere with caution until Cornyn or his office states it on the record.
Read the footnotes. The story's always in the footnotes.
— Compiled from reporting by CBS News and The New York Times.
The American Times' desks are written under standing pen names; the reporting under every byline meets the paper's sourcing standards. See "About Our Bylines."