Trump says he may pull Blanche's attorney general nomination until dissenting senators leave office

President Donald Trump suggested Thursday that he might withdraw Todd Blanche’s nomination to become attorney general until next year amid a standoff with two Republican senators who are demanding concessions from the administration in exchange for their votes.

Sens. John Cornyn (Texas) and Thom Tillis (N.C.) have called for changes, in writing, to the controversial deal the Justice Department struck earlier this year to resolve a lawsuit Trump filed against the IRS. Despite days of negotiations with the Justice Department, an agreement appeared far from likely.

In a social media post Thursday, Trump called out the senators, both of whom are set to leave their elected positions at the end of the year, and suggested their resistance to supporting Blanche stemmed from Trump’s refusal to back them for reelection.

“John Cornyn, of Texas, and Thom Tillis, of North Carolina, both of whom I refused to Endorse, and whose political careers have been ended by my action, are refusing to vote for this Great Nominee,” Trump wrote.

He added: “I have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd’s name, if they do not do the right thing, and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office.”

If Trump follows through on that threat, Blanche could remain the head of the Justice Department on an acting basis for the foreseeable future.

Still, the fact that two senators from the president’s own party had brought Trump to consider such a move signified the extent to which Republican lawmakers are showing an increased willingness to buck the president’s demands as his popularity falls and the midterms approach.

Cornyn lost his bid for reelection in May after the president endorsed his primary opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Tillis opted not to seek reelection this year after a dispute with Trump. Since then, both senators have opposed the president on occasion, but their stand on Blanche’s nomination is the most significant break so far.

Despite Trump’s pronouncement, there is no guarantee that Blanche’s path to nomination would become easier if the president waits for the senators to leave office. Analysts from both sides expect Democrats to make gains in the midterm elections, potentially retaking one or both chambers of Congress.

Responding to Trump’s threat Thursday, Cornyn shot back with a social media post of his own saying the president “is mistaken if he believes concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to me and Senator Tillis.”

“This is not just a problem with just Thom Tillis and me — we just happen to be on the front lines on the Judiciary Committee,” Cornyn later told reporters. “I think there’s a serious question whether — if this goes unresolved — whether he could ever get confirmed. And I think that’s too bad, because I think he’s basically a good guy.”

“After the midterms, who knows who’s going to be the next United States senator from North Carolina or Texas?” Cornyn said.

Earlier in the day, the senator dismissed the notion that his and Tillis’ position stems from hostility to Trump. “This is about making sure that we maintain the integrity of our justice system and fairness for everybody involved,” Cornyn said.

That back-and-forth came hours after Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), chairperson of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was forced to postpone a committee vote on Blanche’s nomination that had been scheduled for Thursday morning or risk a losing outcome.

Republicans enjoy a 12-10 advantage on the Judiciary Committee, including Sen. Darline Graham of South Carolina, who recently replaced her late brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham. Either Cornyn or Tillis voting against Blanche would be enough to force a tie, stalling the nomination before it could reach the Senate floor. “No” votes from both senators would kill the nomination in committee.

“Chairman Grassley works to set President Trump’s nominees up for success in committee, not failure,” Grassley’s office said of the decision to postpone the vote.

Cornyn and Tillis are demanding changes to two aspects of the Justice Department’s deal with Trump, which resolved the lawsuit the president had filed against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns to the media.

They want Blanche to codify in writing his public pledge that the administration will not move forward with the “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” a nearly $1.8 billion payout fund to compensate people who claim they are victims of politically motivated prosecutions.

They are also seeking to limit a separate provision that offered Trump, his family members, and their businesses protection from past tax claims — a potentially lucrative benefit for a president who has often complained of burdensome IRS audits. That aspect of the deal has led to accusations of corruption and self-dealing.

The federal judge who oversaw Trump’s lawsuit recently denounced it as an improper attempt to “manipulate” the court process. She said it was not a legitimate legal dispute between two independent parties, given that both sides ultimately reported to Trump, but rather a pretext to come up with a questionable deal, which was reached without court approval.

Blanche has said he did not play a direct role in overseeing the negotiations between the Justice Department and Trump’s legal team. However, his signature is the only one that appears on the documents relating to the deal’s tax provisions.

Cornyn, among other things, wants the administration to clarify in writing that those protections do not apply to the Trump family’s future actions.

Neither side is offering specifics on the status of their ongoing negotiations, but talks continued into Thursday morning, with the Justice Department and the senators swapping proposals and counteroffers.

A Justice Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share details on the talks, said the department had sent a new proposal to Cornyn and Tillis late Wednesday.

“The Department has been in regular communication with Committee members for weeks, and we look forward to continuing to work productively with Senators to address any concerns,” the department said in a statement.

Cornyn sent a proposal of his own Thursday morning but told reporters that he had not heard back and had no scheduled meetings or calls with White House or Justice Department officials.

Trump is generally not inclined to make concessions to lawmakers who he thinks are not on his side, said one Trump adviser, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the president’s mindset. Trump does not think he needs Senate Republicans as much as they think he does, the adviser added.

Cornyn suggested that the $1.8 billion payout fund was no longer the main source of the impasse. Instead, he said, the latest hang-up involved the senators’ requested revisions to the part of the deal containing tax protections for Trump.

Tillis said separately that Trump’s threat to withdraw Blanche’s nomination rather than formally rescind the payout fund casts doubt on Blanche’s promise that the fund is dead.

“It doesn’t add up,” Tillis told reporters. “It suggests to me that there’s at least one or two people in the White House that wanted to have this latent capability for future use.”

Both senators blamed the White House, not Blanche, for the impasse.

“I’m happy to solve the problem,” Cornyn said. “I thought we had solved it last night. … I think as far as Blanche and the Department of Justice, we were pretty much on the same page. But then when the president got wind of it, he wasn’t.”