Senate lawmakers voted along party lines Tuesday to advance President Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee, Todd Blanche, out of committee to the full Senate floor for a vote, capping weeks of negotiations that threatened his path to confirmation.

The 12-10 vote caps a weeks-long standoff led by Republican Senators John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. 

The two outgoing GOP lawmakers had conditioned their support for Blanche on securing a written agreement from DOJ that would limit Trump’s sweeping tax audit settlement and end a controversial ‘anti-weaponization’ fund that sought to pay out $1.8 billion to victims of so-called ‘lawfare.’

But Tuesday’s remarks made clear just how sharply the two parties are divided – both on the sticking power of DOJ’s written agreements, and more broadly, on Blanche’s fitness for the role of the nation’s top prosecutor.

The ‘fundamental problem with Todd Blanche is not that he’s inexperienced, not that he’s not capable, and not that he’s not intelligent,’ Senator Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, said in urging his colleagues to oppose Blanche.

‘The problem,’ he said, is that Blanche ‘has never been able to shed his role as criminal defense lawyer for Donald Trump,’ Schiff added. ‘He just can’t do it.’ 

The 12-10 vote clears Blanche to the full chamber for a vote later this week, where his margins will be similarly slim. With Mitch McConnell still absent, Blanche can afford just two ‘no’ votes from Senate Republicans, assuming all Democrats vote to oppose.

As of this writing, four Republicans not yet committed to voting ‘yes’ – leaving Blanche’s fate hanging in the balance for the second time in as many months. 

Todd Blanche speaks during a press conference

Former President Donald Trump speaks after exiting the courtroom alongside his attorney Todd Blanche.

Senator John Cornyn speaks at the confirmation hearing for acting Attorney General Todd Blanche

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, a Republican, acknowledged he and others on the panel had shared in his colleagues’ concerns about the anti-weaponization fund and the IRS settlement, describing them both as ‘common sense’ issues that should have been quickly resolved.

‘I don’t think it should have taken as long as it did to get it resolved,’ he said. ‘I don’t have any way of knowing everybody that was involved in it, but it’s just a crime that it took so long to work out,’ Grassley said.

Cornyn, meanwhile, said the updated language that DOJ provided ‘reaffirms’ what Blanche said under oath last month about the status of the fund, though he warned sharply that he ‘expects the Justice Department to live up’ to that commitment in future litigation. 

And Tillis said the anti-weaponization fund – which he assailed as a $1.8b ‘payout for punks’ and an ‘insult to police’ injured in the Jan. 6, 2021 US Capitol riot – is ‘dead.’ 

But Democrats were not quite so easily convinced. 

The top Democrat on the committee, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, said Tuesday that the anti-weaponization fund could theoretically be revived ‘15 minutes’ after Blanche’s confirmation vote.

The deal, he said, was ‘not signed by the parties to the settlement agreement’ and is ‘therefore unenforceable.’

Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, echoed the same sentiment.

He pointed to a social media post from conservative lawyer Mike Howell, who had shared Blanche’s post with the terms of the DOJ deal, along with the comment: ‘Can be undone after Tuesday.’

Blumenthal also cited Trump’s apparent lack of awareness about the deal. 

‘We don’t need to say the quiet part out loud,’ Blumenthal said. ‘The president is screaming it.’  

The panel vote comes after weeks of negotiation between the Trump administration and two outgoing Republican senators, John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, who withheld their ‘yes’ votes until DOJ agreed in writing to end the ‘anti-weaponization’ fund, which would  and limit the scope of a sweeping IRS audit settlement for Trump and his family.

But the road is not over for Blanche. 

A handful of Senate Republicans, including Senator Susan Collins of Maine, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Senator John Curtis of Utah, and Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, have not yet confirmed to voting for Blanche later this week, leaving his fate in the air with just days left before the Senate adjourns for August recess. 

Cornyn told reporters Wednesday that he has been in talks with two Senator Collins of and Senator Murkowski to gauge their support for Blanche. Cornyn suggested the talks have been going well, though he stopped short of speaking for either of his colleagues. 

‘I cast my ballot here in the committee, and they’ll have to make their own decisions on the floor,’ Cornyn said.