Inside the unraveling of Trump’s pick for attorney general

WASHINGTON —Heard of the saying: Mess around and find out? President Donald Trump is getting a taste of the “finding out” this week.

If you’ll remember during the primary election season, there were a handful of incumbent Republicans who Trump personally campaigned to remove from office. He had complaints they weren’t loyal enough or they were blocking his agenda, or he had other candidates he just liked better.

It’s always a risky move to remove members of your own party, especially when they still have months left in office. Those lawmakers suddenly become free agents — and they can stall Trump’s agenda.

That’s exactly what we’re seeing right now in the Senate as Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas hold up Trump’s nominee for attorney general.

Todd Blanche was set to get a committee vote this week, teeing him for final confirmation in the Senate.

But Tillis and Cornyn, who are both on the committee and crucial votes for Blanche to advance, had some demands they needed to see fulfilled before they were ready to vote yes.

Essentially, the pair wanted Blanche to put some promises in writing to modify a recent settlement between Trump and the Department of Justice stemming from the president’s lawsuit against the IRS.

A quick catch-up: That settlement resulted in the creation of a $1.78 billion anti-weaponization fund, which would allow individuals to be compensated if they feel they have been unfairly targeted by the federal government, as well as an agreement that the president could not be audited by the Internal Revenue Service.

Republican senators previously revolted over the creation of the anti-weaponization fund, prompting Blanche to deem it essentially dead. But Tillis and Cornyn want that in writing to ensure the fund cannot be revived in the future.

While the trio were exchanging proposals all week, they have yet to come to an agreement. That resulted in the committee vote on Thursday getting postponed — and raising questions on whether Blanche can be approved by the full Senate before they leave for August recess.

Tensions were still running high on Thursday, during the final scheduled votes of the week, making a resolution seem far more unlikely.

“It makes no sense to me,” Tillis told reporters. “This is not popular. The president’s not winning on this issue. It is killing some of our candidates because they can’t explain it. And now it looks like they weren’t being honest when they said it was inoperative.”

At one point, Tillis and Cornyn questioned who Blanche was getting advice from.

“I think if this were just between me and Todd Blanche, we would have worked this out,” Cornyn said. “But apparently he’s getting some pushback from higher-ups at the White House. I don’t know who, but this doesn’t need to be this hard.”

Cornyn told reporters that the White House made a proposal on Wednesday evening followed by a counterproposal by him and Tillis. By Thursday morning, “that was all off.”

Shortly after that, Trump fired off on social media, railing against the two Republican senators — and claiming he doesn’t need them to get Blanche as his attorney general at the end of the day. Both incumbents will leave the Senate in January, prompting Trump to threaten holding off his nomination until then.

“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,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

In the meantime, Trump said Blanche would remain as acting attorney general.

Cornyn and Tillis not the only senators with questions

As you can imagine, this didn’t go over well with Tillis and Cornyn, who are still refusing to budge on the issue and say the president is getting bad advice.

“POTUS is mistaken if he believes concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to me and Senator Tillis,” Cornyn responded in a social media post.

Cornyn has a point. A handful of other Republicans who are not on the Judiciary Committee have expressed their own concerns with the IRS settlement deal and have not decided if they’d support Blanche’s nomination when it comes before the full Senate. Included in that group: Utah Sen. John Curtis.

Curtis met with Blanche on Wednesday, and he told me afterward that he is still “not absolutely there” on his nomination. Not only that, he supports Cornyn’s and Tillis’ efforts.

“I think what they’re doing is smart,” Curtis said. “I think basically it boils down to: Attorney General Blanche, he says (the fund is) dead. They want absolute confirmation. … And I think that’s probably a good ask on their part.”

Trump went even further on Friday when he actually defended the anti-weaponization fund in a social media post — indicating he has been weighing in from the sidelines.

“I will always feel that these victims of government abuse should be paid back for what they were forced to endure, their lives have been ruined!” he wrote. “Millions of people agree with me, as was proven in my landslide Presidential win, where this was a major subject of debate, and so did John Cornyn, until he lost his Election to an opponent that I Endorsed.”

Light at the end of the tunnel? After all the tension, Blanche ended up meeting with Cornyn and Tillis later Thursday evening, continuing into Friday according to reports. After talks wrapped, reports indicated there is still the possibility of a deal.