MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Todd Blanche's nomination for attorney general is in limbo. Blanche, who had been the president's personal lawyer, has been serving as acting attorney general.
LEILA FADEL, BYLINE: Two Republican senators want guarantees about the Justice Department's deal with President Trump to end his IRS lawsuit. Instead of providing those assurances, Trump says he may temporarily withdraw Blanche's nomination until the two senators leave office. In a few moments, we'll ask former Republican U.S. Senator Jeff Flake what this means about President Trump's hold on the GOP. We begin with the latest information.
MARTIN: NPR Justice correspondent Ryan Lucas, who's also here in our studios - he's covering this, and he's with us now. Good morning to you, Ryan.
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: So people may remember that the Republican-majority Senate has been very compliant in confirming the president's nominees, even ones that they said they had serious concerns about. So why does this one seem to be in jeopardy?
LUCAS: Well, look. The hubbub around Blanche all centers around the settlement that Trump struck with the Justice Department to end his lawsuit against the IRS over his leaked tax returns. That deal, remember, included the creation of a nearly $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund. Blanche says that's dead. There's also a related immunity deal for Trump, his family, businesses that shields them from IRS audits of past tax returns. That, Blanche says, is still in effect.
Now, the pushback in the Senate right now is coming from two Republican senators - Texas' John Cornyn and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. They are both members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that has to vote on Blanche's nomination. And they want written guarantees from the Justice Department about this settlement - that the antiweaponization fund is indeed dead and about the scope of the tax immunity deal. They want that before they will support Blanche. The two sides have been negotiating for days, but the senators say they still don't have the assurances they need to get to yes.
MARTIN: And then yesterday President Trump floated the idea of temporarily withdrawing Blanche's nomination. What would that accomplish?
LUCAS: Well, look. Either way, Blanche would be in charge of the Justice Department. Either he gets confirmed, or he'll stay on as the acting attorney general. And to be clear, the White House hasn't actually withdrawn his nomination yet. But look. Trump's suggestion was that he could temporarily withdraw Blanche's nomination if Cornyn and Tillis don't back down. And Trump said he then can just put Blanche back up for the job once Tillis and Cornyn are out of office.
And, yes, both senators are leaving office at the end of the year, in no small part because of Trump. Trump has even crowed about that. He pointed out that he had refused to endorse either Cornyn or Tillis, and he said that he may have ended their political careers. Trump, in fact, endorsed Cornyn's primary challenger, which was a significant blow to Cornyn's ultimately unsuccessful reelection bid.
But there is a risk to Trump's gambit here if he follows through. And that's because there's no guarantee that the Senate math is any better after the midterms. But Cornyn and Tillis - as I said, they are leaving office at the end of the year, and now we see them sticking to their demands on Blanche. Both sides - the Justice Department and the senators - say they are trying to work all of this out.
MARTIN: Staying on the politics of this for a second. Is this hold-up just a blip or do we think it's something bigger?
LUCAS: Well, look. I can't speak to the broader internal politics of the GOP. But focusing just on Blanche's nomination, he does have the support of the other 10 Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee. But there are a number of senators in the full Republican caucus that have similar concerns about this Trump IRS deal as Cornyn and Tillis. Cornyn also had this to say to reporters yesterday about efforts to resolve all of this.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JOHN CORNYN: If this were just between me and Todd Blanche, we would've worked this out. 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.
LUCAS: I think it's worth stressing here that Trump would rather, at this point, withdraw Blanche's nomination than provide guarantees about the tax immunity deal that benefits him, benefits his family and their businesses. That is the bottom line as of right now.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Ryan Lucas. Ryan, thank you.
LUCAS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
