Senate Judiciary Committee approves Todd Blanche’s nomination

WASHINGTON (NBC, KYMA) - The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance the nomination of Todd Blanche to be Attorney General to the full Senate Tuesday.

In a vote strictly along party lines, 12 Republicans voted for, while ten Democrats were against sending Blanche out of committee.

Two Republican senators, John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who had been standing in the way of the nomination, voted yea.

"Given this agreement with Mr. Blanche, I expect the department to live up to, to this in future litigation, and I will vote to advance him out of the committee today. But my vote to advance Mr. Blanche's nomination goes beyond this document. We need a stabilizing force at the Department of Justice, and Mr. Blanche deserves the opportunity to provide that, as opposed to continuing to serve in an acting capacity and as the Deputy Attorney General. The Department of Justice does not need a temporary, unconfirmed nominee as our nation's top law enforcement officer."

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas)

"The bottom line is nobody is clean here, and until we start recognizing this behavior as bad, we're just going to one up it. Maybe it's a little bit more intense in this administration than the last one, and that a little bit more intense than the prior administration, and so on and so forth. But folks, we've got to end this stuff. We do. I'm going to support Mr. Blanche's nomination, but what I hope I see out of him is a bending of the curve of this absurdity. The 8647. Some bonehead in North Carolina thinks that that's a crime. Well, they better damn sure have information to back it up because if all it is is a picture, that person should lose his job, his or her job."

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.)

Both men said Blanche satisfied their concerns about the so-called "anti-weaponization fund," which could have been used to to pay January 6 rioters, and limit the parameters of a tax immunity deal for President Donald trump and his family.