Sen. Lisa Murkowski declared she will vote against confirming Todd Blanche as attorney general, joining Sen. Susan Collins and putting the nomination's fate in the hands of a single undecided Republican.
Murkowski, the Alaska Republican, posted her decision on X, acknowledging that Blanche had impressed her personally and made solid decisions as acting attorney general, then listing a series of concerns she said made confirmation impossible. She praised his willingness to visit Alaska's rural communities and called him "decent and capable," but said the Justice Department's trajectory under the current administration left her without confidence that Blanche would serve as an independent check on executive power.
Her opposition lands at the worst possible moment for the White House. Collins, the Maine Republican, had already announced her own "no" vote. Sen. Mitch McConnell remains absent from the Senate. NBC News reported that a third Republican defection would be enough to sink the nomination outright, given that Democrats are expected to vote as a bloc against Blanche.
That math puts enormous pressure on Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, the Republican on whom the confirmation vote is widely expected to hinge.
Cassidy ultimately announced his support for Blanche on the Senate floor, AP News reported, likely paving the way for a bare-minimum confirmation. Cassidy framed his vote not as an endorsement of every administration decision but as a practical judgment about the available options.
Cassidy told colleagues on the floor:
"Mr. Blanche is not perfect, and he will tell you this, but the choice is not between perfection and Mr. Blanche. It is between Mr. Blanche and another acting attorney general who may not run the department effectively under President Trump."
That framing, pick the confirmed leader or get someone worse without Senate oversight, carried the day. But it did not erase the concerns that brought the nomination to the brink. McConnell's prolonged absence had already narrowed the GOP's margin on every nominee vote this session, and the Blanche fight exposed just how thin the cushion had become.
Murkowski's statement was notably specific. She did not dismiss Blanche as unqualified. She listed concrete grievances, and each one pointed to a Justice Department she believes has drifted further from independence under the current administration, not closer to it.
As Breitbart reported, Murkowski wrote in her X post:
"The politicization, even weaponization, of the Department did not start with this administration but has accelerated during it. I take issue with the handling of the release of the Epstein files; the sweeping immunity protections granted to the President, his family, and their businesses; the statements that have been made to anti-abortion groups; and the repeated targeting of individuals ranging from former administration staff to sitting U.S. Senators."
She also flagged what she called a "nearly $2-billion dollar slush fund" at the DOJ, one she said "likely would have rewarded January 6 protesters" and was "only off the table" because Blanche's nomination was still pending. The implication was clear: once confirmed, the pressure to keep that fund shelved would vanish.
That concern was not hers alone. The fund, formally called the Anti-Weaponization Fund, became the central sticking point in Blanche's committee vote, which he cleared on a party-line 12-10 tally only after a deal was struck with two other Republican holdouts, Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.
The deal that got Blanche through the Judiciary Committee required him to permanently rescind the nearly $2 billion fund and narrow the scope of audit immunity that had been extended to Trump and his family as part of an IRS settlement. Cornyn and Tillis voted yes. Fox News reported that both senators agreed to support the nomination in exchange for those written commitments.
Cornyn defended his position bluntly: "I think the DOJ needs Senate-confirmed leadership to prevent some of the chaos and dysfunction over there, and I think Blanche is as good as you're going to get."
Democrats were unconvinced. Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut dismissed the deal as hollow.
"Cornyn and Tillis seem to have gotten nothing meaningful. The tax immunity deal is still unlimited, in terms of past potential liability. And the slush fund is still alive and well, so far as Donald Trump is concerned."
Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, a Republican, raised his own doubts about whether the White House would honor the terms. Asked whether anything would stop the president from reversing course after confirmation, Kennedy replied: "I'm not saying he will or he won't, what's stopping the president from doing anything?"
That question, whether a written commitment from a nominee carries any weight once the confirmation vote is over, hung over the entire process. Trump himself floated pulling the nomination rather than accepting the concessions demanded by holdouts, a move that would have left the DOJ under acting leadership indefinitely.
Blanche's path to the nomination was itself unusual. He has been serving as acting attorney general since Trump fired Pam Bondi in April, AP News reported, after Bondi failed to deliver criminal cases against the president's political opponents. That backstory shaped the confirmation debate on both sides: supporters argued the DOJ needed permanent, Senate-confirmed leadership to restore order, while opponents argued Blanche's appointment was itself a product of the department's politicization.
Murkowski acknowledged Blanche's competence and his outreach. She noted he had visited Alaska, including rural areas, and had made "several noteworthy decisions" as acting attorney general that she said would benefit the state and the nation. But she drew a line between personal capability and institutional independence.
She said she hoped Blanche could serve as an attorney general who checks "the worst impulses" of the administration but added that she does "not have confidence that will be the case."
Just The News reported that Murkowski's opposition, combined with Collins's and expected Democratic votes, left the nomination on a razor's edge, one more Republican defection away from defeat. McConnell's continued absence from the chamber for medical recovery made the margin even more precarious.
National Review reported that Cassidy's decisive vote secured enough support to clear the confirmation threshold, overcoming the Collins and Murkowski defections. But the final margin left no room for error, and the episode exposed a broader problem for Senate Republicans racing to confirm nominees before the August recess.
Cassidy was careful to frame his vote narrowly. "This is not a referendum on President Trump," he said. "It is a decision regarding Mr. Blanche in very specific circumstances."
That distinction mattered to Cassidy. Whether it holds up in practice, whether Blanche governs as the independent check Murkowski demanded or as the loyalist Democrats fear, will determine whether this confirmation fight was a speed bump or a warning sign.
A nomination that survives by a single vote does not carry a mandate. It carries a condition: perform, or the next fight will be worse.
