Blanche's nomination for AG could be an uphill battle

Some Republicans have criticized Blanche over the "Anti-Weaponization Fund."

Should he be nominated for attorney general , acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's nomination is expected to face challenges in the Senate.

President Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate Blanche during a dinner Wednesday evening at the White House.

Blanche, who was once Trump's personal attorney, served as deputy attorney general until the president tapped him to serve as acting attorney general after Pam Bondi's ouster in April.

Blanche told reporters he is "honored and humbled" by the nomination.

"I was with him last night at the dinner when he when he said that," Blanche said at a press conference about fraud arrests in Colombus, Ohio. "I will work with the senators. I have a good relationship with the Senate on both sides. I don't say no to phone calls. I'll meet with anybody that wants to meet with me."

Blanche's hardest fight might be before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will need to vote on his nomination before the whole Senate can vote to approve it. Blanche can ultimately only afford to lose a single Republican vote on the committee.

Blanche has lost favor with a number of Senate Republicans after becoming the face of the politically unpopular "Anti-Weaponization Fund" on Capitol Hill, and the Judiciary Committee is stacked with some of the fund's most outspoken GOP opponents.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., is on the Judiciary Committee and has slammed the fund a number of times. He's also had no issue gumming up Trump's nominees: his blockade of Kevin Warsh's nomination to be chairman of the Federal Reserve could have been instrumental in the Justice Department dropping its lawsuit against former Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

Tillis told reporters earlier Thursday that he thought Blanche's chances of confirmation "go up immensely" with the anti-weaponization fund "off the table." But he said he's undecided.

"I actually believe that getting this issue off the table improves Todd's chances of getting through Judiciary and getting through the floor," Tillis said. "If this is still out there, can you imagine what the Democrats are going to do to that man during a confirmation hearing and can you imagine how that could potentially influence a couple of our members?"

"I haven't made a decision yet. The key for Todd or anybody going through the Judiciary Committee is being pretty tight on January the 6th," Tillis said. " They better not have said for one minute that the people that beat up police officers like these right down here (pointing to Capitol Police officers) were righteous people. You come even close to saying that you don't have a cheer of getting my vote in Judiciary."

Sen. John Cornyn, who was recently bested in the Texas GOP primary after Trump endorsed his opponent Ken Paxton, is also on the panel. Though Cornyn has typically reliably voted for Trump nominees, he has also made clear how much he hates the anti-weaponization fund. Without re-election pressure, he could also be a thorn in Blanche's side.

Cornyn told reporters earlier Thursday that he is also undecided on whether he'd support Blanche's nomination.

"The problem with the office of Attorney General is that there's basically, well, you are a member of the president's Cabinet. But you're also the chief law enforcement officer for the country. And you're not the president's lawyer. So, I'll be asking some question about getting commitments on that," Cornyn said.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., also opposed the fund. Even committee Chairman Chuck Grassley has expressed skepticism.

Asked Thursday about the chances of Blanche being confirmed, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said it was "hard to say."

"I mean, I don't -- I think you know, obviously, most of our members are pretty deferential to who the president wants in some of these key positions, and he's obviously serving in the role already and clearly has experience in it, so that'll serve him well. But this is an environment where nothing's a safe or a sure bet these days," Thune said.

It's unclear if the "Anti-Weaponization Fund" alone would be enough to sink Blanche, but it definitely creates some challenges for him and tees up a potentially fiery hearing.

Blanche told a House subcommittee hearing on Tuesday that the fund was dead but he refused to commit to putting that in writing.

"The reasons for the fund is something that President Trump talked about for a long time, which is the fact that there were a lot of people in this country who had their government weaponized against them," Blanche said in an exchange with ranking Democrat Grace Meng. "The reasons for the fund, I think, were -- remain as important as they were before, but we are not moving forward with the fund."

Asked later in the hearing by Meng if he would put that commitment in writing, Blanche said he didn't understand the purpose of that.

"I'm telling you what we're doing, meaning, like, what's the -- why do I need to put something in writing if I'm telling you what we're doing?"

After Meng told him it would "restore a lot of trust about this issue," Blanche replied, "I'm not committing to doing anything in writing. Ok, I mean, I'll take it under advisement," Blanche said.

Tillis said he also has concerns about Blanche in part because of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol.

At an appearance at a conservative conference earlier this year, Blanche touted Trump's pardons for Jan. 6 rioters.

"I haven't made a decision yet," Tillis said. "The key for Todd or anybody going through the Judiciary Committee is being pretty tight on January the 6th. They better not have said for one minute that the people that beat up police officers like these right down here (pointing to Capitol Police officers) were righteous people. You come even close to saying that you don't have a cheer of getting my vote in Judiciary."

If the Judiciary Committee does manage to approve Blanche, he'd still need to be confirmed on the Senate floor.

That could also prove tricky -- he'd only be able to lose four GOP votes to be confirmed. There are at least that many Republicans who may have concerns about supporting him after the fallout over the "Anti-Weaponization Fund."

ABC News' Luke Barr, Lalee Ibssa, Katherine Faulders and Nicholas Kerr contributed to this report.

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