When it came to Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination, Senate Republicans hoped to complete a relatively straightforward plan this week, which included a Thursday vote from the Senate Judiciary Committee, before a confirmation vote ahead of next week’s scheduled recess. That plan, at least for now, lies in tatters.

As MS NOW reported, two Senate Republicans who serve on the panel, John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, continue to withhold their support from the controversial nominee. Both GOP senators, who are poised to exit Capitol Hill at the end of the year, “say the Trump administration has yet to satisfy their demands on Trump’s IRS settlement. The pair is asking Blanche to formally kill the so-called anti-weaponization fund and narrow the scope of the IRS audit immunity afforded to Trump, his family, his businesses and others under the agreement.”

Until then, MS NOW’s report added, “They’re refusing to advance his nomination to the Senate floor.”

Cornyn told reporters Thursday morning that he believed he and administration officials were close to a resolution but “higher-ups” at the White House intervened, leading to the cancellation of Thursday’s scheduled committee vote. Around the same time, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who’s also wrapping up his congressional career this year, suggested that he might oppose Blanche, too.

In a provocative online statement, Cornyn also said that Donald Trump “is mistaken if he believes concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to me and Senator Tillis,” an observation bolstered by Cassidy’s on-camera comments.

It was around this time that the president surprised many with an unexpected statement of his own published to his social media platform, which read in its entirety:

Todd Blanche is a STAR, and everyone knows it! He has the potential to go down as one of the Greatest Attorney Generals of All Time. However, John Cornyn, of Texas, and Thom Tillis, of North Carolina, both of whom I refused to Endorse, and whose political careers have been ended by my action, are refusing to vote for this Great Nominee, who will remain, in any event, as Acting. Remember, both Cornyn and Tillis voted for Merrick Garland, and others, too numerous to mention. 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.

The president’s online comments were the first real indication from the White House that Blanche’s nomination is, at a minimum, facing hurdles that might prove insurmountable.

As Trump apparently sees it, he can pull Blanche’s name from consideration in the short term, allow him to serve as the acting attorney general, and then re-nominate him next year.

That approach, however, is not without flaw. For one thing, it’s by no means a certainty that there will be a Republican majority in the next Congress, and for another, there are ongoing legal questions about whether Blanche can continue to lead the Justice Department indefinitely in an acting capacity.

In the meantime, it remains an open question as to why Team Trump refuses to provide GOP senators with the measures and formal assurances that Cornyn and others in the party have requested.

“This doesn’t need to be this hard,” the Texas Republican told reporters Thursday morning.

The post As Blanche struggles, Trump opens the door to ‘temporarily withdrawing’ his nomination appeared first on MS NOW.

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From MS Now.