President Donald Trump told reporters Friday that Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) is holding up the confirmation of Todd Blanche as attorney general because he is angry Trump endorsed Ken Paxton in Texas’s Republican U.S. Senate primary.
Cornyn, who is on the Judiciary Committee and whose support is critical to advancing Blanche’s nomination out of the committee, is withholding any support of Blanche, the acting attorney general, until he receives written assurances from the Justice Department “that the fund be rescinded and that the scope of the IRS audit immunity agreement in the settlement be narrowed,” as ABC News reported.
At Friday’s cabinet meeting at Camp David, Trump said Cornyn is unfairly using Blanche as a pawn for retribution for his endorsement of Paxton in the heated primary this Spring.
“Todd Blanche is a very, very good man, and he shouldn’t be in the middle of this. He should get approved because you will never get anybody like him. You’re never going to get anybody. And to make him a pawn on this whole thing,” Trump told reporters.
“This is being done by a senator. And I don’t really blame him, to be honest with you. I endorsed his opponent, and as soon as I endorsed his opponent, his opponent went through the roof, and he won the primary election in Texas for the Senate,” he added.
Trump added that Cornyn, who has served in the Senate for over two decades, “became very angry” after his defeat.
Trump said that Cornyn did not oppose Blanche, who began serving as acting attorney general in April when Pam Bondi departed the post, until Trump endorsed Paxton.
“Don’t forget, Senator Cornyn thought he was phenomenal until he lost… I mean, he thought this was the most incredible person,” he said.
Trump also said the fund would be for “people that have been weaponized” and that he does not “want anything.”
“There’s essentially never been a group of people treated so badly as these people, and this fund, this fund was not for me,” he said.
“This fund was for those people that have been weaponized, that have been abused,” he added.
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