Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche appeared to make progress with key Republican skeptics on Wednesday, putting President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Justice Department on a smoother path toward confirmation before the August recess.Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said after the confirmation hearing that Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and John Cornyn (R-TX) still had “some issues,” but added, “I think those issues can be worked out.”The committee is next poised to hear from outside witnesses during a subsequent hearing on Thursday. Grassley said Blanche would need two weeks before receiving a committee vote, leaving the Senate’s final week before recess as the likely window for a floor vote.
Here are five takeaways from the hearing.Blanche seems poised to gain needed GOP support
Tillis and Cornyn used their time to raise concerns that have fueled their cautionary approach to Blanche’s nomination, but neither Republican treated the hearing as a final break with him.Tillis ended his questioning by saying he thought Blanche had done well. Cornyn pressed him on the Trump administration’s IRS settlement and whether its terms could still be enforced, but did not signal opposition.Mike Fragoso, a former Senate Judiciary Committee aide and former chief counsel to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), said Blanche’s performance likely helped him with the holdouts.“Tillis seemed perfectly happy with him,” Fragoso told the Washington Examiner. Cornyn “seems to still have questions,” he added, but those questions are “not an unsolvable issue.”That assessment tracked with Grassley’s confidence that the remaining concerns can be resolved.Democrats’ sharpest exchanges ended with a whimper
