President Trump’s pick for the next U.S. attorney general is on shaky ground as two Republican lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee demand a written guarantee that a proposed Justice Department “anti-weaponization” fund is dead.
A “no” vote in committee from either Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) or Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) could block acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination. The panel canceled a planned Thursday morning vote due to the pair’s opposition.
But the two have broken with Trump on more than just Blanche’s nomination. And they aren’t the only lawmakers scorned by the Trump administration who have taken issue with some of the president’s positions as they prepare to exit Congress.
They’ve come to be known facetiously as the “YOLO” caucus.
Here’s what to know about the group of lawmakers and Blanche’s nomination.
What’s the ‘YOLO’ caucus?
The so-called YOLO caucus encompasses Republicans across both chambers of Congress who are exiting in January and are seen as no longer beholden to Trump. “YOLO” is slang for “you only live once” and is often used as an expression to justify unbothered or reckless behavior without concern for future consequences.
Some chose to retire while others lost GOP primaries to Trump-backed challengers.
In the upper chamber, they include Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy (La.) and Cornyn, who lost their primaries this year, and Tillis, who announced his retirement last year while at odds with Trump over his One Big, Beautiful Bill.
All three have since broken with the president on a number of high-profile issues.
In the House, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) has long been a thorn in Trump’s side and lost a primary to a Trump ally, while Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) is retiring at the end of the year.
Cornyn and Tillis take on Blanche
While various members of the YOLO caucus have defied Trump on other matters, Cornyn and Tillis hold the keys to Blanche’s confirmation.
Trump said Thursday that he would consider pulling back the nomination after Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) canceled a meeting to weigh Blanche’s appointment to a permanent role overseeing the Justice Department.
Trump pointed to a refusal from both Cornyn and Tillis to commit either way on Blanche’s nomination in a Truth Social post.
“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,” the president wrote.
“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,” Trump continued.
Debate over ‘anti-weaponization’ fund
At the center of the pair’s opposition was the proposal of a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that would pay out individuals who claim they were victims of a “weaponized” Justice Department. Critics on both sides of the aisle have expressed opposition to the fund, saying it would be a way to funnel money to Trump allies, including those who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
Blanche has said the fund — which came as part of a settlement between Trump, the Justice Department and the IRS — is dead, but Cornyn expressed skepticism about Blanche’s claim that it was a “moot issue” during a confirmation hearing before the Judiciary Committee earlier this month.
“The settlement agreement can’t be changed without written consent of the parties. There is no such written consent of the parties, and he admitted that it could be enforced as a matter of contract,” Cornyn told reporters outside the hearing room on July 15.
“I think it’s really important to correct the record, which I tried to do, and I think he was straightforward in answering my questions, but they don’t lead inevitably to the conclusion that it’s dead,” the Texas senator continued. “It could be revived at a future date.”
Cornyn has become a more outspoken critic of the White House since his loss to a Trump-backed challenger, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, in the state’s Republican primary earlier this year.
Tillis, the other Republican hold-out on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has refuted accusations that his opposition to Blanche’s nomination stems from his disputes with Trump.
“The fact of the matter is, I’ve never asked for the president’s endorsement, and he gave it to me in spite of that,” the North Carolina senator told reporters Thursday, according to The Independent. “And the moment the president would have used that sort of tool he’d have gotten a Tillis response, and he never did.”
Both lawmakers say they won’t vote for Blanche to advance out of committee until they get assurances the fund has been formally and permanently abandoned.
Even if he advances, the acting attorney general will need the support of a simple majority of senators.
On Thursday, Cassidy told CBS News’s Nikole Killion that he was “very concerned about the weaponization of the Justice Department” in the current moment, mentioning that there is now a grand jury being impaneled to investigate former White House aide and Jan. 6 key witness Cassidy Hutchinson.
“Shouldn’t every American be afraid of the weaponization of the Justice Department? If there’s not adequate answers for that, then probably there needs to be somebody else,” Cassidy said, adding that if Blanche “can give good answers and kind of make that commitment to Tillis and Cornyn and explain to Cassidy [Hutchinson] why they’re weaponizing on these people, then you know, you could go forward.”
Cassidy lost his reelection bid to Trump-endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.) in May, and he has used the months since this defeat to frankly criticize the Trump administration and some GOP policies he has opposed.
The Louisiana lawmaker would not commit to a vote on Blanche’s nomination, telling reporters Thursday that he was “still in the information-gathering stage.”
Other Republican senators also indicated this week that, while Cornyn and Tillis were the faces of the fight, they also have concerns with the nomination or the fund.
Better luck in January?
Cornyn and Tillis met with Blanche on Thursday, so it’s possible there’s a deal on the horizon.
But if Trump follows through on his proposal, Cornyn reminded reporters on Thursday that Paxton’s victory in the general election is not a given. If elected in November, the attorney general has promised to be a strong ally of the Trump administration’s legislative priorities.
However, Paxton faces a strong challenge from Democratic state Rep. James Talarico this November. The Cook Political Report shifted its rating of this race from “Likely Republican” to “Leans Republican” after Cornyn’s loss in a May runoff, and the Democrat has widened his lead in recent polling.
“I mean, he may think that he’s got us where he wants us. But the fact is, there’s no guarantee who the senators are going to be that will replace Sen. Tillis and myself, and he may have a weaker hand next year than he does now, and it’s unfortunate because we tried not to escalate this fight,” Cornyn said Thursday.
Tillis, whose seat is rated “lean Democratic,” similarly warned of the move backfiring.
“He’s perfectly entitled to do that, he just needs to game out what the numbers look like in the next Congress versus a willing group of people who want to confirm him now, if they do nothing more than follow up on what we all thought was true,” Tillis said, referring to the anti-weaponization being no longer operative.
