{"id":16968,"date":"2026-07-31T09:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T01:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16968"},"modified":"2026-07-31T09:22:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T01:22:20","slug":"senate-yolo-caucus-bucks-trump-on-blanche-what-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16968","title":{"rendered":"Senate \u2018YOLO\u2019 caucus bucks Trump on Blanche: What to know"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"721\" height=\"415\" src=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5-3.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-16969\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5-3.png 721w, https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5-3-300x173.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 721px) 100vw, 721px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">President Trump\u2019s 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 \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund is dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A \u201cno\u201d vote in committee from either Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) or Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) could block acting Attorney General Todd Blanche\u2019s nomination. The panel canceled a planned Thursday morning vote due to the pair\u2019s opposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the two have broken with Trump on more than just Blanche\u2019s nomination. And they aren\u2019t the only lawmakers scorned by the Trump administration who have taken issue with some of the president\u2019s positions as they prepare to exit Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They\u2019ve come to be known facetiously as the \u201cYOLO\u201d caucus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here\u2019s what to know about the group of lawmakers and Blanche\u2019s nomination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What\u2019s the \u2018YOLO\u2019 caucus?<br>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. \u201cYOLO\u201d is slang for \u201cyou only live once\u201d and is often used as an expression to justify unbothered or reckless behavior without concern for future consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some chose to retire while others lost GOP primaries to Trump-backed challengers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All three have since broken with the president on a number of high-profile issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the House, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) has long been a thorn in Trump\u2019s side and lost a primary to a Trump ally, while Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) is retiring at the end of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cornyn and Tillis take on Blanche<br>While various members of the YOLO caucus have defied Trump on other matters, Cornyn and Tillis hold the keys to Blanche\u2019s confirmation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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\u2019s appointment to a permanent role overseeing the Justice Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump pointed to a refusal from both Cornyn and Tillis to commit either way on Blanche\u2019s nomination in a Truth Social post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTodd 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,\u201d the president wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHowever, 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,\u201d Trump continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Debate over \u2018anti-weaponization\u2019 fund<br>At the center of the pair\u2019s opposition was the proposal of a $1.8 billion \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund that would pay out individuals who claim they were victims of a \u201cweaponized\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Blanche has said the fund \u2014 which came as part of a settlement between Trump, the Justice Department and the IRS \u2014 is dead, but Cornyn expressed skepticism about Blanche\u2019s claim that it was a \u201cmoot issue\u201d during a confirmation hearing before the Judiciary Committee earlier this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe settlement agreement can\u2019t 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,\u201d Cornyn told reporters outside the hearing room on July 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think it\u2019s really important to correct the record, which I tried to do, and I think he was straightforward in answering my questions, but they don\u2019t lead inevitably to the conclusion that it\u2019s dead,\u201d the Texas senator continued. \u201cIt could be revived at a future date.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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\u2019s Republican primary earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tillis, the other Republican hold-out on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has refuted accusations that his opposition to Blanche\u2019s nomination stems from his disputes with Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe fact of the matter is, I\u2019ve never asked for the president\u2019s endorsement, and he gave it to me in spite of that,\u201d the North Carolina senator told reporters Thursday, according to The Independent. \u201cAnd the moment the president would have used that sort of tool he\u2019d have gotten a Tillis response, and he never did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both lawmakers say they won\u2019t vote for Blanche to advance out of committee until they get assurances the fund has been formally and permanently abandoned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even if he advances, the acting attorney general will need the support of a simple majority of senators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Thursday, Cassidy told CBS News\u2019s Nikole Killion that he was \u201cvery concerned about the weaponization of the Justice Department\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cShouldn\u2019t every American be afraid of the weaponization of the Justice Department? If there\u2019s not adequate answers for that, then probably there needs to be somebody else,\u201d Cassidy said, adding that if Blanche \u201ccan give good answers and kind of make that commitment to Tillis and Cornyn and explain to Cassidy [Hutchinson] why they\u2019re weaponizing on these people, then you know, you could go forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Louisiana lawmaker would not commit to a vote on Blanche\u2019s nomination, telling reporters Thursday that he was \u201cstill in the information-gathering stage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Better luck in January?<br>Cornyn and Tillis met with Blanche on Thursday, so it\u2019s possible there\u2019s a deal on the horizon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But if Trump follows through on his proposal, Cornyn reminded reporters on Thursday that Paxton\u2019s 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\u2019s legislative priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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 \u201cLikely Republican\u201d to \u201cLeans Republican\u201d after Cornyn\u2019s loss in a May runoff, and the Democrat has widened his lead in recent polling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI mean, he may think that he\u2019s got us where he wants us. But the fact is, there\u2019s 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\u2019s unfortunate because we tried not to escalate this fight,\u201d Cornyn said Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tillis, whose seat is rated \u201clean Democratic,\u201d similarly warned of the move backfiring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHe\u2019s 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,\u201d Tillis said, referring to the anti-weaponization being no longer operative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Trump\u2019s 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 \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund is dead. A \u201cno\u201d vote in committee from either Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) or Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) could block acting Attorney [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":16969,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2915,1724,4294],"class_list":["post-16968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-caucus","tag-trump","tag-yolo"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Senate \u2018YOLO\u2019 caucus bucks Trump on Blanche: What to know - LISTEN WORLD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16968\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Senate \u2018YOLO\u2019 caucus bucks Trump on Blanche: What to know - LISTEN WORLD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President Trump\u2019s 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 \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund is dead. 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