Trump escalates clash with Republican holdout in attorney general nomination fight 

 President Donald Trump escalated a clash with Texas Sen. John Cornyn Friday, painting the outgoing senator as “very angry” over his primary loss, which came after Trump threw a last-minute endorsement behind his opponent. 

At the center of the controversy between Trump and Cornyn is a vote to confirm Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. Republican Sens. Thom Tillis and Cornyn are blocking his confirmation until the Justice Department provides written proof it has killed a nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund aimed at compensating victims of government lawfare – but seen by critics as a slush fund for Trump’s political allies. 

In a Truth Social post Friday, Trump accused Cornyn of retaliating against him for endorsing his opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, in the state’s Republican Senate primary. 

“John Cornyn never had a problem with the so called ‘Fund,’ which will not benefit me, but rather the great American Patriots who were hunted down like dogs and whose lives were unfairly and illegally destroyed by the Crooked Joe Biden Administration, until after I decided to Endorse and Support his Republican Primary opponent in Texas, who easily won the Nomination for the United States Senate,” Trump wrote. 

The president added victims of lawfare by the Biden administration should be “given compensation for what has been done to them” and “paid back for what they were forced to endure.” 

“Millions of people agree with me, as was proven in my landslide Presidential win, where this was a major subject of debate, and so did John Cornyn, until he lost his Election to an opponent that I Endorsed,” he said. “Todd Blanche, a good man, should be immediately approved as U.S. Attorney General.”

Trump doubled down on those comments in a Cabinet meeting Friday, accusing Cornyn of using Blanche as a “pawn” in political games. 

“Blanche, he’s a very, very good man and he shouldn’t be in the middle of this,” he said. “To make him a pawn in this whole thing, this is being done by a senator. 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 Senate,” he said, adding that Cornyn has become “very angry.”

Although Blanche has said the Justice Department is not moving forward with the anti-weaponization fund, the lack of formal written confirmation has left Tillis and Cornyn unwilling to take the department at its word.

Asked by a reporter if the anti-weaponization fund is truly dead, Trump said “it is dead, but I wish it weren’t.” 

“I think people were horribly treated, horribly abused – this has nothing to do with Todd, this is me – and I’d like to see them compensated for the pain,” Trump said. 

Asked by Heartlander News about Trump’s remarks Friday, Cornyn’s office pointed to his remarks in the Capitol Thursday when he pushed back on the idea that he was retaliating against the president.

“I’m not the only one that has concerns about this settlement and the scope of the release, and I think that’s a convenient but erroneous excuse,” he said.

Cornyn also told reporters Trump could “fix this in a minute” but he wasn’t sure if he was “motivated to do that.” He reiterated that his holdout has nothing to do with personal politics, saying he voted with Trump “99.3% of the time.” 

“This is about making sure that even if you’re the president of the United States you don’t get favorable terms from the government in the settlement of a lawsuit that ordinary citizens would not get, like protection from audits by the IRS into the foreseeable future,” Cornyn said. “So I think this is about making sure that we maintain the integrity of our justice system.” 

(Image credit: Sen. John Cornyn/President Donald Trump)