Cornyn Suggests He’s Undecided on Blanche After Predicting ‘Miserable’ Final Two Years for Trump
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‘If That’s the Way Friends Treat You’
With a tentative confirmation hearing date set for mid-July today, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), a key member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, met with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday.
While Cornyn described the meeting as an “interview” and a “positive” one at that, he implied he would not make a decision about Blanche’s nomination to lead the Justice Department until after his confirmation hearing — and, it seems, until after Blanche answers Senate Republicans’ questions about the defunct (for now) and historically corrupt DOJ slush fund.
Cornyn is, of course, one of 11 Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Blanche’s nomination will have to advance out of this panel with a simple majority vote before reaching the Senate floor for a full confirmation vote. If all nine Democratic members vote against Blanche’s nomination, Republicans can only afford to lose one vote on their side of things. Republicans on the panel include staunch President Trump loyalists, like Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Ted Cruz (R-TX) and John Kennedy (R-LA). But Cornyn’s nod in the direction of a potentially showing some backbone, coupled with Sen. Thom Tillis’ (R-NC) newfound retirement-era reputation as a wildcard, does raise some questions about Blanche’s ability to be confirmed.
Cornyn hinted he may not be a guaranteed “yes” vote last week when he told reporters he was interested in hearing about how Blanche “would approach the job, because he was President Trump’s lawyer at one time, but if he’s AG, he won’t be the president’s lawyer.” While the notion that Blanche might ever not consider himself Trump’s lawyer reveals a willful naïveté, any murmurs of dissent from a congressional Republican is something of a surprise at this point in Trump’s second term.
But Cornyn has been claiming he is not going to go down quietly after Trump’s endorsement of Ken Paxton in the Texas Republican primary runoff last month ended his Senate career. In a recent interview with the New York Times, Cornyn alluded to a “miserable” final two years ahead for the Trump administration, insinuating a role he might play in that misery.
“If that’s the way friends treat you, you wonder about his enemies,” Cornyn said, referencing his relationship with Trump after the political back-stabbing.
“I think it is going to be a pretty bumpy ride for the next seven months,” he continued.
Blanche is one area where he might choose to demonstrates this supposed new-found political freedom. Cornyn and other Senate Republicans were more vocal than usual about their disdain for the $1.8 billion slush fund that Blanche set up at the DOJ for supposed victims of government “weaponization.” In reality, the “anti-weaponization fund” would likely serve as a vehicle for Trump to compensate his political friends and supporters, including those who tried to help him steal the election and ransacked the Capitol.
Since taking over as acting attorney general, Blanche has been working determinedly to impress Trump, hoping to make the post permanent. When he first assumed the position, he signaled his belief that the DOJ was Trump’s to weaponize. The DOJ brought a new indictment against Trump’s favorite boogeyman James Comey (over that seashell photo). He oversaw the creation of the cartoonishly corrupt slush fund — via the settlement of an equally bogus lawsuit Trump brought against his own IRS.
Whether the latter suck-up scheme will prove to be a bridge too far for Cornyn or Tillis or any other Republican member of the committee remains to be seen. We’ll keep an eye on this.
Protests Break Out After Indictment in Minnesota
You can catch up on the details of the new indictment against 15 protesters in Minnesota — and how this case may ultimately fit into the Trump administration’s broader effort to redefine dissent as un-American — from my colleague Kate Riga’s coverage here. A snippet:
The new indictment comes as federal prosecutors have had to dismiss over a third of their cases stemming from Operation Metro Surge — the inundation of Minneapolis with federal officers in late 2025 and early 2026 that included the officer killings of U.S. citizens Renée Good and Alex Pretti. The dismissed cases have predominantly centered on allegations of assaulting federal officers.
After the indictment was announced by Minnesota U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen on Tuesday afternoon, protesters gathered outside the Warren Federal Building as immigration, civil rights and defense attorneys made statements to the media about the new charges. One attorney described the indictment as “a renewed fascist offensive against the people of the community.” Defense attorneys for each of the 15 defendents have not yet been identified.
“Now the government is using its power, its unjustified power that’s illegitimate, to try and persecute the people who they were able to identify who were most involved in organizing the resistance, and organizing the non-violent, legal resistance to their fascism,” said defense attorney Jordan Kushner on Tuesday, per local CBS affiliate WCCO. “Let’s not sugar coat this, let’s be clear. This is a renewed fascist offensive against the people of the community.”
Protesters clashed with law enforcement outside the federal court building in St. Paul, Minnesota. Per the Star Tribune:
Tensions escalated outside the Warren E. Burger Federal Building after U.S. marshals deployed smoke devices near the courthouse entrance. During the ensuing confrontation, one protester appeared to kick a smoke canister back toward officers stationed in the doorway, and another person fell to the ground amid the struggle.
Zelensky Caught on Hot Mic Convo With Macron
French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky were caught on a hot mic discussing setting up a meeting with President Trump. Zelensky at one point describes a meeting with Trump as “difficult.”
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I live in Texas and, as a lawyer, have followed Cornyn’s political career since he was elected to the Texas Supreme Court almost forty years ago.
Cornyn is not really a Trump guy, but he has always been a rock solid party guy.
He has no special political charisma. He’s a mediocre intellect. He has no particular political skill. He has made his career as a quiet plodding party loyalist. Even as a Texas Supreme Court Justice, a role that should be less partisan, Cornyn could always be counted on to do what the party wanted, jurisprudence be damned.
In his self-humiliating concession speech immediately after his primary loss to Paxton, Cornyn said, “I've spent most of my time in the Senate building up the Republican party in Texas and in the US Senate. I’ve always supported the Republican ticket, and I intend to do so again in this general election.” Cornyn endorsed Paxton, not because he respects Paxton, and not because he supports Trump, but because he’s loyal to his party.
Cornyn is the perfect weather vane pointing which way the wind is blowing within the GOP. Don’t make the mistake of thinking a weather vane affects the direction the wind blows. Ninety-nine times out of 100 Cornyn will vote with The GOP majority. Where The GOP parts with Trump, Cornyn will part with Trump—but nowhere else. When The GOP abandons Trump, Cornyn will abandon Trump within the same millisecond—but not before.