CNN's Jake Tapper Criticizes Sen. Bill Cassidy's Justification for Confirming Todd Blanche as Attorney General
Key Takeaways
- •Senator Bill Cassidy voted to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general despite publicly expressed concerns, prompting criticism from CNN's Jake Tapper for what he called implausible justification.
- •Cassidy claimed Blanche would push back against Trump, but Tapper countered there is no evidence Blanche ever demonstrated independence from the president during his time as Trump's personal attorney.
- •Legal observers and Democratic lawmakers have raised concerns about the independence of federal law enforcement following the confirmation of a president's former personal defense attorney to lead the Justice Department.
- •Cassidy previously cast the deciding vote to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as HHS Secretary despite major reservations, and was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump in the 2021 impeachment trial.
- •Cassidy had no apparent political incentive to support the nomination, having already lost his primary after Trump endorsed his opponent.
CNN's Jake Tapper on Friday criticized Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) for what he characterized as implausible reasoning to justify his vote confirming Todd Blanche as President Donald Trump's attorney general, noting it was not the first time the senator had set aside publicly expressed doubts to support a Trump nominee.
Tapper described Cassidy's decision to cast aside his reservations as a "real puzzler," pointing to two key reasons.
First, Tapper highlighted Cassidy's longstanding concerns about the "weaponization of the Justice Department." Cassidy addressed the issue in his speech announcing his vote, but Tapper called the senator's explanation bizarre. Cassidy argued that Blanche had made a convincing case he would not serve as a "yes man" for Trump and "would be precisely the person to push back" against the president.
"If you believe that I have a Lake Pontchartrain Causeway Bridge to sell you, because there is literally no evidence of Blanche, once Trump's personal attorney in the Stormy Daniels case, ever standing up to President Trump," Tapper said. "Not with the prosecutions of the likes of Don Lemon or Lisa Cook or James Comey or Letitia James."
Tapper added that Blanche showed no independence when he slow-walked the Epstein case file release or helped bury criminal investigations into ICE officers who killed people in Minneapolis.
The confirmation of a president's former personal defense attorney to lead the Justice Department marks an unusual alignment in the agency's history, one that has drawn scrutiny from both legal observers and Democratic lawmakers concerned about the independence of federal law enforcement.
The second reason, Tapper said, is that politically Cassidy had nothing to gain. "He's already out of a job," Tapper noted, citing that Trump endorsed against him and he lost his primary decisively.
Tapper also drew a parallel to Cassidy's prior vote: "If you're getting deja vu, Cassidy was also the deciding vote to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services Secretary last year, despite Cassidy's major reservations. Cassidy is a doctor and RFK Jr. is the opposite of a doctor. That turned out not so well." Cassidy had been one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump in the 2021 impeachment trial, a vote that put him at odds with much of his party and drew a censure from Louisiana's state Republican Party.
