Louisiana Republicans booted Bill Cassidy from office this year for voting to convict Donald Trump in 2021.
Now that lame duck senator just cast the vote Todd Blanche needed to survive.
The reason he gave for saving Trump's pick has Washington doing a double take.
Cassidy Calls Blanche Better Than the Alternative
Attorney general isn't some ceremonial title, it is the office that decides whether Trump's Justice Department actually works for him or keeps getting run by people who don't.
Bill Cassidy announced on Friday, August 7, that he would vote to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general.
He did not pretend Blanche was flawless.
"Mr. Blanche is not perfect, and he will tell you this," Cassidy said.
"But the choice is not between perfection and Mr. Blanche," he continued.
"It is between Mr. Blanche and another acting attorney general who may not run the department effectively under President Trump, and who indeed may not be as good as Mr. Blanche."
That single announcement broke the logjam.
Blanche needed every vote he could get, and Cassidy handed him the one that mattered most.
The Senate confirmed Blanche in the early hours of Saturday morning by a vote of 50 to 49.
Mitch McConnell did not vote, which meant Republicans could not afford to lose a single other vote once Murkowski and Collins peeled off.
Cassidy knew it, and he gave Blanche the margin anyway.
Only Two Republicans Stood in the Way
Two Republicans tried to sink Blanche anyway.
Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine both voted no.
Murkowski said "the politicization – even weaponization – of the Department did not start with this administration but has accelerated during it," and she complained about "the handling of the release of the Epstein files."
She also griped about "sweeping immunity protections granted to the President, his family, and their businesses."
Two senators who have spent years siding with Democrats on Trump nominees did it again.
Cassidy did not join them this time.
The same man who stunned Louisiana Republicans by voting to convict Trump after January 6 just delivered the vote that kept his Justice Department running.
Chuck Grassley, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, had already vouched for Blanche's record when he was first nominated for deputy attorney general.
Grassley called him "the right man for this job" and a prosecutor who "put his career on the line" defending Trump when his own law firm pushed him out for taking the case.
More than 100 alumni of the Southern District of New York backed Blanche too, citing his "experience, character, intellect, openness to dialogue."
Cassidy looked at that record and decided it outweighed his own history with Trump.
Five years ago Cassidy stood alone against most of his own state's Republican Party and voted to convict Trump.
Louisiana Republicans never forgave him, and they ended his Senate career in this year's primary.
That makes this vote different from the ones that got him fired.
He is not running for anything anymore, and he still chose Blanche over the alternative Murkowski and Collins were offering.
Cassidy is not walking back his impeachment vote, and nobody should pretend he is.
That is exactly what makes his math on Blanche worth noticing.
A senator with nothing left to lose in Louisiana had every reason to side with Murkowski and Collins if he actually agreed with them, and he didn't.
That tells you how thin the "resistance Republican" bench really is once a vote actually has consequences.
Murkowski and Collins are staying in the Senate, and they would still rather leave the Justice Department leaderless than hand Trump a functioning attorney general.
Sources:
- Sister Toldjah, "Bill Cassidy Shocks Everyone With Decision on Todd Blanche's DOJ Nomination," RedState, August 7, 2026.
- Terri Christoph, "Lisa Murkowski Just Reminded Everyone Why Republicans Can Never Count on Her," RedState, August 7, 2026.
- Sister Toldjah, "Susan Collins Announces Opposition to Todd Blanche – Here's What He'll Need to Be Confirmed," RedState, August 4, 2026.
- Nick Arama, "Trump Pulls Off Win With Early Hours Vote for Todd Blanche," RedState, August 8, 2026.
- Chuck Grassley, "Grassley: Blanche Is the Right Man to Be Deputy Attorney General," Senate Judiciary Committee, February 19, 2025.
