Tillis: "I believe that we have addressed the concerns"

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said Tuesday he will vote to advance Todd Blanche's nomination for attorney general out of the Judiciary Committee after reaching a deal limiting a controversial legal settlement the Justice Department brokered to resolve President Trump's lawsuit against the IRS.

"I believe that we have addressed the concerns that I have," he said ahead of a Judiciary Committee vote to advance Mr. Blanche's nomination to the full Senate.

After a standoff with Sens. Tillis and John Cornyn (R-TX) that threatened to derail Mr. Blanche's nomination, the Justice Department provided written assurances permanently scrapping a controversial $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund and narrowing the scope of the president's IRS immunity deal.

"It made no sense to me," the retiring senator said of the fund designed to compensate people who claim to have been unfairly prosecuted during the Biden administration, including Jan. 6 rioters, calling it a "payout pot for punks."

"I thought it was an insult to the police officers and the people that defended us on January the 6th," he added. "It's done. It's been rescinded, and I am satisfied."

Sen. Tillis also spoke out against the "weaponization" of the Justice Department more broadly, claiming it had occurred during past Democratic administrations as well.

"The bottom line is, nobody is clean here, and until we start recognizing this behavior is bad, we're just gonna one up it. Maybe it's a little bit more intense in this administration than the last one, and that a little bit more intense than the prior administration, and so on and so forth," he said.

"But folks, we got to end this stuff. We do. I'm going to support Mr. Blanche's nomination, but what I hope I see out of him is a bending of the curve of this absurdity."

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