Reading · Judith Dayal · RSS Amplifier

Bill Cassidy was supposed to be riding off into the sunset of his political career like Butch Cassidy, except considerably less exciting and with more Senate floor speeches about how deeply concerned he is before voting for the exact fucking thing he's concerned about.

His political career was basically over. He'd finished third in Louisiana's Republican primary, Trump had endorsed someone else, and there was no reelection campaign left to save. For the first time in a very long time, Cassidy had absolutely nothing left to lose. Which, you would think, might finally make voting your conscience pretty easy.

Trump had already called him a "sleazebag," a "terrible guy," and a "disloyal disaster." He endorsed Cassidy's opponent, Cassidy finished third, and his political career was basically being lowered into the ground while the Senate was still in session. And somehow, this was the moment Bill Cassidy decided to prove his loyalty.

Not when it could save his career or when Trump could give him something in return, but after Trump had already kicked him to the curb. Cassidy was finally politically free. There was no reelection campaign to protect, no Trump endorsement to chase, and no Republican primary voters left to appease. He had been handed the extraordinarily rare opportunity politicians spend their entire careers avoiding: the chance to vote entirely according to his conscience.

Lisa Murkowski voted no. Susan Collins voted no. Cassidy, meanwhile, stood on the Senate floor and announced that he would vote to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general, becoming one of the Republican votes Blanche needed to get across the finish line. The truly incredible part is that Cassidy didn't even pretend there was nothing wrong with Blanche. Quite the opposite.

Cassidy acknowledged that he was troubled by Blanche's role in approving the proposed $1.8 billion fund connected to Trump allies. He raised concerns about tax-audit protections involving Trump. He talked about a Justice Department that has been going after Trump's perceived political enemies. In other words, Cassidy managed to identify several giant flashing warning signs, read them aloud, explain why they bothered him, and then proceed directly through the fucking intersection.

Cassidy even said he knew he would be criticized for the vote. "What's new?" he asked. Then he became emotional, and I'm sorry, but I have very little patience left for powerful men getting choked up while explaining why they just helped another powerful man acquire even more power. You knew what you were voting for.

Todd Blanche isn't some mysterious career prosecutor who wandered into Trump's orbit three weeks ago. He was Donald Trump's personal criminal defense attorney. He led Trump's defense in the Manhattan criminal case where a jury found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts. Trump then brought him into the Justice Department, where Blanche became deputy attorney general and eventually acting attorney general. Now Republicans are handing him the entire fucking department.

That history matters because the attorney general isn't Trump's lawyer. The attorney general is supposed to lead the United States Department of Justice. There is supposed to be a difference between protecting the interests of one man and enforcing the laws of an entire country.

Blanche's time inside Trump's Justice Department hasn't exactly made that distinction more comforting. The department has opened or pursued investigations involving figures and organizations Trump has publicly attacked, including James Comey, John Brennan, Cassidy Hutchinson, ActBlue, and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Cassidy knew all of this before he voted, and he knew exactly how much power he was voting to put into Blanche's hands.

And then there are the Epstein files, which may be the clearest example of why handing Todd Blanche even more power should make everyone deeply fucking uncomfortable.

Blanche hasn't been standing on the sidelines while the Justice Department fights over what the public gets to see. He has been one of the most powerful officials inside that department while survivors, their attorneys, lawmakers, and investigators have been trying to get records and answers. The response has been delays, redactions, withheld material, court fights, and an apparently endless supply of reasons why transparency somehow has to wait a little longer. At some point, enough with the fucking excuses.

These are survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse asking their own government for answers about what happened, who knew what, who was involved, and what information the federal government is still sitting on. New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez has publicly accused the Justice Department of failing to provide records investigators said they needed to continue examining abuse connected to Epstein's Zorro Ranch. Attorneys representing survivors have said important questions about powerful men connected to Epstein remain unanswered, and somehow the people asking for those answers keep finding another locked door at the Justice Department.

Todd Blanche is not some helpless guy wandering the halls wondering who keeps hiding all the paperwork. He has been helping run the fucking place.

That's what makes all of this so infuriating. Blanche has had power while survivors have been asking for transparency. He has had power while records have remained withheld or heavily redacted. He has had power while the department has fought disclosure in court. Now we're supposed to look at that record and conclude that what Todd Blanche really needs is more power? Give me a fucking break.

This is the same man who spent years as Donald Trump's personal criminal defense attorney. Now he is helping oversee a Justice Department holding information involving Jeffrey Epstein, a subject Trump has spent months desperately wanting everyone to stop talking about. You don't have to invent some elaborate conspiracy theory to understand why that combination deserves extraordinary scrutiny. The conflict staring everyone in the face is bad enough.

And Bill Cassidy knew who he was voting for. Cassidy didn't accidentally vote for Todd Blanche because somebody switched the name card while he was in the bathroom. He knew Blanche had been Trump's lawyer. He knew about the concerns surrounding the Justice Department. He knew about the investigations of Trump's perceived enemies. He knew enough to stand there and tell everyone how "troubled" he was by Blanche.

That's the part that makes Cassidy's performance so fucking insulting. You don't get to catalogue the warning signs, solemnly announce that you've noticed them, and then hand the man you're worried about control of the Justice Department anyway. Survivors deserved better than that. They deserved an attorney general whose commitment to uncovering the truth about Epstein could not reasonably be questioned because of his previous job defending the president. They deserved a Justice Department that treated getting them answers as an obligation rather than another fucking disclosure battle.

Instead, Bill Cassidy looked at everything Todd Blanche had already done with power and decided to give him more of it. Then he got choked up about his decision. I'm considerably more interested in the survivors who've spent years waiting for answers.

Then there was the proposed $1.8 billion fund. Republican senators themselves had enough concerns about that arrangement that Blanche eventually rescinded it. Thom Tillis and John Cornyn had indicated they wouldn't support his nomination unless the provisions disappeared, so Blanche rescinded them and apparently that was supposed to settle everything.

Except rescinding the fund today doesn't magically prevent some version of it from returning tomorrow. It doesn't erase the agreement underneath it, and it doesn't answer the much more important question of why something like this was being entertained by Trump's Justice Department in the first place. And now the person who would be in the best position to make decisions about anything that comes next is Todd Blanche. Fantastic.

This is also the same Todd Blanche who, just days ago, told anti-abortion faith leaders that the Trump regime was working "hand in hand" with the White House and federal health agencies on abortion policy. He complained about abortion medication being mailed into states with bans and talked about putting policies in place so those states couldn't be "attacked" by states and organizations where abortion remains legal. He admitted it was taking longer than they wanted, but assured the room that victory was coming and that it would be "permanent."

The attorney general doesn't need Congress to hold a new vote every time the Justice Department decides how aggressively to enforce federal law, which legal arguments to make in court, where to direct its resources, or which fights it wants to take on. Those decisions eventually reach doctors' offices, pharmacies, courtrooms, hospitals, and the private medical decisions women make about their own bodies. Blanche told everyone exactly what he wants to do with that power, and Bill Cassidy helped give it to him anyway.

This is where Cassidy's vote becomes especially infuriating because we've already watched this man perform this little routine before with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Cassidy is a physician. He publicly agonized over Kennedy's record on vaccines. He expressed serious concerns, talked about the importance of protecting public health, and made a whole production out of wrestling with his conscience. Then, when his vote actually mattered, he helped Kennedy advance.

There seems to be a recurring Bill Cassidy political ritual where he recognizes the danger, describes the danger with impressive accuracy, tells everyone how deeply concerned he is about the danger, and then fucking votes for the danger. At some point, "concern" stops meaning anything. You don't get credit for recognizing the fire if you keep handing the guy holding the gasoline a box of matches.

What makes today's vote so much worse is that Cassidy couldn't even hide behind political survival this time. There was nothing left to save. Trump had already abandoned him, Louisiana Republicans had already rejected him, and his Senate career was ending. There wasn't some future primary hanging over his head where one wrong move against Trump could cost him everything because Trump had already taken everything.

That's the part I cannot get past. What exactly was he protecting? Trump's approval was gone. His reelection was gone. His political future wasn't exactly looking promising. Cassidy could have walked out of Washington with one final vote proving there was actually a line somewhere, some tiny remaining piece of himself that Trump hadn't managed to bend.

And now Todd Blanche gets to walk into the attorney general's office with even more power than he already had, which matters far beyond Bill Cassidy. The Department of Justice is one of the most powerful institutions in the federal government. The person running it decides what gets investigated, what gets prosecuted, what gets defended in court, which legal theories the federal government advances, and where the enormous weight of federal law enforcement is directed.

Putting Donald Trump's former personal defense lawyer in that position would already deserve extraordinary scrutiny. Putting him there after watching the Justice Department pursue Trump's perceived enemies, fight disclosure involving the Epstein files while survivors continue asking for answers, entertain a $1.8 billion fund benefiting Trump allies, and watching Blanche openly promise anti-abortion activists that the government is working toward "permanent" victory should have made the answer painfully obvious.

I'm sure there will eventually be a very dignified version of Cassidy's Senate career. There will be retirement tributes talking about the physician who entered public service, the senator who occasionally broke with his party, and the Republican who voted to convict Trump after January 6. But this vote belongs in that story too, and so does RFK Jr. So does every warning Cassidy articulated immediately before deciding that none of those warnings mattered enough to require him to actually do anything.

Because principles aren't the concerns you describe before a vote. They're what determines the fucking vote.

Bill Cassidy had nothing left to lose.

Fuck Bill Cassidy. He Had Nothing Left to Lose. He Bent Anyway.

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