Trump attorney general pick Todd Blanche heads into a Senate confirmation test facing an already-strained relationship between the Justice Department and Capitol Hill…
…As the acting AG tries wooing them and others from his party ahead of an unscheduled committee hearing, former colleagues of Davis—a veteran staffer on that same Judiciary panel—said he has the mild-mannered demeanor to handle such thorny situations.
“I’ve seen him in very high-pressure, high-stress situations. It doesn’t look like his pulse even goes up when everyone else is freaking out,” said Jason Foster, who worked alongside Davis on the Judiciary Committee for current Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). “That’s exactly the kind of person I would want there if I were the acting attorney general.”
A former investigative counsel for Grassley’s panel, Davis has the measured touch that could help Blanche sway the panel’s pivotal swing votes, his past Hill coworkers said .
Three people familiar with the situation credited Davis as crucial in Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s bruising confirmation process by helping persuade Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) to provide the decisive vote.
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