Cassidy cast the deciding vote for Todd Blanche. He says he almost voted no.

Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, the Republican whose vote made Todd Blanche attorney general, said Sunday that the decision took "an intense 48 hours" and that he nearly went the other way.

Cassidy choked up on the Senate floor Friday while announcing his support. Asked about it on CBS's Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan, he offered an unusually personal explanation.

"My voice cracked because my wife thinks it's endearing. I think it's embarrassing," Cassidy said. "But sometimes you're aware of the incredible privilege of representing your state and your nation."

He described reading history books as a boy. "I'd read about these great decisions on the Senate floor, and the fact that I have the ability to participate," he said. "Whenever I just for a second am hit by the gravity of that and the honor of that, I get emotional."

The Senate confirmed Blanche 50-49 early Saturday. Two Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, voted no with every Democrat, and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was absent, leaving Cassidy holding the deciding vote.

He said the settlement between President Trump and the IRS, which granted the president and his businesses broad tax immunity, nearly cost Blanche his support.

"No American should be targeted by the law, but no American should be above the law, and that, frankly, almost weighed to vote no," Cassidy said.

Brennan pressed him on the $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund and on Sen. Dick Durbin's argument that Blanche's written rollback of it is unenforceable. Cassidy said he had been persuaded that reviving it would require a process that, in the current political and legal climate, "effectively is dead."

Cassidy said U.S. attorneys in Louisiana told him their prosecutors are measured on weekly metrics and are getting the resources they ask for.

"Our morale is up, not despite the accountability, because of the accountability," he said, relaying their account. "There's a lot of positive things to say about Todd Blanche."

Cassidy cast the vote as a lame duck. He lost his Republican primary in May to a Trump-backed challenger.