U.S. Attorney General Nominee Grilled in Senate Confirmation Hearing

Merrick Garland is on track to be confirmed as President Biden’s attorney general sometime next week. Garland is an American attorney who serves as a United States circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He has served in that position since 1997. He was previously considered to fill a Supreme Court seat in 2009 and 2010, before being formally nominated by President Obama in 2016 following the death of Justice Anton Scalia. His nomination was ultimately blocked by the Republican-controlled Senate because it was an election year. Yesterday, Garland finally faced the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing as the next U.S. attorney general. He was questioned over various issues, including political independence of the Justice Department, systemic racism, immigration, and more. Most importantly, he was pressed on the Capitol riot. He referred to the event as “the most heinous attack” on Democracy he’d ever witnessed and promised to broaden examination into the origins of the attack and determine future risk. In the end, his performance appears to have garnered him bipartisan support.