The real reason Joe Biden just picked Merrick Garland for Attorney General

| 12:32 pm EST January 6, 2021
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When President-elect Joe Biden waited until after the Georgia Senate runoffs to announce his nominee for Attorney General, it seemed pretty clear that he was waiting to see whether he’d have a Senate majority before finalizing his pick. In other words, Biden’s first choice was someone whose viability hinged on Senate control. But who was it?

Now we know. CNN is reporting this afternoon that Biden is picking Merrick Garland. This explains a lot. Republican Senators would have been very hesitant to let Garland back on the stage, because it’s a reminder to the public of how corrupt the Republican Senate was when it refused to confirm him to the Supreme Court.

Also, Garland is currently a U.S. Appeals court judge. Even if Biden had been able to convince a Republican Senate to confirm Garland for Attorney General, Mitch McConnell would have turned around and replaced Garland with a conservative judge, which would have been a non-starter.

We may never know who Biden’s Plan B for Attorney General was (our guess is former Democratic Senator Doug Jones, who has bipartisan popularity). For that matter, we may never know if other buzzworthy names like Sally Yates even wanted the job. But now we know that Merrick Garland was Biden’s first choice all along, and that he’s now getting his first choice.

Here’s the thing about Garland. He’s politically moderate. But that’s irrelevant when it comes to how he’ll do his job as Attorney General. When it comes to matters of policy, such as cracking down on state corruption or taking up Supreme Court cases, Garland will take up the legal cases that President Biden instructs him to take up. And when it comes to bringing criminal charges against Trump and his henchmen, Garland’s longtime status as a Judge means he’s in position to know precisely what kinds of charges are likely to stick. Garland won’t excite anyone. But it could end up quietly proving to be one of Biden’s best moves.