President-Elect Biden Introduces Judge Merrick Garland As Attorney General, Philly Native Vanita Gupta As Associate AG
WILMINGTON, Del. (CBS/AP) -- President-elect Joe Biden introduced Merrick Garland as his pick for attorney general on Thursday, turning to an experienced judge to help de-politicize the Justice Department and restore the rule of law after what he described as four years of lawlessness under President Donald Trump. Biden also described the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol on Wednesday as "domestic terrorists" and assailed the Republican president for inciting the siege.
"The past four years we've had a president who's made his contempt for our democracy, our Constitution, the rule of law, clear in everything he has done," Biden declared, vowing a dramatic change of course in his administration. "More than anything, we need to restore the honor, the integrity, the independence of the Department of Justice that's been so badly damaged."
If confirmed by the Senate, which is likely, Garland would take over as the nation's top law enforcement official at a critical moment for the nation and the agency. He would inherit immediate challenges related to civil rights, an ongoing criminal tax investigation into Biden's son Hunter and calls from many Democrats to pursue criminal inquiries into Trump after he leaves office.
Garland's nomination will force Senate Republicans to contend with someone they spurned four years ago — refusing even to hold hearings when President Barack Obama nominated Garland for the Supreme Court. His confirmation prospects were all but ensured this week when Democrats scored control of the Senate majority by winning both Georgia Senate seats.
Garland and three others Biden has picked for Justice Department leadership posts were introduced Thursday afternoon in Wilmington, Delaware. They include Obama administration homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco as deputy attorney general and former Justice Department civil rights chief Vanita Gupta as associate attorney general, the No. 3 official. He also named an assistant attorney general for civil rights, Kristen Clarke, now the president of Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, an advocacy group.
Gupta was born to Indian immigrant parents in Philadelphia.
"There are many agencies in the federal government but actually only one that bears the name of a value. By virtue of that name that value of justice we know the department carries a unique charge in north star," Gupta said. "At its best, it is the keeper of a sacred promise, it's the promise of justice for all, that no one is above the law. And when this promise is pursued with vigor, it brings light to our nation and serves as a beacon to the world. But when abandon, we degrade our democracy and sow the division that we've come to know all too well."
Garland was selected over other finalists including former Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates.
Garland would inherit a Justice Department that has endured a tumultuous four years and abundant criticism from Democrats over what they see as the overpoliticization of law enforcement. The department is expected to dramatically change course under new leadership, including through a different approach to civil rights issues and national policing policies, especially after months of mass protests over the deaths of Black Americans at the hand of law enforcement.
Black and Latino advocates had wanted a Black attorney general or someone with a background in civil rights causes and criminal justice reform. Groups including the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund had championed Garland's Supreme Court nomination, but the extent of support from minority groups for the attorney general job was not immediately clear.
Though Garland is a white man, the selection of Gupta and Clarke, two women with significant experience in civil rights, appeared designed to blunt any concerns and served as a signal that progressive causes would be prioritized in the new administration.
Garland would also inherit the special counsel investigation into the origins of the Russia probe, which remains open.
He would return to a Justice Department radically different from the one he left. The Sept. 11 attacks were years in the future and the department's national security division had not yet been created. A proliferation of aggressive cyber and counterintelligence threats from foreign adversaries have made countries like China, Russia and North Korea top priorities for federal law enforcement.
Monaco in particular brings to the department significant national security experience, including in cybersecurity — an especially urgent issue as the U.S. government confronts a devastating hack of federal agencies that officials have linked to Russia.
Some of the issues from Garland's first stint at the department persist. Tensions between police and minorities, an issue that flared following the 1992 beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles, remain a major concern, particularly following a summer of racial unrest that roiled American cities after the May killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
And the FBI has confronted a surge in violence from antigovernment and racially motivated extremists. That is a familiar threat to Garland, who as a senior Justice Department official helped manage the federal government's response to the 1995 bombing of a government building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people. The bomber, Timothy McVeigh, was later executed.
Garland has called the work the "most important thing I have done" and was known for keeping a framed photo of Oklahoma City's Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in his courthouse office in Washington.
Garland was put forward by Obama for a seat on the Supreme Court in 2016 following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, but Republicans refused to hold confirmation hearings in the final year of Obama's term, arguing that the person elected president that fall should make the selection.
Garland has been on the federal appeals court in Washington since 1997. Before that, he had worked in private practice, as well as a federal prosecutor, a senior official in the Justice Department's criminal division and as the principal associate deputy attorney general.
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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