
Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland to face challenges that include links to Biden and Trump
CNN
Barring any surprises at his Senate confirmation hearing next week, Judge Merrick Garland appears poised to become President Joe Biden's first attorney general, bringing a longtime jurist with a steadying hand to a department that's teetering between crises.
From the sprawling investigation into the January insurrection to sensitive probes of presidential allies, the caseload at the Justice Department is as controversial as ever, and Garland will be met by a workforce whose rejection of their previous boss's political maneuverings was unprecedented. For boosters of Garland, it was his reputation for fairness, honed over more than two decades on Washington, DC's, federal appeals court, that made him a good fit to lead the department out of the Trump era. His success in rebuilding the public's trust in the department, however, may hinge largely on his political deftness.
The retired Air Force general announced as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by President Donald Trump after the abrupt Friday night firing of his predecessor is a respected career F-16 pilot who is described by current and former officials who served with him as a professional with a “strong moral center.”
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Over the past 10 days, Vice President JD Vance put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on notice, rattled the confidence of century-old allies in Western Europe during his first foreign trip, decamped to Capitol Hill to help in delicate budget talks and delivered a spirited defense of the Trump administration’s first month to a gathering of conservatives outside the nation’s capital.