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ArcticStones's avatar

In my humble opinion, Doug Jones is the man who *should* have been Biden’s Attorney General – not Merrick Garland. Had Doug Jones been AG, the key J6 prosecutions would have started far earlier, as would the investigations into the funders and real backers of this insurrection and coup attempt. Also, the damning investigations and prosecutions of Trump would have started *years* earlier.

In short: Attorney General Doug Jones would have made sure the American justice moved at a respectable pace – comparable with what Brazil did after Bolsonaro’s attempt to stay in power.

(Ah, well, this is all "water under the bridge" – water personally passed by Trump.)

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PollJunkie's avatar

Garland was actually an unserious centre to centre-right nominee with links to originalist and federalist constitutional philosophies nominated by Obama to see if the Republican party would confirm him in good faith or not. It already seemed unlikely as McConnell has been obsessed with the courts for all his life. Furthermore, McConnell also needed the open Supreme court seats to be the proverbial carrot for evangelicals, who then had reservations with Trump, to suck it up and vote. Hillary had already promised to junk his nomination and instead nominate liberals and progressives who believed in a living constitution. One only wonders why we felt indebted to him. There was also no precedent for the charges brought against Hunter.

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bythesea's avatar

Hate to say this, but the selection of Garland for Obama-esque reasons was utterly disastrous and avoidable. Fatal error potentially.

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Andrew's avatar

Democrats need to stop this picking people that are moderate or Republicans bc it looks good needs to die. Voters don’t give a shit nor know who any of these people are.

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MPC's avatar

Whoever is the next Democratic president needs to hire Jones or Jack Smith to go after FDJT and EVERY SINGLE associate like Patel, Blondi, and Miller -- throw the book at them and get them in court.

Heck, since I'm in a petty mood, have them go after Karoline Leavitt and her lying self too.

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Brad Warren's avatar

LOL “Blondi.”

Leavitt is so awful that she makes Kayleigh McEnany seem like Betty White.

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FeingoldFan's avatar

Doug Jones or Sally Yates, both of them were obviously way better for the job than Garland.

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Miguel Parreno's avatar

Garland is somehow the worst nominee for two different American Presidents. It's incredible.

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Brad Warren's avatar

I think James Comey was a worse Obama nominee than Garland. Your mileage may vary.

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Andrew's avatar

I didn’t realize appointed him, I thought he was inherited. What an absolutely epic fuck up. He should have already learned not to trust any Republicans ever.

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Zero Cool's avatar

I would have put Doug Jones and former Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood in charge of things at the Justice Department with Jones as Attorney General and Hood as Deputy Attorney General.

Merrick Garland was a wimp as Attorney General.

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Burt Kloner's avatar

why did Obama and Biden bother with Garland in the first place? what was their rationale?

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Mark's avatar

Hoping McConnell would take the bait on a guy who didn't ruffle any feathers.

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Brad Warren's avatar

Yep. He was Obama's final attempt at "consensus" (that he should have known would never happen).

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Zero Cool's avatar

The concept of having consensus candidate for the GOP to vote for made no sense in the first place. The GOP and Mitch McConnell did not want any such replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia. They wanted another Scalia.

I think Merrick Garland was fine as a judge but he made an ineffective Attorney General.

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michaelflutist's avatar

It was worth a try. I don't blame Obama. I do blame Biden!

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Mark's avatar

Yeah the effort to appease Merrick Garland's hard feelings about 2016 came at an incredible cost.

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