President-elect Joe Biden has selected the majority of his cabinet but has yet to select his attorney general and calls are growing for Biden to name his former partner to the position.
Legal scholar, author, and former U.S. ambassador Douglas Kmiec wrote an op-ed for The Hill in which he endorses former President Barack Obama for attorney general. In the piece, Kmiec said Obama’s appointment would be unprecedented but would show the country that he’s governing in “the national interest.”
Kmiec, a Republican who endorsed Obama in 2008, also discussed the potential of Republican challenges to the ratification of Biden’s election win when Congress meets Jan. 3.
A dozen Republican lawmakers have committed to challenging Biden’s election win and Kmiec says the objections will lead Biden to reassure all voters that he is working in the interest of the people.
“Instead of continuing to borrow Barack Obama’s trade line, he needs Obama himself. The fastest way to re-establish the rule of law is for Biden to nominate Obama as attorney general,” Kmiec wrote.
Biden has yet to announce or signal what his plans for the Justice Department are, but many are watching. Progressives, moderates, and Republicans will all have an opinion on who the former vice president selects.
Progressives, as well as Civil Rights groups, have expressed frustration with Biden’s picks despite him selecting one of the most diverse cabinets in American history. Biden’s nominations include Janet Yellen (Treasury Secretary), Deb Haaland (Department of Interior), Alejandro Mayorkas (DHS Secretary), and Jennifer Psaki (Press Secretary).
Yellen is the first woman to serve as treasury secretary, Haaland and Mayorkas are the first people of their races to serve in the posts, and Psaki will lead an all-female communications team. Additionally, Biden’s nominations for defense secretary, EPA administrator, HUD secretary, and several of his advisors are Black men and women.
The only time a former president went back to working for the government in a legal fashion was William Taft, who served one term as president (1909-1913) and later became chief justice of the Supreme Court from 1921 through 1930.