Is Alabama Senator Doug Jones now the front-runner to be Joe Biden's pick for Attorney General?

In this post a few week ago, I asked "Is Sally Yates on track to be the next US Attorney General?," and until tonight I was still thinking she was the front-runner for this key Cabinet position.  But this new AP piece, headlined "Biden's attorney general search is focused on Jones, Garland," suggests that confirmation concerns may be driving Prez-elect Biden in another direction.  Here are the details:

Alabama Sen. Doug Jones and federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland are emerging as the leading contenders to be nominated as President-elect Joe Biden’s attorney general, three people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.  A decision hasn’t been finalized and the dynamics could shift in the coming days as Biden builds out his Cabinet with an eye to ensuring diverse leadership in the top ranks of his administration.

But Jones, who lost reelection last month, and Garland, whose Supreme Court nomination was snubbed by Republicans, appear increasingly well positioned ahead of other rivals. Democrats are particularly concerned about the prospect of Biden nominating former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, fearing she could face a difficult confirmation in the Senate because of her role in issues related to the Russia investigation.

Biden’s thinking was described by people with knowledge of the presidential transition’s internal thinking who were not authorized to speak publicly.  Andrew Bates, a representative for the transition, did not comment for this story.  The president-elect is facing pressure to ensure that Black and Latino leaders are prominently positioned in his administration. He selected retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin this week to become the first Black secretary of defense.

Jones, who is white, has had a long-standing personal relationship with Biden dating back to Biden’s first presidential campaign in 1988. The former U.S. attorney prosecuted members of the Ku Klux Klan who were responsible for a 1963 church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, and later served as the U.S. attorney there from 1997 until 2001.

Biden met with civil rights activists on Tuesday to discuss diversity in his Cabinet.  The Rev. Al Sharpton, who attended the meeting, encouraged Biden to select a Black attorney general but gave him room to select someone of another race as long as they had a background in civil rights. “I said the least we could have is someone that has a proven civil rights background that’s someone that’s going to handle this heightened racist bigoted atmosphere,” Sharpton told reporters.

It’s unclear whether Garland would fit that standard as easily.  He is an experienced judge with a reputation for moderation who held senior positions at the Justice Department decades ago, including as a supervisor of the prosecution of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.  Garland was put forward by President Barack Obama for a seat on the Supreme Court in 2016 following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, but Republicans refused to hold hearings in the final year of Obama’s term.  The vacancy was later filled by Justice Neil Gorsuch during the Trump administration.

The incoming attorney general would inherit a Justice Department that has endured a tumultuous four years and would likely need to focus on not only civil rights issues and an overhaul of national policing policies after months of mass protests over the deaths of Black Americans at the hand of law enforcement, but also on concerns from Democrats about politicization of the department in the Trump administration....

Supporters of Yates view her nearly 30-year Justice Department career in both Democratic and Republican administrations, and experience ranging from civil rights cases to national security matters, as making her uniquely qualified to lead the department as it looks to move on from the Trump era.  Still, Republican senators would be likely to focus a Yates confirmation hearing on her final year at the department, when the FBI closed out the Hillary Clinton email investigation and opened an investigation into whether the Trump campaign was coordinating with Russia, which later morphed into special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation....

Jones would not comment Tuesday on the possibility of a nomination as attorney general.  “They have a process and we’ll let that process play,” he told reporters on Capitol Hill.

The Biden team has also been considering a number of other potential candidates for the post, including former Justice Department official Lisa Monaco.