text: Biden confirms Merrick Garland as pick for attorney general t
  WORLD Biden confirms Merrick Garland as pick for attorney general
  21:26, January 07, 2021
  In this Nov. 17, 2017, file photo, Merrick Garland walks into Federal District Court in Washington. President-elect Joe Biden is set to name Garland as Attorney General. (File photo: AP)
  President-elect Joe Biden confirmed on Thursday he will nominate Merrick Garland -- a centrist judge that Republicans denied a seat on the Supreme Court five years ago -- to be US attorney general.
  But Senate Republicans blocked his nomination to the high court by then president Barack Obama for eight months in 2016, which allowed President Donald Trump to fill the vacant seat with a conservative-leaning justice the next year.
  Biden will introduce Garland and other key picks for the Justice Department on Thursday, said a statement from the president-elect's transition team.
  His nomination as attorney general is likely to easily pass the Senate, which is to come under narrow Democratic Party control. He is likely to garner Republican support as well.