I'm John Batch with my colleague, Richard Epstein, of the Hoover Institution, teaches law at NYU and the University of Chicago.

And for several years, Richard praised a judge Merrick Garland, especially after he was disappointed by Senate maneuverings from the nomination process of Barack Obama in the closing months, I believe, of that second term administration.

However, then when Joe Biden was elected president of the United States, it was not too big a surprise to see Merrick Garland appointed

the Attorney General. Now, four years later, what is your measure of his legacy, Richard?

Well, I mean, when he was nominated for the Supreme Court, it was very clear it was an extremely

clever ployed by Obama to try to get a quote unquote conservative Democratic through before he was out of

office. And it failed because Mitch McConnell was an extremely able maneuver on the other side,

at least in those days. The situation is then appointed. And what you have to say is the skill

set that you need to be a pretty respectable judge in Garland was that on the D.C. circuit or not the skill set that you need to be a pretty respectable judge in

Gallen was that on the D.C. Circuit are not the school skill that you need in order to be an

attorney general. At this point, you're not dealing with cases that are presented to you. You're trying

to set policy. You have to appoint people to key officers underneath you. And you have to

decide what your priorities are in terms of litigation.

And the most, I guess, visible sign of Garland is everybody who knows him, thinks that he was

just weak and ineffectual. And I think that's a pretty strong condemnation. He didn't have a

strong jaw. He had always been pushed aside at the microphone by somebody like Charles Schumer.

He made the terrible mistake the moment Trump announces he appoints Jack Smith to be a special prosecutor to go after him.

And what he should have said is I don't care whether Trump was good or bad.

The important thing is not to get the election tied up with a series of political

situation, where essentially Jack Smith's major campaigners, I want to get a guilty verdict on

the books against him, even if it's going to be risked on appeal so that I can show the American

people that you can't elect the felon and put him into office. He sat by and he tolerated all that stuff.

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