Hi, I'm Bella and I'm Liddy. We are currently sitting in AP Gov waiting for classes to start while pondering whether the shutdown will ever end.

This podcast is recorded at 5.49pm on Tuesday, January 15th.

Things may have changed by the time you hear this. Okay, here's the show.

Hey there, it is the NPR Politics podcast.

Today, William Barr, President Trump's nominee for Attorney General, was grilled about what he would do with the Russia investigation.

I am Danielle Kertzleben, Political Reporter.

I'm Carrie Johnson, I cover the Justice Department.

And I'm Ryan Lucas, I also cover the Justice Department.

Okay, so to set this up, a quick previously on segment.

Barr is set to replace acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, who himself replaced former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Trump, as you guys might remember, had some issues with Sessions if I'm recalling correctly.

I seem to remember a little bitter criticism.

There was a tweet or two, I don't know. Enter Bill Barr.

He wants to be Sessions' replacement. So what concerns did Barr have to address to even get through this hearing?

Well, Democrats had a number of issues that they wanted to go through with him, including his views on executive power, on immigration, civil rights, as tough on crime views.

But the one issue that really was looming over all of this, were comments that he's made about special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

And in particular, a 19-page memo that he wrote, which questioned possible obstruction of justice investigation that Mueller is conducting.

So those were the issues that really Democrats wanted to dig in on, and they did.

So let's walk through the big moments to see how well he addressed those questions.

So, Carrie, let's start with you. What is the big moment or a big moment that really stood out today?

Well, speaking of criticism of the former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the president never got over Jeff Sessions' decision to recuse himself from oversight of this Russia investigation, which became the special counsel probe, right?

And so the big question, one of the big questions was, will Bill Barr recuse himself?

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