>> let's get insight from our political and legal experts. laura jarrett who covers the justice department for us. you've been doing some serious reporting on this story. how did william barr all of a sudden emerge as a leading contender to become the next attorney general? >> reporter: well, really, wolf, this is a dream pick for conservatives, for republicans who look at him as an adult in the room, who look at him as a known quantity. he was at the justice department under bush 41, as we've been reporting. he was the attorney general, and he was actually bob mueller's boss. when mueller was there as the -- as leading the justice department's criminal division, so they have quite a storied past. now, he has come out -- to hasn't shied away talking about the mueller probe. he has expressed confidence in bob mueller saying that this wouldn't be a so-called witch hunt, but, yet, on the other hand, he's also said things that he thought that the fact that mueller had picked democrats who had made political donations to democrats was something off balance, that he wished he had seen a little more balance in mueller's team so we have to