Biden taps former Senator Doug Jones as "sherpa" to guide Supreme Court pick
CBSN
Washington — Former Democratic Senator Doug Jones of Alabama has been selected to guide President Biden's yet-to-be-named Supreme Court nominee through the confirmation process, a source familiar with the matter told CBS News.
As the pick's so-called "sherpa," Jones will be responsible for escorting the eventual nominee to meetings with senators in preparation for confirmation hearings. Typically, sherpas have a deep familiarity with how the Senate and Senate Judiciary Committee work. Jones' selection was first reported by The New York Times.
Jones isn't an unexpected choice. He served as a senator from Alabama from 2018 to 2021, and was the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 1997 to 2001. As a prosecutor, he won convictions against two members of the Klu Klux Klan for the deadly 1963 bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.
The knock at the door came at nighttime on Mother's Day 2008 in Oregon, where Jessica Ellis' parents lived. It was around 9:20 p.m. and his wife, Linda, was already in bed; her father Steve Ellis told CBS News, that he thought someone let their animals out — but two soldiers in Class A uniforms were standing at the door.