在一名美国恐怖分子在中心地带目睹死亡和毁灭的两天后，华盛顿特区的一名说话温和的律师被派去进行调查和起诉，这将使正义得到伸张的受害者俄克拉荷马城爆炸案。

那个律师是梅里克·加兰。

26年后，加兰——现在的国家司法部长——回到了美国历史上最严重的国内恐怖袭击的现场。

“这是一个国家永远无法消除的问题，”加兰周一谈到反政府和种族歧视时说激起仇恨1995年4月19日的爆炸事件。

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美国广播公司首席大法官记者皮埃尔·托马斯与司法部长梅里克·加尔交谈

在上月成为美国执法官员以来的第一次采访中，加兰告诉美国广播公司新闻首席大法官记者皮埃尔·托马斯，激发俄克拉荷马城炸弹手蒂莫西·麦克维的愤怒在一个分裂的美国仍然是一股危险而强大的力量。

加兰说:“在俄克拉荷马城之后的一段时间里，事情似乎处于较低的水平并开始衰退。”。“但这是一个你永远无法忽视的问题。司法部致力于确保我们不会这样做。”

加兰上任以来首次出访俄克拉荷马州，这是他首次离开华盛顿。在纪念爆炸受害者和幸存者的仪式上，加兰谈到了他与社区的深厚联系，以及阿尔弗雷德·P·穆拉联邦大楼被停在下面街道上的卡车炸弹麦克维摧毁后的第一天。

作为朝圣的一部分，加兰第一次参观了俄克拉荷马州东北部的塔尔萨市，那里发生了100年前美国历史上最严重的种族屠杀。

“这是一个重要的时刻，来到这样一个地方，”加兰告诉美国广播公司新闻，他参观了一个致力于屠杀与和解历史的公园。“这里发生的破坏是导致俄克拉荷马城爆炸的仇恨的产物。...它们是由可怕的仇恨带来的相似种类的毁灭。所以我觉得我需要看到它，面对它。”

1921年的大屠杀是由一群全白人暴徒所为，这场屠杀导致了300人死亡，1250个黑人家庭被夷为平地。

加兰变得情绪激动，他解释说，作为逃离现代白俄罗斯种族仇恨的人的孙子，他可以理解迫害和仇恨的痛苦。

加兰说:“我们家庭中的所有人都感到有义务——公共服务——并努力像国家保护我们一样保护他人。”。

灾难发生74年后，曾是民兵运动和KKK成员的海湾战争老兵麦克维将数吨炸药装入莱德卡车，在阳光明媚的春天早晨，这辆卡车将炸死168人。

加兰说，他认为“从塔尔萨到以麦克维为代表的国内暴力极端主义有一条线”

司法部长说他看到了爆炸枪支暴力和大规模枪击就像26年前俄克拉何马州的爆炸事件一样。

加兰说:“可以说，这个国家枪支暴力泛滥。”。“当然，不仅是大规模枪击，还有个人枪击。他们不仅对直接受害者，而且对他们的家人和幸存者都造成了惊人的损失。你可以在俄克拉荷马城看到每一个死亡是如何影响的...整个社区。我并不幻想司法部自己就能解决这个问题。但有些事情是司法部可以做的，我们将会去做。”

加兰解释说，目前正在制定和研究一系列监管改革，他的部门将“创建红旗示范法，使希望制定自己法律的州更容易”，以防止有精神健康问题的人拿不到枪。

然而，重要的是，司法部长说，每当另一名枪手开火时，人们需要记住死亡人数。

“有变得麻木的风险，”他说。“每天、每隔一天或每隔三天都会有新的枪支暴力报道。但这些对真实的人来说都是真实的悲剧。它们不仅仅是统计数据。我们必须小心不要对此麻木。我们必须继续对这些死亡感到愤怒。我们必须继续希望——善意的人们将采取必要的措施来防止这种情况。”

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美国广播公司首席大法官记者皮埃尔·托马斯与司法部长梅里克·加尔交谈

在司法部任职和返回司法部长之间的几年里，加兰是华盛顿美国上诉法院的法官。加兰长期以来一直受到联邦法官的谨慎对待，因此他拒绝参与此事进行调查1月6日在国会大厦的暴动或者前明尼阿波利斯警官德里克·肖万的案子因谋杀受审乔治·弗洛伊德之死。

但加兰并没有试图掩饰他看到视频反复出现以示不安暴力警察互动有色人种。事实上，这些视频帮助激励他寻求乔·拜登总统在1月份提名的职位。

加兰说:“整个夏天，我都在看去年夏天的视频。”。“和许多美国人一样，我感到震惊。但许多美国黑人并不感到震惊，因为他们以前就知道这种待遇……我觉得至少从去年夏天开始，有机会将这一点提到国家意识的前沿，创造一个我们可以改变的时刻。我想成为司法部长的部分原因是我想帮助带来改变。”

加兰没有掩饰警察改革的必要性或问题的核心。

“看，种族主义是美国的问题，”他说。“对我来说显而易见的是，对非裔美国人和其他有色人种社区以及其他少数民族的歧视一直存在，并且仍然存在。我认为这反映在住房、就业和司法系统中的歧视。...我们在法律面前还没有平等的正义。”

“这是司法部角色的一个重要部分，帮助实现它，”他补充说。

加兰在2016年首次对美国最高法院的提名做出回应，当时参议院共和党人甚至拒绝考虑巴拉克·奥巴马总统任命加兰填补安东宁·斯卡利亚法官去世后留下的空缺席位的决定。

“我期待着，”加兰这样评价自己。“我现在有机会做一些非常重要的事情。我现在有机会领导司法部追求民权。我有机会领导司法部追求法治，确保该部的独立性，特别是在我们进行调查或起诉的方式中不受任何党派影响的独立性。我有机会领导一个部门——位于俄克拉荷马城——需要打击国内暴力极端分子，这样我们在俄克拉荷马城遇到的那种悲剧就不会发生。”

“继续前进就是继续前进，”他说。

Anger that motivated McVeigh remains dangerous, potent force in divided America: Attorney General Garland

Two days after an American terrorist visited death and destruction on the heartland, a slight, soft-spoken lawyer in Washington, D.C., was dispatched to run the investigation and prosecution that would bring justice tothe victims of theOklahoma City bombing.

That lawyer was Merrick Garland.

Twenty-six years later, Garland -- now the nation's attorney general -- returned to the site of the worst domestic terror attack in American history.

"This is a problem that the country has never been able to eliminate," Garland said Monday of the anti-government and racialhatred that fueledthe April 19, 1995, bombing.

In his first interview since becoming the nation' stop law-enforcement official last month, Garland told ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas that the anger that motivated Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh remains a dangerous and potent force in a divided America.

"There was a period after Oklahoma City where things seemed to be -- at a lower level and ebbed," Garland said. "But this is the kind of problem you can never take your eyes off of. And -- the Justice Department is committed to being sure that we don't do that."

Garland visited Oklahoma on his first trip outside of Washington since taking office. During ceremonies at the memorial dedicated to the victims and survivors of the bombing, Garland spoke of his deep connection to the community and those first days after the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was destroyed by the truck bomb McVeigh parked on the street below.

"At the time, we did not know how many people had died. But we did know that the children's (day care) center, which had been at the front of the building, was gone," Garland said in his speech. "Then and there, we made a vow. We promised that we would find the perpetrators, that we would bring them to justice and that we would do so in a way that honored the Constitution."

As part of his pilgrimage, Garland visited -- for the first time -- the northeastern Oklahoma city of Tulsa, where the worst race massacre in U.S. history occurred 100 years ago.

"This is a moment where it's important to come to a place like this," Garland told ABC News, as he toured a park dedicated to the history of the massacre and reconciliation. "The kind of devastation that happened here is the product of the same kind of hatred that led to the bombing in Oklahoma City. ... They are similar -- kind -- kinds of devastation brought by terrible hatred. And so I felt I needed to see it, face it."

The 1921 massacre, committed by an all-white mob, left perhaps as many as 300 dead and about 1,250 homes of Black families burned to the ground.

Garland grew emotional, explaining that he can understand the pain of persecution and hatred as the grandson of people who fled ethnic hatred in what is modern-day Belarus.

"All of us in our family feel an obligation -- public service -- and try to protect other people the way the country protected us," Garland said.

Seventy-four years after the devastation, McVeigh, a Gulf War veteran who had been a member of both the militia movement and the KKK, packed tons of explosives into the Ryder truck that would kill 168 on a sun-drenched spring morning.

Garland said he sees "a line through (from Tulsa) to the kind of domestic violent extremism represented by McVeigh."

The attorney general said he sees the explosion ingun violence and mass shootingsacross the country as human tragedies that destroy families -- just as the Oklahoma City bombing did 26 years ago.

"There is -- it might be described as -- an epidemic of gun violence in the country," Garland said. "Not only mass shootings, but individual shootings, of course. And they take a staggering toll not only for the immediate victims, but their families, survivors. You can see in Oklahoma City how every single death affects ... the whole community. I have no illusion that the Justice Department, by itself, can solve this problem. But there are some things that the Justice Department can do and we are going to do them."

A host of regulatory changes are currently being formulated and studied, Garland explained, and his department is "going to create model red-flag laws to make it easier for states that want to craft their own laws" in order to keep guns out of the hands of people with mental health problems.

Importantly, though, the attorney general said people need to remember the human toll every time another shooter opens fire.

"There is a risk of becoming numb," he said. "Every day or every second or every third day there's a new report of gun violence. But these are real tragedies for real people. They're not just statistics that sort of add up. And we have to be careful not to become numb to this. We have to continue to be outraged by these deaths. And we have to continue to hope that -- people of goodwill will take the steps necessary to prevent this."

In the years between serving in the Justice Department and returning as attorney general, Garland was a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington. With the modulated caution of the federal judge he was for so long, Garland declined to weigh in on theongoing investigationinto the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol or the case of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, nowon trial for murderin the death of George Floyd.

But Garland did not attempt to hide how disturbed he has been to see videos emerge repeatedly to showviolent police interactionswith people of color. Those videos, in fact, helped motivate him to seek the position President Joe Biden nominated him to in January.

"I also saw the videos last summer, all through the summer," Garland said. "And like many Americans, I was shocked. But many Black Americans were not shocked, because they have known of this kind of treatment before…I felt that beginning last summer, at least, there was a chance to bring this to the fore of the national consciousness, to create a moment in which we could change. And part of the reason that I wanted to be attorney general was I wanted to help bring that change."

Garland did not sugarcoat the need for police reform or the core of the issue.

"Look, racism is an American problem," he said. "It's plain to me that there has been and remains discrimination against African Americans and other communities of color, and other ethnic minorities. I think it's reflected in discrimination in housing and employment and the justice system. ... We do not yet have equal justice under law."

"This is an important part of the role of the Justice Department, to help bring it about," he added.

And for the first time, Garland offered a reaction to his nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016, when Senate Republicans refused to even consider President Barack Obama's decision to appoint Garland to the seat left vacant by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

"I look forward," Garland said of himself. "I now have the opportunity to do some very important things. I have the opportunity now to lead a Justice Department in pursuit of civil rights. I have a chance to lead a Justice Department in pursuit of the rule of law and ensuring the independence of the department, and its independence -- particularly -- from any kind of partisan influence in the way we bring investigations or prosecutions. And I have a chance to lead a department -- sitting here in Oklahoma City -- that needs to fight against domestic violent extremists, so that the kind of tragedy that we had in Oklahoma City doesn't occur."

"Moving on is moving on," he said.