Eric Holder, the current Attorney General, has already said he wants to leave the post, and over 160 days ago, the president nominated his successor. But Republicans, branded “the party of NO,” apparently see political benefits in refusing to confirm the new Attorney General, so Sharpton along with female civil-rights leaders are trying to put pressure on Senate leader Mitch McConnell with a hunger strike.
“As long as the Senate refuses to take fifteen minutes to confirm someone for Attorney General that they have already confirmed twice for U.S. Attorney,” National Action Network and its allies “will do everything in our power to draw attention to this completely unfair and unnecessary delay to vote to confirm Loretta Lynch,” Sharpton, who founded NAN, said in a statement Wednesday.
The group’s executive director, Janaye Ingram, added: “We stand with Loretta Lynch and are so in support of this cause that we are willing to sacrifice our daily meals to impress upon the U.S. Senate that it’s time to call a vote.”
The hunger strike is part of a broader public pressure campaign for Republican leaders to quickly hold a confirmation vote for Lynch, who has been stuck in a nomination purgatory ever since she cleared the Judiciary Committee in late February. Lynch, the current U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, would be the first black woman to serve as the nation’s top law enforcement official.
The outgoing Attorney General said on Tuesday that the Justice Department’s findings in the killing of Ferguson’s Mike Brown by officer Darren Wilson on August 9th 2014, will be announced before he leaves office.
Holder said in response to a question that the reviews were underway and that he expected to “make those calls before I leave office.”
It’s not clear when that will be but his chosen successor, Loretta Lynch, will likely be confirmed within weeks.
The New York Times is reporting that the Justice Department lawyers will recommend that no civil rights charges be brought against the police officer involved in the fatal shooting of an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Mo., after an F.B.I. investigation found no evidence to support charges, law enforcement officials said Wednesday.
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and his civil rights chief, Vanita Gupta, will have the final say on whether the Justice Department will close the case against the officer, Darren Wilson. But it would be unusual for them to overrule the prosecutors on the case, who are still working on a legal memo explaining their recommendation.
A decision by the Justice Department would bring to an end to the politically charged investigation of Mr. Wilson in the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. Missouri authorities concluded their investigation into Mr. Brown’s death in November and also recommended against charges.
It was just a little over 24 hours ago when the United States Attorney General, Eric Holder, announced that he will resign from office by the end of this year. But already, with no other potential nominees mentioned by the President, Republicans are already gearing up to filibuster the new appointee.
With Nov. 4 midterm elections potentially tipping the balance in the Senate, some Republicans immediately called for a delay in the hearings and votes on the new attorney general until January, when the possibility of a GOP majority in the Senate might give Republicans almost total control of the outcome.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) issued a political call to arms for conservatives, saying that outgoing senators should not vote on the nominee during the post-election lame-duck session. “Allowing Democratic senators, many of whom will likely have just been defeated at the polls, to confirm Holder’s successor would be an abuse of power that should not be countenanced,” Cruz said in a statement.
Democrats argued that Republicans should step back and allow Obama to select his own cabinet without GOP obstruction.
“This is going to be the first real test, whether it’s in the lame-duck or early in the new year, whether our Republican colleagues are going to continue to obstruct,” Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday in an interview. “Every president deserves to have his attorney general.”
(AP) — Eric Holder, who served as the public face of the Obama administration’s legal fight against terrorism and weighed in on issues of racial fairness, is resigning after six years on the job. He is the nation’s first black attorney general.
The White House said that President Barack Obama would announce Holder’s departure later Thursday and that Holder planned to remain at the Justice Department until his successor was in place. White House officials said Obama had not made a final decision on a replacement for Holder, who was one of the most progressive voices in his Cabinet.
Advisers to Obama and Holder said the attorney general had been planning his departure with the president for some time. Some possible candidates who have been discussed among administration officials include Solicitor General Don Verrilli, California Attorney General Kamala Harris, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Cole and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a former Rhode Island attorney general.
Holder, a 63-year-old former judge and prosecutor, took office in early 2009 as the U.S. government grappled with the worst financial crisis in decades and with divisive questions on the handling of captured terrorism suspects, issues that helped shape his tenure as the country’s top law enforcement official. He is the fourth-longest serving attorney general in U.S. history.
In a recent MSNBC interview about the events in Ferguson Missouri, Hardball’s host Chris Matthews attacked the president by comparing him to Eric Holder.
Earlier this week, Eric Holder made a visit to Ferguson, the place where citizens protested the murder of Michael Brown by a Ferguson cop, Darren Wilson. The protests have gone on for 12 days now with violent clashes between protesters and police officers with police using rubber bullets, tear gas and snipers to intimidate the protesters. Holders visit came on Wednesday, and is seen as a turning point in the protests. The violence is now minimal or even nonexistent as people are now hopeful that the federal government’s investigation will bring some form of justice to Ferguson.
In his interview with Craig Melvin, Matthews praised Holders visit, and used it to criticize the president.
“It may be a lesson for the president, too,” Matthews said. “And I’m not usually a critic of him but I have to say that I thought that in a very positive way Eric Holder showed how you lead in this country. And a big part of leading is showing up.”
What Matthews conveniently chose to ignore is the fact that Holder is part of the Obama administration, and his visit to Ferguson was initiated by the President himself.
Back on Monday during a press conference, the president called for calm heads to prevail in Ferguson and announced that he will send Eric Holder for a first hand account of the situation.
“The attorney general himself will be traveling to Ferguson on Wednesday to meet with the FBI agents and DOJ personnel conducting the criminal investigation and he will receive an update from them on their progress. He will also be meeting with other leaders in the community,” Obama said during the press conference.
Matthews refused to mention that fact in his criticism. He apparently thinks Holder’s visit was independent to the President’s decision to send him to Ferguson.
It’s easy being called an activist when it’s for the right reason, and when you’re a part of an administration whose main goal is working for the people, being called an activist is a good thing.
Eric Holder recognized this fact, and he is embracing being called an activist “1000 percent.”
“If you want to call me an activist attorney general, I will proudly accept that label,” Holder told journalist Juan Williams in an interview published at The Hill.
“Any attorney general who is not an activist is not doing his or her job,” he continued, adding that “the responsibility of the attorney general is to change things [and] bring us closer to the ideals expressed in our founding documents.”
Asked later about his response to critics who claim that the Justice Department houses an activist civil rights division and an activist chief, Holder said “I agree with you 1000 percent and [I am] proud of it.”
Louie Gohmert is a nut! A very nutty nut. And that’s the only reason he was elected to Congress, because his base – The Teaparty – loves nutty nuts!
Gohmert has said and done some nutty things too, and right up there with the rest of them is his nutty call to Congress to arrest the Attorney General, Eric Holder.
In an interview on Friday with the Family Research Council’s Washington Watch, Gohmert, the brainchild of the Republican party called for Holder’s arrest.
“When you have someone like an attorney general who is in contempt of Congress, what can we do? Someone in contempt of Congress comes waltzing into the House chamber and he’s in contempt of Congress as found by the Congress, what can be done? I was told that actually you can pass a resolution directing the sergeant at arms to detain anyone who is in contempt of Congress until such time as they comply with the requirement that put him in contempt. In this case, they didn’t provide information from the Justice Department, they had it, they refused to provide it, we found him in contempt.”
It remains to be seen if Congressional Republicans will heed Gohmert call. After all, they are a leaderless group and anyone with something to say, no matter how nutty, gets airtime. Watch this space.
There are many stupid people in politics, we’ll call them congressional Republicans. But if there is an individual award for that dubious distinction, then Michele Bachmann will no longer be the undisputed champion.
Louis Gohmert – a Republican representative from Texas and a man John McCain correctly said has no intelligence, would most definitely get the award.
For whatever reason, Gohmert thinks he can match wits with the United States Attorney General, Eric Holder. In previous hearings, Gohmert stupidly picked a fight with the attorney general and got his assparagus handed to him.
Huh, you didn’t know about the asparagus?
Back in May 2013, during a House Judiciary hearing, Louie had the masterful idea that he would accuse the attorney general of not doing everything possible to stop the Boston Bombing. Eric Holder slammed Gohmert, informing him that he, as a representative, is not privy to what’s going on in the Justice Department, so making such a dumb accusation was in fact, dumb.
Said Holder;
“You don’t know what the FBI did. You don’t know what the FBI’s interaction was with the Russians. You don’t know what questions were put to the Russians, whether those questions were responded to. You simply do not know that. And you have characterized the FBI as being not thorough, or taken exception to my characterization of them as being thorough. I know what the FBI did. You cannot know what I know. That is all.”
After that smack down, Gohmert tried to respond, but his time was up. He managed however, to squeeze in the now infamous phrase, that the attorney general was apparently doing something to his asparagus.
I cannot have a witness challenge my character! The attorney general will not cast aspersions on my asparagus!”
And now Tuesday. Another hearing, same ole Louie Gohmert. This time, Gohmert accused Holder of not providing documents he requested. Holder was having none of Gohmert’s nonsense today, and quickly shot down the representative.
ERIC HOLDER: You don’t want to go there, buddy. You don’t want to go there, okay?
GOHMERT: I don’t want to go there?
HOLDER: No.
GOHMERT: About the contempt?
HOLDER: You should not assume that that is not a big deal to me. I think that it was inappropriate. I think it was unjust, but never think that that was not a big deal to me. Don’t ever think that.
GOHMERT: Well I’m just looking for evidence, and normally we’re known by our fruits, and there have been no indications that it was a big deal, because your department has still not been forthcoming in producing the documents that were the subject of the contempt.
HOLDER: The documents that we were prepared to make available then, we’re prepared to make available now that would have obviated the whole need. This was all about the gun lobby and a desire to have a —
GOHMERT: Sir, we’ve been trying to get to the bottom of Fast and Furious where people died, where at least a couple hundred Mexicans died, and we can’t get the information to get to the bottom of that, so I don’t need lectures from you about contempt, because it is very difficult to deal with asking questions.
HOLDER: And I don’t need lectures from you either.
GOHMERT: As a former judge, I’d never have asked questions of someone who’s been held in contempt. We waited ‘til the contempt was purged, and then we asked questions.
In ending the back and forth, Holder cane back with, “good luck with the asparagus.”
On Tuesday, Republican Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) demanded that Attorney General Eric Holder, a member of the Obama Administration, resign. “So, Mr. Attorney General, it’s more with sorrow than anger that I would say you leave me with no alternative but to join those who call upon you to resign your office,” Cornyn said.
The Republican Senator is calling on Mr. Holder to resign because of a program that started in 2007 under the Bush Administration called The Fast an Furious. The object of the program was to allow traceable guns to be smuggled into Mexico with the intention of pinpointing their locations and capturing some very bad people associated with the drug cartels . Unfortunately, an American Border Patrol Agant Brian Terry, was killed in December 2010 by a criminal using one of these guns and now Mr. Holder is in the hot seat.
Cornyn continued;
“You still resist coming clean about what you knew and when you knew it with regard to Operation Fast and Furious,” Cornyn charged. “You won’t cooperate with a legitimate congressional investigation, and you won’t hold anyone, including yourself, accountable. Your department blocks states from implementing attempts to combat voter fraud. In short, you’ve violated the public trust, in my view, by failing and refusing to perform the duties of your office.”
“So, Mr. Attorney General, it’s more with sorrow than anger that I would say you leave me with no alternative but to join those who call upon you to resign your office,” Cornyn said.
Calling Cornyn’s performance a political stunt, Holder replied that he is not resigning;
“With all due respect, senator, there is so much that’s factually wrong with the premises that you started your statement with, it’s almost breathtaking in its inaccuracy, but I will simply leave it at that.”
“… I don’t have any intention of resigning. I heard the White House press officer say yesterday that the President has absolute confidence in me. I don’t have any reason to believe that that, in fact, is not the case.”
And in reference to the documents Republicans are demanding, reports claim that Tuesday’s appearance marked the ninth time [Holder] has testified before Congress on Operation Fast and Furious. Holder said he was the one who ended “the misguided tactics” in that operation and who tapped an inspector general to investigate any wrongdoing. His staff has also provided Congress with more than 7,600 documents, in 46 separate installments, relating to the issue.
Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday that the Justice Department will take appropriate action in the killing of Trayvon Martin if it finds evidence that a federal criminal civil rights crime has been committed.
The attorney general made the comments in an appearance before a civil rights organization founded by the Rev. Al Sharpton.
Holder said the department will conduct a thorough and independent review of the evidence in the Martin matter. One of the department’s top priorities, said Holder, is preventing and combating youth violence and victimization.
The Justice Department launched an investigation of the Martin killing three weeks ago.
The Conservative Website The Daily Caller revealed this Exclusive letter from a member of the Zimmerman Family. The letter is addressed to the Attorney General Eric Holder, and asked Holder why he has not arrested members of the new Black Panthers, suggesting that recent actions by the Panthers qualifies them as a “hate group.”
Leaders of the new Black Panthers have called for George Zimmerman to be captured, “dead or alive.”
The writer of the letter then asked if the arrests weren’t being made because Eric Holder is “black.”
“George has done more for the black community than a lot of the black individual/organizations that are calling for his arrest (or death),” the family member assures, and refuses to “go into the intricacies of the case.” Instead, they ask, “why, when the law of the land is crystal clear, is your office not arresting the New Black Panthers for hate crimes?” The letter goes on to quote the legal definition of a hate crime and ask, “Since when can a group of people put a bounty on someone’s head, circulate Wanted posters publicly, and still be walking the streets?”
Strange enough, the question asked by the Zimmerman family member makes me remember what happened in Florida the night Trayvon Martin was killed and his killer is still “walking the streets.”
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