Former Attorney General Eric Holder Talks Getting Into Law & Politics, Trump Possibly Getting Impeached, The Importance Of Voting, Possible Political Run, Jeff Sessions (Video)

'They can kiss my ass': Attorney General Eric Holder's surprising response to critics of his handling of Fast & Furious gun running scandal

Former US Attorney General Eric Holder makes his debut on The Breakfast Club to talk about the following topics:

·        What got you in law and politics

·        Why criminal law

·        Wanted to be a member of The Temptations

·        Trump administration wants to overturn everything you and Obama have done

·        Do you wish Obama was more radical

·        Was it difficult for you to step down

·        Why did you step down

·        Jeff Sessions

·        Will Trump make it to 2020

·        Would he run for President

·        Incarceration

·        Trump attacking Sessions

·        Did you ever have issues with Obama

·        His love of cars

·        Police Shootings

·        Trump calling the widow of the fallen soldier in N****

·        Advice for young people who aspire to be in politics

·        President Obama

·        NFL Kneeling during anthem

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Obama pays glowing tribute to tearful departing Attorney General Eric Holder as a liberal civil rights champion {VIDEO}

• Attorney general said prosecutors critical of the department's handling of the gun-walking scandal could 'kiss my ass'
• Fast and Furious was a botched effort by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to track firearms across the Southwest border
• House Republicans have long promoted the idea that Holder knew that federal agents had engaged in a risky tactic known as 'gun-walking'
• The Justice Department's inspector general found no evidence that Holder was aware of the tactic

Newly released emails show Attorney General Eric Holder said that Justice Department prosecutors who were critical of the department's handling of the fallout of the Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal could 'kiss my ass.'

Fast and Furious was a botched effort by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to track firearms across the Southwest border. 

Revelations about it created a political firestorm, leading to congressional investigations and turnover within the ATF and Justice Department.

The Justice Department provided a batch of emails to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The Associated Press obtained the emails on Friday.

House Republicans, who have subpoenaed for thousands of emails and went to federal court for access to the documents, have long promoted the idea that Holder knew that federal agents had engaged in a risky tactic known as 'gun-walking.'

The Justice Department's inspector general found no evidence that Holder was aware of the tactic, in which ATF agents tried to track the flow of illegal guns from the United States into Mexico but instead lost track of many of the weapons. 

In one email from March 2011, after being sent a news story about the Fast and Furious investigation, Holder told staff, 'I hope there is another side to the story.' 

Later, after the ATF deputy director told Holder aides that 'we did not allow guns to walk,' Holder responded to staff with, 'Do they really, really know?'

That August, Holder was told by staff that a group of U.S. attorneys was upset that the resignation of Dennis Burke, then the U.S. attorney in Arizona, was announced simultaneously with the reassignment of ATF Acting Director Ken Melson.

Holder replied, 'Some people can kiss my ass.'

In another 2011 email Holder vented to colleagues about GOP congressional investigator Darrell Issa 'and his idiot cronies.'

The angry remark appears in an email Holder sent to his top deputies at the Justice Department, calling out the chair of the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.  

One was the murder weapon that killed U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry in December 2010.

The Holder email was part of a massive document dump that the Justice Department released on Election Day as Americans were occupied with voting and watching, breath-bated, for results.

Little media coverage attended the cache, which amounted to 64,280 pages. The DOJ had refused to turn over those documents, and more, since Issa's committee subpoenaed them in October 2011.

Holder was later held in criminal Contempt of Congress for refusing, making him the only presidential cabinet member in U.S. history to wear that badge of dishonor.

In the April 15, 2011 email, Holder was responding to threats from Issa's committee staffers that they would issue subpoenas to force gun dealers – Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) in government-speak – to tell what they knew.

One FFL's attorney shared the back-and-forth with the Justice Department. Matthew Axelrod, then the Associate Deputy Attorney General in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General,described the situation in an email whose subject line was 'Possible subpoena for cooperating FFL.'

His attorney, Axelrod wrote, had 'told Issa’s staff that his client has a variety of concerns with testifying, including the fact that he is a witness in a criminal matter and concerns for his safety.' 

Committee staffers, he added, 'told him that it would be easier to keep this confidential if he was willing to come in for a voluntary interview. Counsel said that his client didn’t want to.'

After Axelrod outlined the possibility that Issa might issue a subpoena forcing the gun dealer to testify, Holder's then-chief of staff Gary Grindler reached up the chain of command.

'This keeps escalating,' he emailed Holder. 

That's when his boss lost patience.

'Issa and his idiot cronies never gave a damn about this when all that was happening was that thousands of Mexicans were being killed with guns from our country,' he fumed in an email to Grindler, Deputy AG James Cole, and Cole's chief of staff Stuart Goldberg.

'All they want to do – in reality – is cripple ATF and suck up to the gun lobby. Politics at its worst – maybe the media will get it.'

Fast and Furious weapons had already been turning up at the scenes of Mexican gun crimes before Terry, the border patrol agent, was murdered.

Issa's investigation has uncovered evidence that a year before Holder's angry email outburst, some in the ATF sought to use the Fast and Furious program to build a case for a new gun control measure known inside the government as 'Demand Letter 3.'

That plan was drawn up in order to use sales records from Fast and Furious-related purchases of large numbers of so-called 'long guns' – rifles and shotguns designed to be fired while braced against the shooter's shoulder – to force gun dealers everywhere to report the details of more of their sales to the federal government.

It was so named because it was the third proposed regulation of its kind, 

In one July 14, 2010 email the Oversight Committee has released, ATF Field Operations Assistant Director Mark Chait asked Bill Newell, ATF's Phoenix Special Agent in Charge, for help leveraging data from Fast and Furious.

'Bill – can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same FFL and at one time?' he asked. 'We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun multiple sales.'

The massive tranche of emails released Tuesday, while the news media's attention was fixed on election maps and poling-place results, were brought about by a series of events primed by a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Judicial Watch, the center-right watchdog group famous for wringing incriminating paperwork out of secretive bureaucracies. 

The Wall Street Journal first reported on the Holder email criticizing Rep. Issa.

After the DOJ refused to comply with the FOIA request, a federal judge ordered the government to release a 'Vaughn Index,' a specialized inventory of all the documents it was withholding coupled with a rationale for each.

Many of those reasons seemed specious to the judge, who then ordered a similar disclosure to Issa's committee.

The Justice Department, which has not commented on the Election Day document dump, chose to voluntarily release everything on Tuesday rather than face a judge's order to do it on a slow news day.

The flood of documents that reached Capitol Hill, the Oversight Committee claimed in a press release, 'is an admission that the Justice Department never had legitimate grounds to withhold these documents in the first place.'

'Approximately two-thirds of the universe of documents that the Justice Department withheld from Congress has now been shown to be well outside the scope of Executive Privilege.'

Issa said in a statement that '[w]hen Eric Holder wants to know why he was the first Attorney General held in criminal contempt of Congress, he can read the judge’s order that compelled the production of 64,280 pages that he and President Obama illegitimately and illegally withheld from Congress.' 

Holder tendered his resignation in late September but will stay on until the White House can pick a successor who passes muster in the U.S. Senate. 

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BREAKING NEWS: Attorney General Eric Holder set to resign after nearly six years

• Holder announced that he has 'very mixed emotions' about leaving the Obama administration after nearly 6 years helming the DOJ
• Obama praised his 'deep and abiding fidelity to one of our most cherished ideals as a people ... equal justice under the law'
• Holder was a lightning rod since he declared in 2009 that the US is a 'nation of cowards' on race issues
• Only presidential cabinet member ever to be held in Contempt of Congress 
• Presided over scandals including Operation Fast and Furious and the DOJ's tapping of reporters' phones and emails 
• Insisted in August that he's proud to be an 'activist' in the job 
• Only 15 per cent of Americans viewed Holder positively in an August poll

Attorney General Eric Holder fought back tears on Thursday as President Barack Obama praised his legal legacy as a civil rights champion after Holder announced his sudden resignation.

Although Holder will leave the Justice Department under a cloud of controversies, the president gushed in his political eulogy that America's top cop 'believes, as I do, that justice is not just an abstract theory. It’s a living and breathing principle.'

Obama said in the State Dining Room that he believes Holder's proudest achievement' was his record on civil rights reform, what he calls 'the conscience of the building' that the DOJ occupies just six blocks down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House.

'Under his watch,' Obama said, 'the department has brought a record number of prosecutions for human trafficking, and for hate crimes – because no one in America should be afraid to walk down the street because of the color of their skin, the love in their heart, the faith they practice, or the disabilities that they live with.' 

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Holder told a televised White House gathering that he has 'very mixed emotions' about his departure, which is on hold until his replacement can win Senate confirmation. But he had heartfelt words for his longtime friend, the president.

'We have been great colleagues,' he said of Obama, following a firm embrace, 'but the bonds between us have been much greater than that. ... You have been there for me. I'm proud to call you my friend.'

Holder also lauded his 'good friend,' presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett, the third leg in a stool comprised of ambitious black Americans who sought and grabbed the reins of power in 2008.

'Work remains to be done,' Holder said, sniffling with emotion, 'but the list of our accomplishments is real.'

Obama told his audience that Holder had toiled for decades in public service 'to make sure that those words, "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," are made real for all of us.'

He was referring to the AG's family history.

'Eric’s father was an immigrant who served in the Army in World War II,' the president explained, 'only to be refused service at lunch counters in the nation he defended.'

'But he and his wife raised their son to believe that this country’s promise was real, and that son grew up to become Attorney General of the United States. And that’s something.'

'And that’s why Eric has worked so hard – not just in my administration, but for decades – to open up the promise of this country to more striving, dreaming kids like him,' Obama said. 

The question of who will replace Holder is an open one. Top candidates include Don Verrilli, the U.S. solicitor general who successfully defended the Obamacare law before the Supreme Court; former White House counsel Kathryn Rummler; and former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

The White House told a select few reporters of the impending announcement on Thursday morning. 

Almost immediately civil right activist Al Sharpton, a liberal host on MSNBC, said the administration was consulting with him about who should be the next top dog at the Justice Department.

'We are engaged in immediate conversations with the White House on deliberations over a successor whom we hope will continue in the general direction of Attorney General Holder,' Sharpton said Thursday.

Washington tongue-waggers speculated all afternoon that Holder might be leaving in order to prepare himself for a Supreme Court nomination.

The next attorney general nominee will likely have an easy confirmation hearing, since Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has changed the rules so that only a simple majority – 51 votes þ is required to close debate and call a vote.

The previous rules, however, which hinge on a required supermajority of 60 senators, still apply to Supreme Court nominees. 

Another Holder nomination would be welcomed with a chorus of raspberries from the political right. 

Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus said Thursday after the Obama-Holder love fest that the attorney general 'lost the public’s trust years ago. His departure is overdue.'

'His politicization of the Justice Department was inexcusable, and his handling of issues ... was unacceptable.'

Sharpton, however, told Business Insider that Holder's resignation 'is met with both pride and disappointment by the civil rights community.'

'We are proud that he has been the best attorney general on civil rights in U.S. history and disappointed because he leaves at a critical time when we need his continued diligence most." 

National Public Radio was first to report the news of Holder's decision to go.

'This afternoon, the president will announce the departure of Attorney General Eric Holder,' a White House official said in a statement. 'After serving for nearly six years as the head of the Justice Department, Holder is the first African American to be Attorney General of the United States and will be the fourth longest person to hold the position.'

'Holder’s accomplishments have established a historic legacy of civil rights enforcement and restoring fairness to the criminal justice system,' the official continued. 

'Holder revitalized the Department’s praised Civil Rights Division, protected the rights of the LGBT community, successfully prosecuted terrorists, and fought tirelessly for voting rights, to name a few. He will remain at the Department of Justice until his post is filled.' 

Separately, a DOJ official said Thursday morning that Holder had 'discussed his plans personally with the president on multiple occasions in recent months, and finalized those plans in an hour-long conversation with the president at the White House residence over Labor Day weekend.' 

That official said Holder will note in his farewell remarks how 'he has loved the Justice Department since, when he was a boy, he watched how, under Attorney General [Robert F.] Kennedy, the department played a leadership role in advancing the civil rights movement.'

'During his tenure as Attorney General, Holder has had Attorney General Kennedy's portrait in his conference room,' the official noted.

During a press gaggle on Air Force One, Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters that 'he’s certainly put in his time in a way that he can be proud of.'

'I’m confident there are members of the president’s team who have been thinking about who solid candidates might be,' Rhodes said, but 'I've not seen the list.;

Holder, the first black attorney general in American history, has been a lighting rod since the early days of the Obama administration when he proclaimed that the U.S. was a 'nation of cowards' on race issues.

In an August poll for NBC News and the Wall Street Journal, Hart Research found that only 15 per cent of Americans viewed Holder positively. That number was lower than any other federal official pollsters asked about. 

He long ago lost the support of the few Republicans in Congress who once backed him on straight-line law enforcement, and a few issued statements of satisfaction on Thursday.

'The nation deserves an attorney general whose loyalty to the justice system will trump loyalty to a political party,' Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn said in a statement, 'and I hope the president will nominate someone who will uphold the basic standards of honesty, transparency, and accountability that have been so glaringly absent in this Justice Department.'

'Unfortunately the American people, myself included, lost confidence in the attorney general's ability to lead a long time ago because of his continued willingness to put politics before the law.'

Fellow Texas Kevin Brady, a GOP House member, said that 'enforcing the laws of our nation is the chief job of the U.S. Attorney General and Eric Holder has repeatedly refused to do so.'

'His resignation is great news for the American people.' 

But Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, who as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman will run the hearings examining Holder's successor,called him 'an extraordinary leader.' 

'Under his leadership, the department has had remarkable success in convicting terrorists and disrupting threats to national security, while upholding the Department’s mission of keeping our communities safe from crime and fighting fraud,' Leahy said. 

Holder notably traveled to Ferguson, Missouri this month to oversee a federal investigation into the police shooting of black teen Michael Brown.

His DOJ is expected to bring civil rights charges against Darren Wilson, a white police officer, even if a Missouri Grand Jury declines to indict him.

In a speech Wednesday at New York University's Brennan Center for Justice, Holder insisted that racial tensions 'simmer every day in far too many communities across the country.' 

Critics say Holder's laser-like focus on civil rights and race issues has blinded him to the impact of unrelated scandals on the DOJ.

'If you want to call me an activist attorney general, I will proudly accept that label,' he told The Hill newspaper in August. 'Any attorney general who is not an activist is not doing his or her job.'

But handling of a series of embarrassing episodes has put him on a hot seat that has grown only hotter with time. The result has taken a toll on his health.

In February he was hospitalized after experiencing chest pains.  

Holder presided over Operation Fast and Furious, an ill-fated attempt to track the flow of guns to Mexican drug cartels; after the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives lost track of hundreds of weapons it allowed to illegally 'walk' across the border, a U.S. Border Patrol agent was shot dead with one of them.

The resulting fury led nearly 140 members of Congress and two governors to demand his resignation in 2012.

Congress ultimately held Holder in contempt for failing to turn over documents related to the scandal, making Holder the only sitting cabinet member to ever suffer that humiliation.

A year later Holder's DOJ came under fire for tapping phone lines of journalists, and reading a reporter's emails, in a bid to identify a national security leaker. 

California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, who led the impeachment charge, said Thursday that Holder 'is the most divisive U.S. Attorney General in modern history.'

'Time and again,' he said, 'Eric Holder administered justice as the political activist he describes himself as instead of an unbiased law enforcement official. By needlessly injecting politics into law enforcement, Attorney General Holder’s legacy has eroded more confidence in our legal system than any Attorney General before him.'

'Through strong arming reporters, practically ignoring high level wrongdoing, blocking his own agency Inspector General’s access to information, and overseeing a Department that attempted to stonewall Congressional oversight with denials of what is now established fact, Attorney General Holder abused his office and failed to uphold the values of our Constitution.'

Holder's career trajectory has been one of high expectations since he graduated from Columbia University law school in 1976. He took a job in the Public Integrity Section of the DOJ, which he would later helm, and worked there until 1988.

That year President Ronald Reagan appointed him to a federal judgeship in Washington, D.C. Five years later, President Bill Clinton made him U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia

He became deputy attorney general in 1997 under Clinton and was confirmed unanimously in the Senate to the role supporting then-AG Janet Reno.

When Barack Obama ran for president in 2008, Holder was his top legal adviser. He became attorney general at the beginning of Obama's first term and has held the post for nearly six years.

When he leaves office there will only be two members of Obama's original cabinet remaining: Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. 

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Attorney General Eric Holder, America's top law enforcement officer, will tender his resignation on Thursday, a source at the U.S. Department of Justice has confirmed.

The embattled leader of the U.S. Department of Justice has said he aims to step down as soon as the Senate confirms his replacement.

National Public Radio was first to report the news on Thursday.

Holder, the first black attorney general in American history, has been a lighting rod since the early days of the Obama administration when he proclaimed that the U.S. was a 'nation of cowards' on race issues.

His handling of a series of scandals have put him on a hot seat that has grown only hotter with time.

Holder presided over Operation Fast and Furious, an ill-fated attempt to track the flow of guns to Mexican drug cartels; after the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives lost track of hundreds of weapons it allowed to illegally 'walk' across the border, a U.S. Border Patrol agent was shot dead with one of them.

In 2013 Holder's DOJ came under fire for tapping phone lines of journalists, and reading a reporter's emails, in a bid to identify a national security leaker.