Congressman Paul Gosar (R) Ariz; to Holder: We’re not interested in ‘Kumbayah,’ drop your ‘rhetoric’ and resign immediately!!!
Rep. Paul Gosar jabbed back at Attorney General Eric Holder after he swiped at him and other congressional Operation Fast and Furious investigators in a late Friday letter. Gosar also added his name to the short but growing list of those in Congress calling for the attorney general’s immediate resignation.
“It [Holder’s letter] is rhetoric. I think it’s funny that that’s the heat we take now when we’re in the focus of hearings and the focus of calls for his resignation,” Gosar told The Daily Caller. “[He says] ‘ooh, we want to sing Kumbayah and bring everybody together so that we can diffuse that.’ It’s also interesting that he and leadership in the Justice Department didn’t really exercise that in Arizona by reaching out and really trying to work on issues ?“ they just continue to dictate accordingly.”
“We’ve seen this over and over again ?“ accused of political posturing that the administration is really guilty of,” Gosar added. “It’s false rhetoric.”
Gosar is the third member of Congress to publicly call for Holder’s immediate resignation, joining Reps. Blake Farenthold and Raul Labrador.
House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa hinted that he also thinks Holder should step down, saying on Fox News’ Hannity on Friday night that he’s hoping for a “change we can believe in” at the Justice Department. Congressman Issa, however, hasn’t made an outright call for Holder’s resignation.
Gosar adds that he doesn’t “want him just to resign.” He wants Holder to “comply fully with the subpoena” and offer up all the details of what happened.
Holder specifically targeted Gosar in his Friday letter. Holder wrote the reason he’s finally talking about Fast and Furious is because “the public discourse concerning these issues has become so base and harmful.” The attorney general claims he planned to wait until the inspector general at DOJ concluded an investigation before talking. But, because of comments Gosar made to TheDC earlier in the week, Holder said he’s opening up now.
The comments Gosar made were a suggestion that Obama administration officials responsible for Fast and Furious could be considered accessories to murder.
“I simply cannot sit idly by as a majority member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform suggests, as happened this week, that law enforcement and government employees who devote their lives to protecting our citizens be considered ‘accessories to murder,’” Holder wrote. “Such irresponsible and inflammatory rhetoric must be repudiated in the strongest possible terms.”
Gosar said that he considers the attorney general’s account of his comments inaccurate and distorted —just like what the congressman says Holder’s testimonies and dealings with Congress on the issue have been all along.
Gosar wants the political decision-makers and people responsible for Operation Fast and Furious held responsible, but isn’t vilifying law enforcement and government employees in general. He commends ATF Mexico attaché Carl Canino, for instance, for testifying and helping with the investigation.
edit*** addedGosar said, as TheDC had originally reported, that he wants the administration officials responsible for this to be held to the same standards as regular, Main Street Americans would be if they did it.“In Main Street America, you’d never get away with this,” Gosar said. “The people who’ve been responsible would’ve already been in jail. There is something wrong and there is something right. This crossed the threshold of what was wrong.”Gosar wouldn’t say whether he thinks criminal charges should or will be brought against administration officials for this operation, but compared the scandal to Watergate.“I think we need to find out all the facts because this is wrong,” Gosar said. “We’ve clearly gone astray. We broke into a hotel and burglarized in Watergate, and those people were held to criminal charges ?“ and they went to jail. How do you define this to the [Border Patrol Agent Brian] Terry family?”more
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