House Oversight Committee chairman Rep. Darrel Issa (R-CA) argued that the timing of Attorney General Eric Holder’s resignation was “a political event like so many things the Attorney General has done” on Thursday’s broadcast of “The Kelly File” on the Fox News Channel.
“Announcing before the election that he’s turning back, but, in fact no chance he’ll be replaced prior to the election is a political event like so many things the attorney general has done. He could have waited until the day after the election. Very clearly he wanted to get out in front of it before the election,” he said.
He added, “This Attorney General has chosen to politicize his office. He’s selectively gone after an awful lot of lawful citizens, and he’s just simply not done his job well. Now, having said that, I’m sure in his mind he’s done the best he could. He certainly has served his president in the way his president wants to be served. But to a certain extent, Megyn, that’s part of the problem is that if the president’s satisfied with [an] Attorney General whose own Inspector General had to testify only a week ago before Congress to tell us that he had been obstructed time and time again from doing his job, his independent job in the case of overseeing parts of the Justice Department, then I think the president’s listening to himself and not listening to the Inspector General that was appointed and confirmed by the Senate to be the watchdog there in Justice.”
Issa vowed that the House would continue with its investigation into the “lie and cover-up” regarding the Fast and Furious scandal, and predicted there was “very little chance” that “a lightning rod like Eric Holder” would be confirmed to replace Holder.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett