On Tuesday, October 18th, President Obama told ABC News’ Jake Tapper that those who were responsible for Fast and Furious “will be held accountable.” Obama Added: “It’s very upsetting to me to think that somebody showed such bad judgment that they would allow something like that to happen. And we will find out who and what happened in this situation and make sure it gets corrected.”
However, this statement only comes after months of obfuscation by Obama, where both he and Attorney General Eric Holder have basically tried to convince us they didn’t know anything about Fast and Furious until CBS News started reporting on it. Thus the House members investigating Fast and Furious are asking Obama to put his money where his mouth is on this one.
For example, Congressmen Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and Trey Gowdy (R-SC) sent a letter to Obama asking him to clarify his own knowledge of Fast and Furious . They want to know when the President learned about the operation and when he learned about the investigation into the operation. Chaffetz and Gowdy also asked Obama to lean a bit on Holder, to ensure that the Attorney General appears before Congress to give further testimony on Fast and Furious. Thus, after referencing the apparent timeline conflict we’ve all detected in Holder’s Fast and Furious alibi, Congressman Chaffetz wrote: “We’re looking for answers. I hope Mr. Holder will come before the Congress and clear up this glaring discrepancy. We have a number of questions for Mr. Holder to answer.”
(Don’t you know the words – “we have a number of questions for Mr. Holder to answer” – reverberate in the AG’s mind as he tries to sleep at night?)
Additionally, Congressman Pat Meehan (R-PA), a former U.S. Attorney, has sent a letter directly to Holder, in which he writes: “I urge you to appear because in this serious and tragic case, we do owe it to the American people to conduct a thorough investigation and conduct responsible, proper oversight.” The bottom line: pressure is being applied to both Obama and Holder to come clean on this operation. To date, their stories are not believable, and Obama’s pledge to discover who was behind Fast and Furious and hold them “accountable” is simply not trustworthy.
Chaffetz, Gowdy, and Meehan are but three of the growing number of House members who are sick and tired of getting the run around on this operation. And as the chorus of Congressional voices demanding answers expands, Obama and Holder have fewer and fewer places left to hide.
Obama promised that those responsible for Fast and Furious would be held accountable. We’re waiting for that to happen and we won’t be satisfied until it does.