Rep. Gosar on Napolitano Resignation: Eric Holder Should 'Follow Her Lead'

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) said Friday that the resignation of President Barack Obama’s Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is not enough. He said Attorney General Eric Holder should step down too.

“One down and one to go,” Gosar said in a statement. “While Secretary Napolitano may be gone she will not be forgotten. Her inaction and incompetence on border security will continue to plague our nation for years to come.”

“‘See no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil’ is no way to govern and yet it is exactly how she and this administration operates,” he continued. “The American public deserve better.”

Gosar added that it is time for Holder to resign as well.

“What the American people need now is for Attorney General Eric Holder to follow her lead and resign,” Gosar said. “The American people have no confidence in him or his ability to do his job. My message to him would be: Better late than never. Today is a good day to go.”

Gosar has a resolution in the House calling for Holder’s resignation that a number of members of Congress have signed onto. During the previous session, 130 House members, eight U.S. Senators, and several governors from around the country called for Holder to resign over Operation Fast and Furious. 

In Fast and Furious, the Obama administration’s Department of Justice and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed 2,000 weapons bought through straw purchases to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. Holder remains in both criminal and civil contempt of Congress for his failure to cooperate with the congressional investigation into the scandal, which left hundreds of Mexican citizens and U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry dead. 

President Obama has asserted executive privilege to continue concealing thousands of pages of documents related to the scandal from Congress.

Fast and Furious is hardly Holder’s only problem moving forward, especially as House Republicans draw closer to obtaining the documents uncovered via a federal court lawsuit. The Attorney General faces multiple scandals, particularly his decision to approve secret investigations into members of the news media. Holder reportedly met with President Obama on a forthcoming report on the DOJ’s activities in regards to that issue on Friday.

The Associated Press noted how Gosar’s harsh words for Napolitano contrast sharply with those of his fellow Arizona Republican, Sen. John McCain. McCain rushed to praise Napolitano for her work, saying she “served our nation with honor.”

Napolitano’s DHS released hundreds of illegal aliens from prisons earlier this year, citing the sequester as the reason.