Exclusive – Ted Cruz: 'Good News' Holder Is Gone

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) praised the resignation of Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday in a statement provided exclusively to Breitbart News.

“It is good news that Eric Holder has announced his resignation,” Cruz said, adding:

Sadly, he has proven to be the most partisan attorney general in our history, repeatedly defying and refusing to enforce the law. It did not have to be this way, but Holder’s leadership has grievously undermined the Department of Justice’s long bipartisan tradition of independence and fidelity to law.

Cruz, who called for Holder’s resignation in an interview at CPAC as he campaigned for U.S. Senate in 2012, said he pushed for Holder’s impeachment for “partisan dereliction of duty” regarding his handling of the IRS scandal.

“Holder had an opportunity to fairly investigate the IRS’s illegal targeting of citizen groups. Rather than do so, he entrusted the investigation to a major Democratic donor and brazenly refused to appoint a special prosecutor,” Cruz said. Elaborating, he stated:

For two years now, the Department has obstructed justice and impeded any fair investigation of the IRS’s abuse of power; in response to Holder’s partisan dereliction of duty, I publicly called for his impeachment. To this day, no one has been yet held accountable for the IRS scandal, and it is incumbent upon the next attorney general to uphold the law without regard to partisan ideology.

Cruz said the Senate should wait until the next Congress to confirm Holder’s replacement and not do so during the lame duck session after the November midterm elections.

“To ensure that justice is served and that the Attorney General is not simply replaced with another extreme partisan who will likewise disregard the law, the Senate should wait until the new Congress is sworn in before confirming the next attorney general,” Cruz said. “Allowing Democratic senators, many of whom will likely have just been defeated at the polls, to confirm Holder’s successor would be an abuse of power that should not be countenanced.”