Politics

Allen West: Obama must remove Eric Holder, or he’s complicit with Fast and Furious cover-up

Matthew Boyle Investigative Reporter
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Florida Republican Rep. Allen West is demanding that President Barack Obama force Attorney General Eric Holder to resign.

Appearing on Nashville radio host Steve Gill’s show last week, West said Obama would be “complicit” with what he sees as Justice Department attempts to slow down and avoid a congressional investigation into Operation Fast and Furious and Project Gunrunner if he didn’t push his attorney general to resign. “The president needs to realize that Eric Holder needs to be removed from the Department of Justice,” West said after detailing why he thinks Holder should appear before an investigative committee to testify about how the DOJ has handled its response to the Operation Fast and Furious investigation. “Or else I believe President Obama is complicit and he is in approval of the actions of his attorney general.” (Hume: Obama handling of ‘Fast and Furious’ reminiscent of scandal-plagued Nixon DOJ)

Gill followed up by asking West if he thought a special prosecutor was needed to investigate Operation Fast and Furious. West said he thought so, adding that the mishandling of the operation is a part of a “trend” he sees forming at the DOJ. West said the way Holder has handled Operation Fast and Furious is reminiscent of how he handled the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation scandal.

“This is just another sad chapter in the Eric Holder book of ineptness and incompetence,” West said.

Operation Fast and Furious was a program in which the Obama administration’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and DOJ allowed guns to be taken into Mexico via “straw purchasers,” or people who were eligible to purchase guns in the U.S. but were doing so with the known intention of trafficking them into Mexico. The ultimate goal of the operation appears to have been to track the gun market of Mexico’s drug cartels through the firearms traffickers were permitted to purchase in the U.S.

LISTEN: Rep. Allen West calls on President Obama to remove Attorney General Eric Holder