Embattled Attorney General Eric Holder today demanded The Daily Caller stop publishing articles about the growing calls in Congress for his resignation because of the failed Operation Fast and Furious gun-walking program.
As Holder’s aide was escorting the attorney general offstage following his remarks Tuesday afternoon at the White House, a Daily Caller reporter introduced himself and shook Holder’s hand. The reporter asked him for a response to the growing chorus of federal legislators demanding his resignation.
Holder stepped towards the exit, then turned around, stepped back toward the reporter, and sternly said, “You guys need to — you need to stop this. It’s not an organic thing that’s just happening. You guys are behind it.”
Holder then walked offstage without answering TheDC’s request for comment about calls for his resignation.
Watch:
[dcvideo videoid=”24779540″ name=”ndnPlayer_24779540″ type=”ndn” /]—
Fast and Furious was a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives program, overseen by the Justice Department, which facilitated the sale of thousands of weapons to Mexican drug cartels via straw purchasers. Straw purchasers are people who can legally purchase guns in the United States but do so with the intention of illegally trafficking them into Mexico.
At least 300 people in Mexico were killed with Fast and Furious weapons, as was Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.
Currently 52 members of Congress, three presidential candidates and two sitting Governors have called for Holder’s immediate resignation. Many of those lawmakers and political figures have issued statements exclusively to The Daily Caller in which they have called for Holder to step down. This is chiefly because TheDC is the most prominent mainstream media outlet covering this burgeoning international scandal. (RELATED: Members of Congress calling for Holder’s immediate resignation)
Holder is the nation’s leading law enforcement official and reports directly to President Barack Obama.
This was not the first time Holder has criticized The Daily Caller’s coverage of Operation Fast and Furious. In his first-ever unsolicited letter to Congress about the gun-walking operation on October 7, Holder criticized Rep. Paul Gosar for comments he made exclusively to TheDC. Gosar had said the Obama administration officials responsible for Fast and Furious were equivalent to “accessories to murder.”
Holder was the primary speaker at a White House event Tuesday intended to publicize a new national campaign stigmatizing the purchase of counterfeit consumer goods including clothing, medicines, software, songs and movies.
One of the ads unveiled during the event asked consumers not to buy such products because the money would help illegal gunrunners.
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