Attorney General Eric Holder insisted Thursday during a House Judiciary Committee hearing that he does not plan to step down in the wake of the Operation Fast and Furious scandal.
“I have no intention of resigning,” Holder said in response to a question from Arizona Republican Rep. Ben Quayle. “I’m the attorney general who put an end to the tactics of Fast and Furious.”
Holder said he doesn’t think anyone else from the Justice Department or the Obama administration should resign either. “On the basis of the information that I now have, no,” Holder said in response to question from the committee’s chairman, Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith.
Neither Smith nor Quayle has called for Holder’s resignation, but 53 of their House colleagues have. Two U.S. senators, four presidential candidates and two sitting governors have also said Holder should step down.
The attorney general has balked at the growing clamor, and accused The Daily Caller of orchestrating it. “You guys need to — you need to stop this,” Holder said a little over a week ago at a White House event when TheDC asked him to respond to the congressional calls for his resignation. “It’s not an organic thing that’s just happening. You guys are behind it.”