BALTIMORE, Md. — California Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher told The Daily Caller he thinks Attorney General Eric Holder should resign over Operation Fast and Furious during a Friday interview at the House Republican retreat at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront hotel.
Rohrabacher joins 62 of his House colleagues, two U.S. senators, two sitting governors and every major Republican presidential candidate in demanding that Holder be removed from office.
Eighty-nine congressmen have signed onto a House resolution of “no confidence” in Holder. Between the two lists, which don’t perfectly overlap, 101 members of the House have “no confidence” in Holder, believe he should resign, or both.
“Absolutely I do,” Rohrabacher said when TheDC asked if he thinks Holder should resign. “This is a screw-up where we’ve got dead bodies on the ground, and they’re just shrugging their shoulders as if they can walk away from it? No, Holder should resign. He’s shown himself, on this and a number of various issues as not someone who is thoughtful enough to hold that job.”
Rohrabacher added that Holder “seems arrogant and political,” two qualities that aren’t acceptable for someone who is supposed to enforce the nation’s laws.
Rohrabacher’s call for Holder’s resignation comes just as a Justice Department official, for the first time in the congressional Fast and Furious investigation, announced he would be invoking his Fifth Amendment rights by refusing to testify, on the grounds that he’s afraid of admitting he committed a crime during his involvement in the program.
That official is Patrick Cunningham, who has been the chief of the criminal division of the Arizona U.S. Attorney’s office in Phoenix for the past two years. In subpoenaing Cunningham, oversight committee Chairman Darrell Issa said he had information indicating Cunningham helped approve gun-walking as an acceptable tactic under the Obama administration’s DOJ.
Cunningham is resigning on Jan. 27 to take a job in the private sector. It’s unclear if his resignation has anything to do with Fast and Furious. (READ MORE: DOJ official plans to plead Fifth, refuse to testify on Fast and Furious)
Fast and Furious was a program of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, overseen by Holder’s DOJ. It sent thousands of weapons to Mexican drug cartels via straw purchasers — people who legally purchased guns in the United States with the known intention of illegally trafficking them somewhere else.
At least 300 people in Mexico were killed with Fast and Furious weapons, as was Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. The identities of the Mexican victims are unknown. Allegations have surfaced that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata was also killed with Fast and Furious weapons.