Democratic National Committee chairwoman and Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz supports Attorney General Eric Holder “100 percent,” her spokesman said Wednesday, despite a chorus of Republicans calling for Holder’s resignation in the wake of Operation Fast and Furious.
A total of 121 House Republicans, three GOP senators, two sitting governors and every Republican presidential candidate have said they favor Holder’s ouster over the scandal. But on Monday, a spokesperson for Olahoma Democratic Rep. Dan Boren said he has “no comment” on whether he still has confidence in Holder after Fast and Furious.
For several days, DNC communications director Brad Woodhouse ignored The Daily Caller’s request for comment on Wasserman Schultz’s position. On Wednesday TheDC gave Woodhouse a deadline for an answer.
Instead of answering the question, Woodhouse leaked TheDC’s emailed requests to BuzzFeed editor Ben Smith and Huffington Post media reporter Michael Calderone.
“Complete and unwavering — 100 percent,” Woodhouse said of his boss’s support for Holder. “We ignore dozens of media inquiries all the time for a host of reasons. It doesn’t mean an outlet can make up our position for their own ends or try to blackmail us into an answer.”
The DNC accused TheDC of “blackmail” for saying that if Woodhouse did not answer the question by 10 a.m. Thursday, it would report that Wasserman Schultz had not come out in support of Holder.
“So this is the way the Daily Caller does business — if you don’t respond to their slanted, agenda-filled inquiry, they threaten you with blackmail and with 100 percent misrepresenting your position,” Woodhouse wrote to Smith. (RELATED: Full coverage of Operation Fast and Furious)
It’s unclear why Woodhouse complained to Smith and Calderone instead of answering TheDC’s question, which he eventually answered anyway. It’s also unclear how many other publications received forwarded copies, from Woodhouse, of TheDC’s emailed requests.
Woodhouse did not respond to a follow-up question about whether he believes it’s acceptable for public relations professionals to forward reporters’ emails to other journalists.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told TheDC that the congresswoman still has confidence in Holder as attorney general.