House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Peter King told The Daily Caller on Monday that Attorney General Eric Holder pushing to “brainwash” the American people to oppose firearm ownership wasn’t a smart thing for him to say.
“Well, obviously, [it was the] wrong choice of words,” King told TheDC when asked about Holder’s controversial remarks. “One of his [Holder’s] many flaws.”
Over the weekend, Breitbart.com discovered a 1995 CSPAN video in which Holder — then the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia — advocated using anti-smoking campaigns as a model for an anti-gun campaign.
“What we need to do is change the way in which people think about guns, especially young people, and make it something that’s not cool, that it’s not acceptable, it’s not hip to carry a gun anymore, in the way in which we’ve changed our attitudes about cigarettes,” Holder said.
Holder explained that he wanted to use influential figures like then-Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, as well as widely watched TV shows like “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” and “Martin,” to forward his anti-gun campaign. He sought to push that same agenda through public schools as well, “every day, every school, at every level.”
Holder said these resources would be the driving force behind a campaign to “really brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way.”
The revelation that Holder wanted to “brainwash” people into being “anti-gun” may be supported by what Congress and the American people have learned about Operation Fast and Furious.
As a result of the ill-fated Fast and Furious — during which the Obama administration’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, in a program overseen by Holder’s Department of Justice, sent about 2,000 guns south to Mexican drug cartels — at least 300 Mexican citizens were murdered, as was Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. Allegations have also surfaced that Fast and Furious weapons were used to murder Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata.
The Obama administration orchestrated these weapons sales via “straw purchasers” who bought guns in the United States with the intention of illegally trafficking them somewhere else.
Since the program has come under congressional scrutiny, 123 members of the House have called on Holder to resign, signed an official resolution of “no confidence,” or both. The latest House member to call for Holder’s resignation was Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Bill Shuster, whose spokesman told TheDC on Monday that he thinks Holder needs to resign.
Three U.S. senators, two sitting governors and all GOP presidential candidates have also called for Holder’s resignation.
King isn’t one of the members who has called for Holder to resign over Fast and Furious — even though he did demand President Barack Obama’s top cop step down during the controversy over Khalid Sheikh Mohammed — and he’s not joining the calls. “I did last year, but I’m not [joining this call],” King said when TheDC asked if he thinks Holder should resign. Pressed further on whether he thinks Holder should resign over Fast and Furious, King said he’ll “leave that to the president now.”
“Obviously, he did a very poor job, but I’m not about to say he should resign right now,” King said, adding that, “I probably would though if I were in that position.”