Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn doubled down on his call for Attorney General Eric Holder to resign over his reaction to Operation Fast and Furious and national security intelligence leaks, and for pushing a partisan agenda through the Justice Department.
On Wednesday, Cornyn told conservative radio host Laura Ingraham that Holder isn’t too bright, and the senator also has an op-ed on Fox News reiterating his Tuesday call for the nation’s top law enforcement official to step down.
When Ingraham asked Cornyn if he thought Holder was “smart,” Cornyn replied, “I have not been impressed with his intelligence.”
When Ingraham asked if Holder’s current struggles can be chalked up to “incompetence,” Cornyn said, “It’s corruption, in the sense that he’s pursuing a political agenda and not being loyal to his oath to defend and uphold the laws of the United States.”
Ingraham also asked Cornyn if the calls for Holder’s resignation could transcend party lines, and if he thinks “someone like [California Democrat] Sen. [Dianne] Feinstein” would join Cornyn’s call for the attorney general to step aside.
“Some things should transcend politics and should transcend party, and this is one of them,” Cornyn said, adding that Holder’s behavior regarding national security intelligence leaks shouldn’t be partisan either.
“This is not a partisan matter,” Cornyn said of the leaks. “This is a matter of protecting some of our most classified and sensitive national security secrets. It’s important that we come together and do that.”
Feinstein spokesman Brian Weiss didn’t immediately answer when The Daily Caller asked if the Democratic senator backs the call for Holder’s resignation.
In his Fox News op-ed, Cornyn pointed out how he had opposed Holder’s confirmation as attorney general in 2009 because he “has a long history of such behavior.”
“While serving as deputy attorney general under President Clinton, he aggressively pushed his Justice Department colleagues to support clemency for 16 Puerto Rican terrorists, despite strong objections from the FBI and other prominent law-enforcement authorities,” Cornyn wrote. “Then, in the final weeks of the Clinton administration, he recommended pardoning the fugitive commodities trader Marc Rich, whose wife was a major Democratic donor.”
