On this weekend’s broadcast of the syndicated public affairs program “Inside Washington,” Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer took on his co-panelists, NPR’s Nina Totenberg and fellow Washington Post columnist Colby King.
Both Totenberg and King, who happen to be liberal detractors of House oversight Chairman Darrell Issa’s investigation into Attorney General Eric Holder and his Justice Department’s handling of the Fast and Furious scandal, suggested that the whole situation was nothing more than an effort by an ambitious Issa to go fishing for dirt on the Obama administration.
Krauthammer responded by explaining that the topic had been ignored up until now, adding that Holder had made a false statement to Congress.
“I’ve got to respond to this idea that they are just going fishing for documents,” Krauthammer said. “What’s left out of this elucidation of the facts — and it is interesting that this show and mainstream media have to explain everything from day one because it’s almost never talked about — it has been out there for over a year and half. The problem is February of last year, the department, answering an inquiry by the Congress, issued a false statement. It said there was no gunrunning. It later had to retract it.”
The Washington Post columnist explained it was important to investigate and see why these false statements were made and potentially covered up.
“What they are trying to find out are the documents after that statement was made and who made it,” Krauthammer continued. “Secondly, the attorney general testified in May 2011 that he had only heard about the entire affair, the entire operation, ‘a few weeks ago,’ quote, unquote. He later had to admit because documents were discovered from a year earlier that he knew about and was informed about it. So there are two major statements Holder had made, that the DOJ had made that were untrue and later were undone. Those are the documents that are being requested — what happened, how were the false statements made, who made them and how work they are covered up and retracted?”
Kruathammer’s other co-panelist, Politico senior reporter Lois Romano, who appeared to be playing the role of neutral arbiter, also dismissed the significance of the investigation because she said she thought there were more important things to be examined. However, Krauthammer argued that politics was not Issa’s primary driver.
“Whether or not it has an effect on the election, there is a dead border agent who died as a result of this operation, and their parents want to know what happened and they deserve an answer,” Krauthammer declared.
