Americans for Limited Government president Bill Wilson told The Daily Caller that Attorney General Eric Holder’s loss of control on Tuesday is a sign that he’s “got something to hide and he’s scared.”
Holder lost control of his demeanor on Tuesday at the White House when TheDC asked him to respond to the surge in calls for his resignation over Operation Fast and Furious. “You guys need to — you need to stop this,” Holder said. “It’s not an organic thing that’s just happening. You guys are behind it.”
Fast and Furious was a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives program, overseen by the Justice Department, which facilitated the sale of thousands of weapons to Mexican drug cartels via straw purchasers. Straw purchasers are people who can legally purchase guns in the United States but do so with the intention of illegally trafficking them into Mexico.
At least 300 people in Mexico were killed with Fast and Furious weapons, as was Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.
Since most of the facts have come out, 52 congressmen, two senators, three presidential candidates and two sitting governors have demanded that Holder resign immediately over the scandal.
Wilson said Holder’s loss of self-control might indicate that’s he’s dangerously unstable, something that’s not a positive quality for the nation’s highest-ranking law enforcement official to exhibit publicly.
“Reading the political tea leaves, if someone in his position cannot take a legitimate question from a legitimate media outlet and deal with it honestly and effectively or use one of the hundred ways that politicians use to dodge questions, it tells me he’s not in control of his emotions on this one,” Wilson said. “That’s not good for the country. When this guy loses control, people end up dying. That’s not a good thing.” (RELATED: Holder lashes out at The Daily Caller, while refusing to address resignation calls)
Wilson also thinks Holder should resign. “He’s unfit to be a beat cop, let alone the attorney general of the United States,” he said in a phone interview. “It is clear from everything that was put out on the record that he was fully aware of Fast and Furious, they broke rules and laws in doing it, people got killed and now he’s trying to shirk responsibility by stonewalling it and hiding from it.”
Joe Connor, whose father was murdered by Puerto Rican terrorists that Holder helped pardon during the Clinton administration, said he thinks Holder is wrong about calls for his resignation. Connor launched a grassroots effort to get voters nationwide to call their congressmen and senators and ask them to call for Holder’s resignation.
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s very organic,” Connor said. “It came from regular people like me. We’re calling for his removal and we’re as organic as you can get.”
“This is just regular people, and not just me — I’ve seen petitions out from people and lots of people in this country have taken up this fight to get this guy removed,” Connor added. “And, I don’t believe The Daily Caller is initiating it — I believe The Daily Caller is reporting on it. And, it’s a story worth telling when the American people do exactly what the founders expected us to do as people: to stand up and fight oppressive government.”
Terry family friend Lana Domino said she’s been getting people she knows around the country to call their congressmen and senators too. From her Facebook and email lists, she’s asking voters to call their congressmen and senators. “Oh, definitely,” she said. “And, there’s more than just my pages.”
“I write letters to Congress and then I have other people who write letters to Congress,” Domino said. “The more exposure we get from the news, more Americans are becoming aware of what’s going on.”
Similar to how Holder didn’t apologize to slain Border Patrol agent Brian Terry’s family until Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn called him out about it — and then leaked the letter to the media before Terry’s mother read it — Holder has “never” apologized to Connor for getting the terrorists responsible for his father’s murder out of prison.
Connor said it appears that Holder is “starting to feel the pressure,” adding that this is a first for Holder. “He’s always kept his cool, even under absurdity,” Connor said.
“He’s starting to understand that there is a movement against him, that people are seeing through him and he’s being exposed,” Connor said. “You know, the old saying, the truth hurts.”
“It almost reminded me of a football coach who got beat in a bad game and got a tough question from the press,” Connor added. “Except, this guy is an appointed official and a cabinet member who is lashing out against the citizenry he’s expected to protect. To lash out against the people who hire you, that’s a really bad thing to do.”
Wilson thinks the reason Democrats aren’t defending Holder and are just remaining silent is because the facts are stacked against the attorney general.
“[The Democrats] are silent because — you’ve seen the facts, you know the facts better than I do — and the email traffic and everything that’s on the record, it’s clear as glass what went on here,” Wilson said. “It’s also clear that it was done for the political motive of building up an anti-gun or a pro gun control movement. So, he used the office of the AG for political purposes and people got killed, who wants to get close to that?”
Wilson added that President Barack Obama’s re-election efforts, especially his attempts to reach Hispanic voters, may be hampered by Fast and Furious.
“The Obama team has real problems in the Hispanic community,” Wilson said. “In this regard, that we sent down guns to fuel the violence down there, and basically treated the people in Mexico with about as much disrespect as you could, that could be used against him in a very effective way in the Latin community.”