Sources have confirmed to The Daily Caller that Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday scolded an intern from House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy’s office for taking notes during a lecture he gave on Capitol Hill.
According to one intern who was present, Holder had just started speaking when he noticed a male intern who was standing on the side of the packed room beginning to take notes with a pen and paper.
“Holder is talking and then he sees some kid taking notes,” the intern, who asked to remain anonymous to protect his boss, said in a phone interview. “He [Holder] asks, ‘Oh, why are you taking notes? Are you from the Washington Post?’”
“He [the intern Holder scolded] is like, ‘no,’” the intern who spoke with TheDC recalls.
“Then, he [Holder] is like, ‘what office do you work in?’” he continued. “And, the kid is like, ‘oh Kevin McCarthy.’”
He said, next, Holder responded, “’Oh, you’re one of those guys,’ kind of like jokingly but meaning he was a Republican.”
Holder’s remarks apparently had an effect on the room, the intern who spoke with TheDC said. ““Yeah, I was scared to take notes then,” he told TheDC. “No one else whipped out pens and paper to take notes.”
He said he thought Holder may have been “trying to be funny,” but it was pretty clear to him that Holder scared everyone there.
“I looked around and there was not one other person [taking notes] after that,” the intern said. “I was upset because I forgot my pen and paper, but after that I was like ‘thank God.’”
In the end, the scolded McCarthy intern may have had the last laugh.
After Holder gave his speech, he took questions. The first items up, according to TheDC’s source, were voter ID and prison issues.
“Then, the last question, he went to the kid he yelled at from McCarthy’s office and that kid asked about Fast and Furious,” he said.
Holder is in civil and criminal contempt of Congress for failing to comply with the congressional investigation into Operation Fast and Furious. Eight senators, 130 congressmen, two governors and Mitt Romney have all demanded Holder’s resignation over the gunrunning program.
Another source with direct knowledge of the situation that occurred in the room confirmed the details of the intern’s account for The Daily Caller. “Did the Attorney General of the United States of America scold an intern for taking notes at a lecture? Yes.”
Holder’s lecture was the latest installment in a program for Capitol Hill interns featuring different daily speakers throughout the summer months.
The intern lecture was packed, sources told TheDC and was standing room only, with a couple hundred people in attendance. The talk began at 11 a.m. and was held in room 325 of the Senate Russell Office Building.
It was not open to the general public or the press – only congressional interns were allowed. “They checked our IDs to make sure we were all interns,” the intern who spoke with TheDC said.
Holder spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler didn’t respond to TheDC’s request for comment and McCarthy’s office wouldn’t comment on the record.