Former U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Joe diGenova says Attorney General Eric Holder's recent contention that there is "racial animus" in much of the opposition to President Barack Obama and himself are "beneath his office" and the attorney general "has become unhinged."
Monday morning on WMAL in Washington, D.C., diGenova appeared with co-host Brian Wilson and me on "Mornings on the Mall." I played audio from the ABC News interview this weekend of Holder claiming, "There's a certain level of vehemence, it seems to me that is directed at me, directed at the president. People talk about taking their country back. I can't look into peoples' hearts, look into peoples' minds, but it seems to me that this president has been treated differently than others."
DiGenova responded with a blistering takedown of Holder:
His comments are beneath his office. Eric Holder has become unhinged. These comments are stupid, they're silly, they're churlish, they're childish, they're sophomoric. This is faculty lounge crap. The president of the United States and the attorney general are both black. Is it not surprising to them that this happened in the United States of America? That the president, a black president, has been elected twice by the American people? That the attorney general has been around for two terms?
This is not a racist country.
What is going on here is because of the incompetence of this administration and particularly this president (and may I say, regrettably, the attorney general himself) they have politicized every aspect of government to the core. And when people react to it legitimately, claiming constitutional violations the attorney general says something like this?
I mean what he is doing is demonstrating why he should not be the attorney general any longer. This is an embarrassment. You wouldn't hear any other Attorney General talk like this. White, Black, Green, Yellow, Chinese, Hispanic, nobody would talk like this. This is basically stupid. I mean its mind-boggling that the Attorney General could sit there with a major news network, being interviewed by a black correspondent by the way who's a wonderful reporter, and say things like this.
I mean when you listen to his voice, you hear this kind of trembling doubt in his own mind about whether or not he should say it, and yet he has no governance, he says it anyway.
This really is stupid stuff
Later in the interview, when the subject of the IRS scandal and calls for impeachment of President Obama was raised, diGenova came out just as vehemently against the idea of the House impeaching the President.
"Just leave him alone, let him suffer in his own juices," diGenova said. "Sarah Palin is out of her mind. It may make her feel good, but we're not going to impeach the president and we don't want to. We want him left around as an issue."