Rep. Doug Collins (R., Ga.) slammed Attorney General Loretta Lynch during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday saying that he misses Lynch's predecessor, Eric Holder.
Collins said that while Holder would give the committee "answers we didn't like," Lynch was "not willing to make a concrete statement of law."
"It goes back to something that's very disturbing. I never thought I'd say this, I actually and I say this with due respect, Attorney General, I miss Eric Holder, because at least when he came here he gave us answers we didn't like," Collins said. "But I've spent the last four hours listening to basically the Attorney General of the United States not willing to make a concrete statement of law, to not be willing to say that when given the opportunity about a colleague of mine who made the decision in this case."
The interesting exchange between Lynch and Collins was not over there.
"Do you believe that there is such a thing as a strict liability offense?" Collins asked.
"Depending upon the statute, in environmental matters for example," Lynch said.
"No, Ma'am. We went to law school. Is there strict liabilty offenses or not?" Collins said.
"In OSHA for example there are. In some environmental cases there are," Lynch said.
Collins kept demanding a straight yes or no answer from Lynch. Lynch repeatedly replied that she had given Collins two examples.
"The issue that we have here is there's no ownership at DOJ," Collins said. "It's no wonder the optics are so bad."
"And as also a member of the military who just got through with my drill duty this weekend, you have basically, to me, offended every military member here who handles classified information," Collins said. "Who does so with their training and you've basically said, ‘well, it depends on this.’"