WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder said Sunday that racial animosity is driving some of the political opposition against him and President Obama.
“There’s a certain level of vehemence, it seems to me, that’s directed at me [and] directed at the president,” Holder told ABC News. “You know, people talking about taking their country back . . . There’s a certain racial component to this for some people. I don’t think this is the thing that is a main driver, but for some there’s a racial animus.”
Holder is America’s first black attorney general serving under the nation’s first black president.
In an interview for ABC’s “This Week,” Holder also took aim at one of the administration’s sharpest critics, Sarah Palin. The former GOP vice presidential candidate and tea party darling recently called for Obama’s impeachment.
“She wasn’t a particularly good vice presidential candidate,” Holder said. “She’s an even worse judge of who ought to be impeached and why.”
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has brushed off Palin’s assessment. Instead, he’s seeking to sue Obama, alleging that the president overstepped his authority with executive actions to delay parts of the Affordable Care Act.
On Sunday, House Judiciary Committee Chair Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) also rejected Palin’s call: “The Constitution is very clear as to what constitutes grounds for impeachment of the president of the United States,” he said. “He has not committed the kind of criminal acts that call for that.”
Holder, who has been with Obama since his first term, has taken heat for the “Fast and Furious” program — in which federal officials let hundreds of high-powered weapons “walk” into Mexico, where they’ve turned up at multiple crime scenes — spying on press phone calls and most recently his non-prosecution of Lois Lerner, the former IRS official who has refused to testify before Congress on targeting of conservative groups.
Holder first made waves in 2009 when he said the United States was a “nation of cowards” when it came to race. He didn’t back away from those comments Sunday. “I think we are still a nation that is too afraid to confront racial issues,” he said.
Holder also called out Republican attempts to enact voter ID laws in various states as “political efforts” to suppress Democratic votes.
“Who is disproportionately impacted by them?” Holder said. “Young people, African-Americans, Hispanics, older people, people who, for whatever reason, aren’t necessarily supportive of the Republican Party.”