Congressman Frank Wolf (R-Va.) has had enough of Attorney General Eric Holder and his ‘failures.’
The Northern Virginia congressman, who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee that has oversight of the Department of Justice, unexpectedly lashed out at the Attorney General during a hearing on the department’s budget, calling him a failure and attempting to run him out of the meeting.
“Forget it. Forget it. Forget it. Forget it. Forget it,” Wolf told Holder after the Attorney General wouldn’t agree to a deadline for responding to 91 questions that Wolf prepared for him on the department’s budget.
The Congressman then explained that he was allowing Holder to submit these questions in writing, and not make him respond on the spot as he had originally intended to, so the Attorney General could get to a meeting Thursday afternoon about the ongoing Boston Marathon bombing investigation.
Holder decided he didn’t want to take up Wolf on his offer, however, resulting in an interesting tête-à-tête between the two in the committee room before Wolf abruptly adjourned the hearing.
“Frankly, I’m not going to pay any attention to you because your positions with regard to these budget….You come up here,” Wolf said. “You were initially going to stay for the whole time. If you’re not going to answer these questions, then we’re not going to pay any attention to you. Hearing adjourned.”
“If you want me to stay, I’ll stay. I will stay,” Holder responded. “That meeting will just have to wait. If you want to ask some more questions, let’s go. It is an important meeting, but I’m making a determination, if you want me to stay, I’ll stay,” he added.
Refusing to leave, Holder told Wolf he was being “unfair” in his harsh assessment of Holder’s performance as Attorney General.
“You said some things that I think are a little unfair with regard to the civil rights division,” Holder told Wolf. “A lot of what the inspector general found in the civil rights division preceded my time as attorney general. We have taken steps to try to deal with the issues that were identified there.”
“I’m proud of what we’ve done across the board at the Justice Department in the last four and a half years,” he continued. “I’m proud of what I’ve done as attorney general. ”
Wolf still didn’t seem convinced.
You can watch Wolf grill the attorney general below:
