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Eric Holder Stands By Controversial ‘Nation Of Cowards’ Speech
The Daily Caller ^ | July 13 2014 | Chuck Ross

Posted on 07/13/2014 10:23:36 AM PDT by PoloSec

In a rare interview covering a wide array of topics, Attorney General Eric Holder said that he would not back away from a controversial speech he gave in 2009 in which he called the United States “a nation of cowards” on the topic of race.

“I wouldn’t walk away from that speech,” Holder told ABC News in an interview. “I think we are still a nation that is too afraid to confront racial issues,” he said, adding that Americans are still hesitant to reach out to “one another across the color line [to] talk about racial issues.”

In Feb. 2009, in his first speech after taking office, Holder told a crowd gathered at the Justice Department to celebrate Black History Month, “Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.”

Those remarks led to vigorous and divisive debate, with critics saying that Holder’s idea of openly discussing racial issues involved a one-way conversation led by the attorney general and the Obama administration.

While acknowledging that when it comes to race relations, the U.S. is “a fundamentally better place than we were 50 years ago,” Holder also called for more work to be done.

“But there’s still more we have to travel along this road so we get to the place that is consistent with our founding ideals,” he told ABC.

In the interview, Holder also reiterated claims he has made in the past that both he and President Obama are treated differently than their predecessors, partially because of their race.

“There’s a certain level of vehemence, it seems to me, that’s directed at me [and] directed at the president,” Holder told ABC, citing “people talking about taking their country back” as an example.

“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 also spoke of what he sees as unprecedented Republican opposition.

“For whatever reason, [some] Republicans decided early on that this was a president they were just simply not going to cooperate with,” Holder said.

“And over the past five-and-a-half years, we have seen demonstrations of that, where the president has reached out his hand, offered compromises that have simply not been met [in the way] they have been in the past by a Republican Party willing to do the appropriate things.”

Holder was also asked about a number of other issues, including the escalating situation in Syria and Iraq, the on-going IRS scandal, the immigration surge, and Sarah Palin’s recent call for Obama’s impeachment.

On Palin, Holder took a direct shot, saying that the “she wasn’t a particularly good vice presidential candidate.”

“She’s an even worse judge of who ought to be impeached and why.”

Holder also stood firm on his refusal to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS, which faces allegations that Lois Lerner, a former agency official, covered up its targeting of conservative non-profit groups.

Holder said that a special prosecutor is not necessary because FBI agents are “doing a good, professional job.”


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ag; doj; ericholder; holder
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To: PoloSec; All

I think that Holder’s only concern about racism is for Democrats to win votes from low-information voters, voters who have never been taught the federal government’s constituitonally limited powers, so that people like Obama can exercise constitutionally nonexistent federal government powers to try to destroy the constitutional republic.


21 posted on 07/13/2014 10:54:19 AM PDT by Amendment10
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To: PoloSec
the POS can kiss my shiny white hiney...
22 posted on 07/13/2014 11:04:19 AM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -vvv- NO Pity for the LAZY - 86-44)
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To: PoloSec

White guilt card not playing quite so well these days...


23 posted on 07/13/2014 11:08:50 AM PDT by gov_bean_ counter (Romans 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools)
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To: PoloSec
Mr. Holder...your skin color doesn't matter.

You'd still be a sniveling incompetent even if you were green. Or mauve. Or indigo.

And we're not going to excuse that incompetence on the basis of your skin color. No matter what it may be.
24 posted on 07/13/2014 11:10:07 AM PDT by Milton Miteybad (I am Jim Thompson. {Really.})
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To: PoloSec

Africans have been holding their fellow man in SLAVERY for over 1400 years, and continue to do so today.

Africans SOLD their OWN CHILDREN into SLAVERY.

The First LEGAL SLAVE OWNER in America was BLACK, and he had White slaves also.

Only the White Man has abolished Slavery anywhere in the World.

So who are the real Cowards??


25 posted on 07/13/2014 11:26:08 AM PDT by eyeamok
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To: PoloSec

Holder is just another Plantation owner.


26 posted on 07/13/2014 11:32:57 AM PDT by right way right (America has embraced the suck of Freedumb.)
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To: PoloSec

The ultimate coward is someone in a very important position who is afraid to do the right thing because it might hurt the guy who appointed him.

Holder should have been removed from office early, after he cancelled the investigation of Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson and fired the investigator. It’s been downhill since then.


27 posted on 07/13/2014 11:36:01 AM PDT by morphing libertarian ( On to impeachment and removal (IRS, Open Borders, pro-terrorist, Fast and furious, VA, Benghazi)!!!)
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To: PoloSec

What are the racial issues he speaks of? he needs to define them..


28 posted on 07/13/2014 12:23:18 PM PDT by JoanneSD
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To: PoloSec
Holder told ABC News in an interview. “I think we are still a nation that is too afraid to confront racial issues,” ...

Thanks to race baiting bigots like you, Eric.

29 posted on 07/13/2014 12:25:35 PM PDT by TigersEye ("No man left behind" means something different to 0bama.)
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To: All
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30 posted on 07/13/2014 12:29:43 PM PDT by musicman (Until I see the REAL Long Form Vault BC, he's just "PRES__ENT" Obama = Without "ID")
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To: PoloSec
Yea some use their race to get past incompetence and obtain positions they are neither qualified nor should hold. Other persons quietly work on their own merit using their own determination, their own personal efforts, Their own sacrifices, and usually their own money to get where they are. They are of different races doing so & it's not limited to any red, yellow, black or white only. They didn't fall into the "you owe me this because of my ancestors treatment" trick being used to keep persons from rising above their adversities and instead for generation upon generation staying poor on the government plantation.

You know what Eric because of persons like you, J. Jackson, and others the late MLK’s idea which I agree with in which a person should indeed be judged my content of their character and not color of their skin will not ever be a reality. You'll never allow it to be so when race gives you more privileges than others meaning extra favor due to race which you and your boss would have otherwise never had. Others will never allow it because they run special "Victim" programs and have accumulated vast fortunes playing off of keeping the race issue going.

I'm not allowed to say on documents I'm a different race or nationality to obtain more entitlement benefits I'd be tossed in jail for fraud. I'm not allowed to hold multiple identifications Including SSN's which are likely stolen and messing up someone else's credit history, I'm not allowed to work Tax Free and undercut lawfully employed taxpaying workers. This is the USA thinkers like you have created. It's cultural Marxism making one race privileged Victim over others because or race or nationality & giving preferences to same at the expense of others.

An honorable man in character far more qualified than your boss, far more experienced in government especially foreign policy, wiser than your boss, far more educated than your boss, lost a senate race to your boss in Illinois. Because he was a conservative he was labeled Uncle Tom like many others have been including that extra white USSCJ. I voted for Alan Keyes many times. I'm saddened that he did not win the presidency rather than your boss because he is a far wiser GOD Fearing man than Obama and far more HONEST.

The truth of the matter is this. Race has prevented the Constitutional checks and balances from working the past 5 years. Race has allowed many bad policies, many questionable acts go unchallenged, many agencies to now overstep their Constitutional limitations, and it has prevented even our highest law enforcement agencies from doing their sworn duty and investigate abuses in federal agencies against "We The People" and this nation.

I can assure you one POTUS even within the past 40 years was forced to resign over far less than wrongs in his administration and his own actions than what is happening today. Another POTUS more recently was impeached for a lot less as well.

31 posted on 07/13/2014 2:17:58 PM PDT by cva66snipe ((Two Choices left for U.S. One Nation Under GOD or One Nation Under Judgment? Which one say ye?))
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To: Sarah Barracuda

You know I have decided that I am not a racist, I only hate Obama’s white side, I figure it does most of the damage.


32 posted on 07/13/2014 9:46:33 PM PDT by Foundahardheadedwoman (God don't have a statute of limitations)
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To: Paladin2

Holder and Reno sent the kid back to Cuba, little late for him to change his mind. Or his ways for that matter, remember the photo with the gun in the kid’s face?


33 posted on 07/13/2014 9:50:57 PM PDT by Foundahardheadedwoman (God don't have a statute of limitations)
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