Republicans want heads to roll over the Internal Revenue Service controversy. If that doesn’t happen, apparently, Eric Holder is to blame.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz on Thursday said the U.S. attorney general deserves to be impeached for not fully investigating the IRS, which acknowledged last year that agents improperly targeted tea party groups for extra scrutiny.
“Among other things, Congress should impeach Eric Holder because Eric Holder is defying Congress and defying rule of law,” Cruz said on Sean Hannity’s radio show.
“Eric Holder has been the most partisan attorney general the U.S. has ever had,” he added.
Holder is used to the name-calling by now. The attorney general strayed from his prepared remarks at the National Action Network convention Wednesday to bash the way congressional Republicans treated him, calling it “ugly and divisive.”
In 2012, House Republicans held Holder in contempt of Congress over the botched gun-running operation “Fast and Furious.” Democrats stormed off the House floor in protest and condemned the move as political theater.
Now, the former IRS official embroiled in the agency’s drama may see a similar fate.
The House Oversight Committee on Thursday green-lit a resolution to hold Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer their questions. Republicans on the committee, led by Republican Chairman Darrell Issa, charge that Lerner waived her right against pleading the Fifth Amendment during the two times she appeared before congressional panels.
One day earlier, a separate House committee voted to refer Lerner to the DOJ to pursue possible criminal charges. The Justice Department is already investigating both Lerner and the agency, but their efforts have not gone far enough, Cruz said Thursday.
“In the eight months that have transpired, not a single person has been indicted. In the eight months that have transpired, most of the victims of wrongful targeting haven’t even been interviewed,” he said.
Impeachment threats are nothing new for Holder. Last year a group of 20 Republicans wanted the attorney general ousted for “systematically deceiving” Congress and “destroying” the DOJ’s credibility. Another Republican said if President Obama didn’t fire his attorney general, Congress would “start the rattles of impeachment on Eric Holder.”
Amanda Sakuma