Boehner Charges Ahead on Contempt Resolution for Holder
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Mark Wilson/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — After a last-ditch appeal by the White House fell flat Tuesday, House Speaker John Boehner told reporters this morning that he will proceed on a vote Thursday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for withholding certain documents related to the Fast and Furious gun-walking operation.
“The United States government ran a gunrunning operation that has resulted in hundreds of deaths,” Boehner, R-Ohio, said. “Brian Terry’s family has a right to know what happened. The American people have a right to know what happened and we’re going to proceed.”
The contempt resolution passed out of committee strictly down party lines and the debate Thursday promises to be a bitter dispute as well. Propounding the partisanship is the National Rifle Association, which announced last week it “will consider this vote in our future candidate evaluations.” While that warning could persuade some Democrats to vote with the GOP, Boehner said the NRA has “no role” in the contempt vote as far as he’s concerned, but rather the unprecedented move “is about getting to the truth.”
“This vote was scheduled last week and … we’d really rather not be there,” he said. “We’d really rather have the attorney general and the president work with us to get to the bottom of a very serious issue.”
Later, the House Committee on Rules met to consider the contempt resolution “for refusal to comply with a subpoena duly issued by the committee on Oversight and Government Reform.”
“Unfortunately, they’re not willing to show the American people the truth about what happened,” he said. “It’s an unfortunate place where we are but our members raise their right hand and swear to uphold the Constitution of the United States and the laws of the United States and we’re going to do our job.”
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