Well, if there’s one candidate who could get the conservative base in the Republican Party to unite, even those who don’t like Donald Trump, it’s former Attorney General Eric Holder. Apparently, the former top law enforcement official is considering a 2020 run against Trump (via The Hill):
Former Attorney General Eric Holder is poised to take a more active role in opposing President Trump, telling Yahoo News in an interview published Tuesday that "now is the time to be more visible" — including weighting a 2020 presidential bid.
“Up to now, I have been more behind-the-scenes,” said Holder, who served for six years in the Obama administration. “But that’s about to change. I have a certain status as the former attorney general. A certain familiarity as the first African-American attorney general."
"There’s a justified perception that I’m close to President Obama. So I want to use whatever skills I have, whatever notoriety I have, to be effective in opposing things that are, at the end of the day, just bad for the country."
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In the first months of Trump's presidency, Holder has been serving as outside counsel to the California state legislature, where he has helped Democrats devise a legal strategy for hampering the president's policies.
As Katie has covered extensively, Holder was put in the hot seat over the Fast and Furious scandal that embroiled the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives for a botched gunwalking operation against Mexican drug cartels. The ATF allowed over 2,500 AK-47s and other weapons to be purchased by the cartels, which were then used in crimes. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed by one of the guns, which weren’t tracked. The Mexican government was also kept in the dark about the operation by the Obama administration.
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Congress and the Obama White House ended up in a tug of war over documents relating to the operation, resulting in the administration invoking executive privilege and Holder being held in contempt. So, there’s political baggage, with the addition that Mr. Holder has never held public office.
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