Former AG Holder is reportedly considering a presidential bid; he acknowledges 'more visible' role
Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Gregory Reed / Shutterstock.com
Former Attorney General Eric Holder says he never envisioned himself as an anti-Trump crusader.
The Covington & Burling partner tells Yahoo News he had planned to “walk off the field” if, as expected, Hillary Clinton won the 2016 presidential election.
“But it became clear relatively soon—and certainly sooner than I expected —that I had to get back on the field and be in effective opposition,” Holder says.
As Holder steps up his political involvement, he is considering a presidential run in 2020, according to three anonymous sources who spoke with Yahoo News.
“Rarely mentioned as a 2020 contender and controversial while in office,” the article reports, “Holder would enter any Democratic primary contest as a long shot. Even his engagement with the resistance is something of a surprise. For most of his career, Holder was seen as a conventional, mild-mannered figure.
“But he grew more pugnacious as attorney general, in part because Republicans never stopped attacking him, and he wound up pursuing a sharply progressive agenda during Obama’s second term.”
Holder acknowledges “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.”
“Now is the time to be more visible,” Holder tells Yahoo News. “Now is the time to be heard.”
On Saturday, Holder gave the keynote address at an annual dinner of Virginia’s Democratic Party. He plans similar speeches in other states.
On Monday, Holder appeared at a news conference in Los Angeles to promote legislation that would bar local police departments from using their resources to assist immigration enforcement. His firm has a contract with the California Senate to help it respond to Trump policies.
His activism includes two new projects. He is working to develop a PAC-like group to develop legal strategies for state and local governments that oppose administration policies. He is also leading a new group to prepare Democrats for redistricting in 2020.
“Part of my job is to make redistricting sexy” for Democrats, he joked in an interview with NBC News before the Virginia speech.
