Schumer on Holder: 'I Believe He's Going to Stay'

Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) came out in strong support of Attorney General Eric Holder, who is being investigated for possible perjury after testifying before Congress that he had not been involved in any prospective prosecution of journalists. As it turns out, Holder personally signed off on records requests for Fox News journalist James Rosen; Rosen was identified in one court filing as a possible co-conspirator in a national security leak.

Schumer stated, “There have been all kinds of accusations, but I haven’t seen anything that would prevent him from continuing to do his job.” To back his supposition that Holder can still be an effective attorney general despite his targeting of journalists, Schumer explained that Holder was a victim of the vast right-wing conspiracy: “Let’s not forget for two years, many of our hard right colleagues spent a lot of their time on Fast and Furious and I’m sure there were calls for Holder to step down. He continued to do his job well. And then the IG exonerated him on Fast and Furious.”

Schumer continued, “The president has confidence in Holder and I believe he’s going to stay.”

With regard to accusations of perjury, Schumer dismissed them all: “I don’t think there’s perjury. There’s been no prosecution or attempted prosecution of any journalist. The warrant is a tool to get information. I don’t think the two are contradictory.”

While letting Holder off the hook, Schumer did state that the laws regarding leaks to journalists need an overhaul. “It’s one big mess,” he said.

In recent days, both Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and former Obama senior advisor David Axelrod have come out in support of Holder. Schumer’s former press secretary is also headed over to the Department of Justice to work for Holder.

Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).