A 'Fast and Furious' Resignation for Holder?
As the 'Fast and Furious' scandal escalates, will the attorney general be forced to resign?
This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," October 10, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: And the calls, they are growing louder for the immediate resignation of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Republican leaders saying the attorney general is refusing to take responsibility for the crimes connected to "Fast and Furious." One lawmaker said some Obama administration officials may be accessories to murder. That lawmaker, Congressman Paul Gosar, joins us.
REP. PAUL GOSAR, R-ARIZ.: Good evening, Greta.
VAN SUSTEREN: You are zeroing in on the attorney general. By the way, have you received his letter of October 7th and read his description of "Fast and Furious" and what he knew about and when?
GOSAR: We read it, Greta, and we totally disagree with him on what he knew. He's either lying or he's very incompetent about the way he's processed "Fast and Furious."
VAN SUSTEREN: In his letter, and congressman help me, you said he's getting weekly report that "Fast and Furious" existed and those reports I assume are available to you. But within those reports it named it but didn't describe the operation. He literally gets hundreds and probably thousands of these weekly reports. Is that a fair statement of what this letter says?
GOSAR: I can't -- Greta, you heard the gentleman talk about the activity that's been on our southern border. Over 40,000 Mexican people have lost their lives. And to make sure this wasn't a priority item, give me a break. In April 2nd of 2009, he outlines tactical changes to operation gunrunner that he's going to implement. And the president amplifies that again on April 16th right after that in Mexico. So you can't tell me that they didn't understand this and this wasn't a bullet point they were going to concentrate on.
VAN SUSTEREN: You know, I actually think, as sad as it is, I don't think they have considered Mexico a priority issue. I think this is a war that's been going on in Mexico. I don't know if you remember Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described Mexico as resembling Colombia as 20 years ago and got rebuked from both the president of Mexico and president Obama. I've of the mind they haven't been paying attention to this.
GOSAR: You know, out in Arizona anything we do, even when we sneeze, we get some addressing from this administration. So I don't think that's the case, Greta. And to have this any other way, if there was a vigilante group as far as the justice and ATF, that's even worse. That's incompetence.
VAN SUSTEREN: What do you want the attorney general to do? Do you want him to resign or come up to the hill and of it under oath, what do you want?
GOSAR: I would love to have him comply with the subpoenas. I'm glad that Congressman Issa put out new subpoenas so we will have high ranking Justice officials coming forward to tell because they know.
But what we are seeing here is main street is held to a certain set of rules, and yet the bureaucrats and Department of Justice is held to a whole different standpoint. That's ludicrous, and particularly when the mean people find out they were used as pawns here, their lives. We're not going to find these guns except on crime scenes. We allowed people to take the guns, and in many cases told the gun sales people to sell the guns. And then we did no surveillance, we did no tracking, and so what were we asking for here, an accident to happen? And that's exactly what is occurring here.
VAN SUSTEREN: Do you have any, not suspicion, but any actual proof of how high up the authorization of "Fast and Furious" went at Justice?
GOSAR: I think we are seeing some of the memos coming out from earlier on in April of last year where we are starting to see the cognizant aspect. We see hints of it from Mr. Holder's speech in Mexico that outlines a very tactical change on the border with Secretary of Homeland Security Napolitano. And they are going to put the resources on to that. And this orchestrates exactly what you see in Fast and Furious, Greta.
VAN SUSTEREN: I'm hoping that they quickly come up and give you an answer to your question so we can get this one sorted out because I actually think there is a war going on in Mexico, and to the extent that we can have a lot of attention on that war, it would be very helpful and I think both the people in Mexico and to the Americans. We will see.
GOSAR: I agree. We were used -- go ahead, Greta.
VAN SUSTEREN: No, go ahead, sir.
GOSAR: This is so egregious that it never followed any type of, you know, law enforcement rules. They broke every single rule. And when you see a special agent, Greta, coming forward and testifying saying they took this book that I professed a note to uphold and defend this country and to protect people, but then they put these high-powered weapons in criminals' hands, what were you expecting? They took that book and ground it up.
This is egregious. And I think the more people understand, this is about America and it's about how we do things in America. And this was wrong. I do know what's right and what is wrong. I hope Mr. Holder understand that as well.
VAN SUSTEREN: I hope we get answers and find out exactly what did happen. Congressman, thank you, sir.
GOSAR: Thanks, Greta, always.
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