Walberg's Smear of Eric Holder

Link to formatted, printable pdf of this report: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yGmwGAOkNw-BN6dsu6S5KsaPj4Nzg5y_/view?usp=sharing

 This report looks at two things:

1.    Walberg’s grotesque line of questioning of Eric Holder in a committee hearing

2.    Walberg’s false account of the hearing to the NRA

Thursday, February 2, 2012	House Oversight & Gov’t Reform Committee Washington, DC
Official Transcript from U.S. GPO [With added markups and Highlights]
Video (1:42:50 mark):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuqt5mgtI3w

Walberg’s false account of the hearing to the NRA

Tuesday, October 2, 2012	Call-In to NRA News
Walberg: “They need to know, and it’s not just the NRA membership. It’s not just those of us who take the Second Amendment as not an opinion, but as a true amendment to the Constitution. It ought to be on the minds and hearts of all people, because - heh, heh, the impact is for everyone.” “When I questioned the Attorney General, during the hearings in front of our committee, and I didn’t get any answers, and I finally said, ‘Well, if you’re not going to answer me, I need to make a statement that my concern is that some of the conjecture that this was done to inhibit, or attack the Second Amendment.’” “Before I got the full statement out, he responded to me by saying, ‘Mr. Congressman, I’m the Attorney General of the United States! How dare you question?!’” “And I said, ‘Wait a second, I understand you’re the Attorney General, and with all due respect, I am the Congressman. I’m asking the questions. You’re the witness under testimony. If you won’t answer my questions, you’re gonna have to listen to my assertions.’ And that’s what the American people are concerned about, that we are not getting answers. And this could have been dealt with long before.”
Video (8:40 mark):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M2nfCRezKo

 REFLECTION:

That NRA interview contained one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever heard Walberg say : “those of us who take the Second Amendment as not an opinion, but as a true amendment to the Constitution”.

When it comes to true Amendments to the Constitution, Walberg is on record frequently calling to, “Do away with the 16^th Amendment” in order to implement the “Fair Tax”. Walberg, at the Coffee Hour in Tecumseh on October 16, 2017 specifically referred to both the 16^th and 17^th Amendments as “mistakes”.

Video (8:10 mark): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2FGy9D9a-E

Those Amendments have remained in place for over 100 years now, and served as the basis for numerous Supreme Court rulings. Walberg has also raised doubts about how the 14^th Amendment applies to children of migrants, even though that specific matter was tried and ruled on by the Supreme Court in 1898, just thirty years after its ratification.

 Walberg’s grotesque line of questioning of Eric Holder in a committee hearing:

The House hearing was about the failures in the DOJ, regarding the ATF-led operation, “Fast and Furious”, which resulted in the killing of U.S. Border agent, Brian Terry. The following is an outline of the questions and prompts that Tim Walberg raised to Holder in the hearing:

1) Asked U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder to compare himself to Joe Paterno

2) Accused Eric Holder of setting up F&F as a conspiracy against the Second Amendment

3) After Holder twice disagreed with that accusation, Walberg falsely asserted that is was Holder who originally brought it up.

4) Asked Eric Holder why did he “consistently fail to read extremely important papers”

Note: The GOP Chair of the Committee then ordered Walberg to suspend, and noted that Walberg’s question had veered outside of the scope of the committee hearing.

 Walberg’s false account of the hearing to the NRA:

Eight months later, speaking on a broadcast by the NRA lobby, Walberg accused Holder of not answering his questions in that hearing. The only question that Holder did not answer was when Walberg inappropriately asked Holder to compare himself to Joe Paterno.

Walberg also lied that Holder interrupted him to puff out his chest, ‘Mr. Congressman, I’m the Attorney General of the United States! How dare you question?!’ And then Walberg lied about another exchange, saying that he condescendingly explained to Holder how a committee hearing works. No such exchanges ever took place. Walberg’s behavior in the hearing was bad on its own, but it was made so much worse by his later false account of it.

 End Note: This report was limited to those two things. I started this draft in July, with no intention of relating it to the events involving Eric Holder this past month [October 29, 2018].