Politics

Harris Campaign Taps Eric Holder To Lead Vetting Of VP Candidates

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder delivers remarks during the the White House Summit to Counter Violent Extremism, at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on February 19, 2015. Flickr/State Department photo/ Public Domain

Vice President Kamala Harris tapped former Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. to lead the vetting process of potential running mates for her White House candidacy, according to The New York Times.

Holder and his law firm Covington & Burling are leading the vetting effort of potential picks, according to the NYT. Harris has less than a month before the Democratic National Convention convenes in Chicago to officially choose their presidential and vice presidential nominees, and her campaign has set a deadline for Aug. 7th to choose a running mate.

“We got a fight ahead of us, and we are the underdogs in this race, OK?” Harris said during a fundraiser over the weekend, according to the NYT.

Potential running mates for Harris include Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, among other potential Democratic candidates, according to ABC News.

Holder, who led the Department of Justice under the Obama administration, is known for being the first attorney general in history to be held in contempt of Congress in 2012 for his alleged refusal to cooperate in the investigation surrounding the Fast and Furious scandal. The scandal involved a gun-walking scheme that allowed a slate of firearms to be sold to criminals in an effort to track them to criminal organizations in Mexico.

Since leaving the Obama administration and returning to private practice as a lawyer, Holder has remained involved in Democratic politics.

While speaking at a rally in support of Stacey Abrams’ failed 2018 gubernatorial bid, Holder urged the crowd to “kick” Republicans.

“When they go low, we go high — no. When they go low, we kick them,” he said during a 2018 rally in Stockbridge, Georgia, prompting the crowd to chant “fight.”

During an August 2021 appearance of MSNBC’s  “Rachel Maddow Show,” Holder suggested liberal activists go get arrested in support of voting rights.

“Democrats are going to have to think to themselves, ‘do I want to be seen as the person who James Eastland…those people before, who stood against the passage of Civil Rights bill–do I want to have that as my legacy?’ In raising the consciousness of people, by demonstrating, by getting arrested, by doing the things that ended segregation,” Holder said at the time.

The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Featured Image Credit: Flickr/State Department photo/ Public Domain