While appearing on MSNBC’s “Martin Bashir” Thursday, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson called Attorney General Eric Holder “the Moses of our time,” claiming that the attorney general is the “chief law giver” of the nation, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
“I think the attorney general should step down too — off of that plateau where he resides on high principle and whip some head. But he shouldn’t give up his office,” he told Bashir after being asked about calls for Holder’s resignation.
“What he should understand is that he is the chief law giver of the United States, so to speak. He’s the Moses of our time and at least for this administration,” he added. “So, yes, some people want to put him outside of the ark of the legal community. That’s just ridiculous. He is the bully, he is in one sense the whipping boy for so much of the frustration of the right-wing.”
Newsbusters‘ Noel Sheppard observed that Bashir “didn’t push back” on Dyson’s statement.
“It is unclear whether Holder consulted God before potentially perjuring himself in May 15 testimony where he claimed that he not been involved with any ‘potential prosecution of the press’ for disclosing classified material,” the WFB staff wrote.
“With regard to potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material — that is not something I’ve ever been involved in, heard of, or would think would be wise policy,“ Holder told Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., in that hearing.
But NBC News reported that Holder signed off on a “controversial search warrant” that named Fox News’ James Rosen a “possible co-conspirator” in violations of the Espionage Act and authorized seizure of his private emails.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney defended Holder from accusations that he lied under oath.
“Based on the published reports that I have seen, I have seen no conflict between what the attorney general said and published reports,” he said.
But House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., disagreed.
“The media reports and statements issued by the Department regarding the search warrants for Mr. Rosen’s emails appear to be at odds with your sworn testimony before the Committee,” they said in a letter to Holder. “We believe – and we hope you will agree – it is imperative that the Committee, the Congress, and the American people be provided a full and accurate account of your involvement in and approval of these search warrants.”
But Dyson thinks the issue is the law, not the attorney general.
“The real problem is it’s not against the law to leak classified information,” he said. “That’s what we need to get into our sights here. That what we need to do is shore up the law. Not figure out how to scandalize the name of Eric Holder or President Obama.”
“In addition to being an MSNBC contributor, Dyson is a sociology professor — which explains his expertise when it comes to both the Bible and the American system of government,” a post at Twitchy sarcastically said. As attorney general, Holder’s job is to enforce the law, not make it.
Sheppard said incidents like this are the reason MSNBC’s ratings are in a “total freefall.”
“MSNBC has completely abdicated any impartiality in its reporting and is now so clearly an arm of the Democratic Party that people across the fruited plain are turning this channel off,” he added.
Video of Dyson’s statement can be seen here.
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