Eric Holder cynically asks ‘when exactly America was great’

Eric Holder cynically asks ‘when exactly America was great’
Eric Holder (Image via Twitter)

Former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder appeared on MSNBC with Ari Melber to weigh in on a variety of topics including criminal justice reform, bipartisanship, and the Mueller probe.

At one point during the appearance, Holder cynically posed the question to Donald Trump “When exactly did you think America was great?”

When I hear these things about let’s Make America Great Again, I think to myself, exactly when did you think America was great? It certainly wasn’t when people were enslaved. It certainly wasn’t when women did have the right to vote. It certainly wasn’t when the LGBT community was denied the rights to which it was entitled.

Melber played along, asking solicitously whether the slogan “Make America Great Again” echoes “as discrimination in your ears?” to which Holder replies, “It takes us back to an American past that never in fact really existed, this notion of greatness.”

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

He goes on to acknowledge that “America has done superb things, great things, and it has been a leader in a whole range of things” but laments the nation has “always a work in process.”

It would be interesting to know which nation, in Holder’s view, has arrived. Surely, he is aware that some countries, including in Africa, where “his people” are from, the process of granting rights to women and the LGBT community has yet if ever to begin.

As to his remark about slavery, a chapter in American history he loves to harp on, does he not think America was great when it sacrificed the lives of 600,000 souls in a prolonged and bloody war to end the practice? Does he not think America was great on the countless occasions when it sent its blood and treasure into conflicts around the globe to spread democracy?

Holder had briefly entertained vying for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president but abandoned the notion when threats to vet the Fast and Furious fiasco were made. He could still do America a favor by retreating to the obscurity he so richly deserves. He was an odious and corrupt presence during the Obama years, and nothing he says now is going to alter that impression.

Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy has written for The Blaze, HotAir, NewsBusters, Weasel Zippers, Conservative Firing Line, RedCounty, and New York’s Daily News. He has one published novel, Hot Rain, (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), and has been a guest on Radio Vice Online with Jim Vicevich, The Alana Burke Show, Smart Life with Dr. Gina, and The George Espenlaub Show.

Comments

For your convenience, you may leave commments below using Disqus. If Disqus is not appearing for you, please disable AdBlock to leave a comment.