Eric Holder to Daily Caller: quit pressing me to quit

November 29, 2011
Josh Gerstein

Attorney General Eric Holder made an unusual plea Tuesday, urging a conservative news outlet to stop drumming up calls for his resignation.

"You guys need to — you need to stop this. It’s not an organic thing that’s just happening. You guys are behind it," Holder told a reporter for the Daily Caller who asked the attorney general to respond to what the online news organization has tallied as 52 calls for his resignation over the Fast and Furious scandal.

The Caller said its reporter introduced himself to Holder after an anti-counterfeiting event at the White House complex and asked for Holder's reaction to the resignation calls, which are linked to a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives-run gun-trafficking investigation that reportedly allowed more than 1200 guns to flow to Mexico with little or no effort to track them. Most of the weapons are believed to have wound up with Mexican drug cartels.

Holder has called the so-called gunwalking tactic "unacceptable" and said it violated standing department policies. However, he has said he didn't know weapons were being intentionally sent across the border until ATF whistleblowers complained to Congress and the press.

Media Matters, a media watchdog organization with a liberal perspective,said the Caller deserved to be called out for ginning up the resignation drive.

"Holder is right: This isn't a grassroots movement of conservatives calling for Holder to step down, it's a concerted effort by a supposed media organization to push him out," Media Matters said.

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