Thom Hartmann: The Outrageous Conspiracy Theory about Guns Behind Fast & Furious

[thomhartmann]

The republican descent into the “fast and furious” twilight zone continues. Today - republican darryl issa’s house oversight committee. Voted to hold attorney general eric holder in contempt of congress for not turning over doj documents related to the “fast and furious” program. That vote comes on the heels of the white house asserting executive privilege over those same documents that issa is demanding - A move that president george w. Bush employed six times, and president clinton used 14 times. "Fast and furious" was a program started by the bush administration, and centered on selling guns in mexico and then tracking those guns up to high-level drug cartels. Ultimately, the program was abandoned after an american border patrol agent was killed in a shoot-out with suspected undocumented immigrants that were using “fast and furious” guns. And that's when republicans began their witchhunt into attorney general eric holder - alongside some truly bizarre conspiracy theories. Despite testifying eight times in front of congress and handing over thousands of documents, attorney general holder was unable to satisfy congressman issa’s witch-hunt because he was unwilling to turn over documents that would compromise ongoing, live criminal investigations. In response to the contempt vote - attorney general holder issued a statement saying: "this divisive action does not help us fix the problems that led to this operation or previous ones and it does nothing to make any of our law enforcement agents safer. It's an election-year tactic intended to distract attention -- and, as a result -- has deflected critical resources from fulfilling what remains my top priority at the department of justice: protecting the american people." But there's a bigger picture here to all of this and it has to do with right-wingers and their constant paranoia over gun rights...

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