Juan Williams vs. Brit Hume On Defending Eric Holder
WALLACE: I think it's fair to say, Juan Williams, (inaudible) critic of the president on this panel, you're most often the person who at least defends his actions. Can you defend his decision to ask Eric Holder to investigate and review Eric Holder's actions?
JUAN WILLIAMS, FOX NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think the first thing to say is that Republicans have been hammering Eric Holder and I think that hammer is Eric Holder's language, his own, to go after the leaks. That they have wanted him to pursue leaks that had to do with how bin Laden was killed to secret prisons to the attack on the cyber network in Iran that the U.S. had launched. Why is all this information flowing from the Obama White House? Is Obama trying to glamorize himself? All that. That came from Republicans, and it has been something that the Bush administration started and it has been continued with a vengeance, so everyone is surprised by this administration. In the direct response to your question, Chris, Eric Holder did not conduct the probe that led people to somehow come to the madhouse conclusion that James Rosen is somehow a co-conspirator. Is somehow ...
WALLACE: But wait a minute, was that not in the FBI affidavit seeking--
WILLIAMS: He signed the affidavit as Attorney General of the United States, he did not conduct the probe. So the question is, how can you go and ...
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: You would come to the conclusion that a working reporter with a long-standing, excellent career in Washington is somehow now involved in espionage. That is the question.
WALLACE: Well, he is ...
HUME: The problem is, it went to Holder and he OK'd it.
WILLIAMS: He OK'd the work of his investigators, and so now as the attorney general--
HUME: You are saying he is not ultimately responsible as the head man of the Justice Department ...
WILLIAMS: Well, that's why ....
HUME: ... who personally signed off on this?
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: That's -- he signed off on -- the question ...
HUME: He signed off...
WILLIAMS: ... to go back and look at the work of the investigators ...
HUME: I understand that, but how he -- if he signed off on it, how can he investigate it?
WILLIAMS: Because now is an opportunity, and he is the exact right person as attorney general of the United States to see what prosecutors did and how they came to this conclusion.
HUME: Well, he is ...
WILLIAMS: We've seen this ...
(CROSSTALK)
HUME: Wasn't he supposed to see all of that before he signed off on the affidavit?
WILLIAMS: You cannot see everything. I mean you -- what he did was to say, these are good people, he trusts his people. Now it's time for someone including ...
HUME: I don't --
(CROSSTALK)
HUME: I don't know whether he said anything like that or not.
WILLIAMS: I understand--
HUME: What you do know is, and what we all know is that when that affidavit came to him, rife with assertions that this reporter doing his job, was acting in a criminal way, he OK'd it.
WILLIAMS: No, what we know is in the A.P case, for example, he recused himself ...
(CROSSTALK)
WALLACE: We're running out of time.
WILLIAMS: Let me finish. He recused himself in that case because he had -- was a potential leaker.
HUME: I understand that. We are not talking about that case.
WILLIAMS: In this case, in the Rosen case, he had nothing to do with it. All he was doing was signing an affidavit sent to him by his underlings.
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