Cornyn Chides Holder on “Fast and Furious” Debacle

During his weekly conference call, Texas U.S. Senator John Cornyn discussed further findings on the so-called “Fast and Furious” gunrunning scandal, which resulted in thousands of firearms coming into the possession of drug cartels in Mexico.

Cornyn took umbrage with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s handling of the “Fast and Furious” program, saying “He claimed he could not be expected to know of the details of this program, which was operationalized by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, which is part of the Department of Justice. In other words, he suggests he cannot be expected to know what’s happening within his own department.”

He continued discussing his displeasure of the Department of Justice’s handling of the program, saying that Holder “acknowledged that no one, that is, no one, has been held accountable for this program that took Agent [Brian] Terry’s life and severely damaged the relationship we have with the sovereign nation of Mexico, since they were not told of this program…where 2,000 weapons walked into the hands of the drug cartels, and where arms dealers in the United States were told ‘don’t worry about them, just let them go.”

Cornyn says that Senate Judiciary Committee received an official acknowledgement in November that the Department of Justice lied to Congress on February 4^th, when it told the Committee that such a program did not exist.

In a press release sent out after the conference, Cornyn also addressed a new report, which showed that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms used the botched “Fast and Furious” as a catalyst to push for stricter gun laws. “If these reports are true, even by Washington standards this reaches a new level of arrogance and corruption,” Cornyn said. “Yet again, the attorney general has some explaining to do.”

Holder will appear before the House Judiciary Committee Thursday to continue answering questions on “Fast and Furious.”