WS Chronicle

Holder

BY CASH MICHAELS 

FOR THE CHRONICLE

For four years, as U.S. attorney general, he sat next to her in her role as U.S. Secretary of State in the Situation Room, watching as the president peppered her with tough questions about crucial foreign operations.

Indeed, Eric Holder says he’s known Hillary Rodham Clinton for 25 years, from his days as U.S. attorney for the Washington, D.C.  district, and throughout that time, and especially during the years they served together during the Obama presidency, Holder says he’s known Clinton to possess all of the skills and talents of a “great” president.

“Hillary has shown that she has the vision, she has the passion, she has the experience to not be a good president, but I think a great president,” Holder told The Chronicle Tuesday exclusively during a call from Washington, D.C.

“I think she is the person who is best at defending the progress we’ve made in the Obama Administration, and protecting the Obama legacy. She’s ready to tackle a whole range of issues, whether it’s criminal justice reform, protecting the right to vote, a sane and safe foreign policy. There are a whole host of reasons why, based on the experience that’s she’s had, and the vision that she has shown, that she will be, I think, a great president, especially when you contrast her to the potential persons that she will be running against – Donald Trump and people on the Republican side. “I think the choice is obvious.” Holder, the first African-American to serve as U.S. attorney general in history, is unabashed in his support of former Secretary of State Clinton as the North Carolina presidential primaries approach next Tuesday, March 15.

Former President Bill Clinton has been in the state since Monday, and Mrs. Clinton herself is scheduled to make a number of campaign stops statewide today. Polls show Mrs. Clinton leading her Democratic primary opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, in the state, as she hopes to continue winning states with large black Democratic voting populations. Currently, Clinton holds a decisive lead over Sanders in the total dele-gate count thus far.

There was no word at press time Tuesday as to when Sen. Sanders would be scheduling campaign stops in North Carolina prior to the March 15 primaries.

The importance of North Carolina in the race to the White House isn’t lost

on Republican candidates, as Donald Trump held a rally in Concord on Monday, and strong second-place challenger Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) campaigned in the state Tuesday.

Holder says that Clinton  uses good judgment when it comes to foreign policy, not interested in involving the nation in wars unless it is clear that the national security of the country is at stake. Holder adds that there is no question that Clinton is tough.

“She’s a good person, funny to be around, but when necessary, she goes there,” Holder makes clear, adding that she’s as “tough as necessary.”

Holder believes that the surest way to stop Republicans from rolling back any gains from the Obama Administration, especially in the areas of civil rights, voting rights, and deciding the future of the U.S. Supreme Court, is to elect Hillary Clinton.

Holder says Hillary Clinton has a “long history” with the African-American community, starting with the Children’s Defense Fund, working for issues of fairness in education, and helping to develop good paying jobs.

Holder says much has been made of then First Lady Hillary Clinton in 1996 making a speech where she called on “bringing super-predators to heel” and her support of her husband’s 1994 crime bill which led to a mass incarceration of African-Americans.

Holder reminds all that Hillary Clinton was one of many voices back in the mid-1990s who were call-ing on local, state and the federal governments to do more to protect citizens, especially in the inner city, during the ultra-violent crack wars, where street gangs, seeking to protect their territories, engaged in a level of violence, mayhem and bloodshed that literally saw local police departments make the move to militarization in order to take back the streets.

The stories were replete of elderly women being both raped and robbed in their homes by cracked-up young perpetrators, and local police departments doing everything they could to get a handle of the outbreak. Even civil rights leader Jesse Jackson publicly expressed fear of walking down the street and seeing two young males following him.

President Clinton has since apologized for the 1994 crime bill and how it negatively impacted the black community, and Mrs. Clinton has acknowledged that if she could take back her fierce language of the time, she would. Holder, who was U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C. at the time and recalls it being called “the murder capital,” agrees that the crime bill went too far in retrospect, but assures that Mrs. Clinton is devoted to developing fairer measures of criminal justice reform.

Sen. Bernie Sanders has campaigned quite well on his pledge of campaign finance reform, reeling in the wealth and influence of Wall Street, and promising free college and expanded universal health care if elected. Prominent African-Americans like former NAACP President Ben Jealous, civil rights activist Dr. Cornel West, filmmaker Spike Lee, rapper Killer Mike, and former Ohio state Senator Nina Turner, among others, are backing Sanders because of his call to address income inequality. That issue, among others, has made Sen. Sanders very popular with young African-Americans and young women.

Holder says at the end of the day, former Secretary of State Clinton’s wealth of experience as First Lady, U.S. senator, and being trusted by President Obama to manage his foreign policy agenda, is why he’s supporting her for president.

“She has the ability to bring people together,” Mr. Holder said.