Boehner: Race ‘no issue’ with Holder

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday said there was “no issue of race” in the way House Republicans have treated President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder.

A day after Holder said the two leaders had faced “ugly and divisive adversity” from Congress, Boehner said, “There is no issue of race here” at a Capitol press conference.

{mosads}The attorney general had departed from his prepared remarks before the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network on Wednesday to accuse the House GOP of treating him and Obama differently during the last five years.

The House in 2012 voted to find Holder in contempt over his response to the botched “Fast and Furious” gunrunning investigation, and Holder clashed Tuesday with Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and other conservatives during an appearance before the Judiciary Committee.

“I am pleased to note that the last five years have been defined by significant strides and lasting reforms, even in the face of unprecedented, unwarranted, ugly and divisive adversity,” Holder said at the New York event.

“Forget about me. Forget about me. You look at the way the attorney general of the United States was treated yesterday by a House committee. Forget about me. What attorney general has ever had to deal with that kind of treatment. What president has ever had to deal with that kind of treatment?”

Boehner defended the House’s actions in its investigations of Fast and Furious, the IRS and the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.

“The frustration is that the American people have not been told the truth about what happened at the IRS,” Boehner said. “The American people have not been told the truth about what happened in Fast and Furious. The administration has not told the American people the truth about Benghazi. And we’ve been going through all of these hearings, having to hold people in contempt, because they’ve made it impossible to get to the documents.

“They’ve not been forthcoming,” he said. “They owe the American people the truth, and when it comes to Benghazi, we’ve got four Americans who are dead, and their families deserve the truth about what happened, and the administration refuses to tell them the truth.”

Boehner then ended his weekly press conference after just six minutes.