Former Attorney General Eric Holder is poised to take a more active role in opposing President Trump, telling Yahoo News in an interview published Tuesday that “now is the time to be more visible” — including weighting a 2020 presidential bid.
“Up to now, I have been more behind-the-scenes,” said Holder, who served for six years in the Obama administration. “But that’s about to change. I have a certain status as the former attorney general. A certain familiarity as the first African-American attorney general.”
“There’s a justified perception that I’m close to President Obama. So I want to use whatever skills I have, whatever notoriety I have, to be effective in opposing things that are, at the end of the day, just bad for the country.”
{mosads}
Holder has remained relatively quiet since leaving the Obama administration in April 2015. But now, Yahoo reports, he’s charging back into politics and even considering running against Trump for the White House.
In the first months of Trump’s presidency, Holder has been serving as outside counsel to the California state legislature, where he has helped Democrats devise a legal strategy for hampering the president’s policies.
At a news conference in Los Angeles on Monday, the former attorney general spoke out in support of SB-54, a measure that would bar the Trump administration from forcing local police departments in California to help federal immigration officials deport undocumented immigrants.
“We’re here with a very clear purpose: to underscore the undeniable truth that preserving and enhancing trust, real and genuine trust between law enforcement and the diverse communities they serve, is essential for the safety and well-being of all residents of this great state — indeed, this great nation,” Holder said, according to Yahoo News.
Holder said he hadn’t expected to reenter the political fray after leaving the Obama administration.
“I thought, frankly, along with everybody else, that after the election, with Hillary Clinton as president, I could walk off the field,” he said. “So when she didn’t win, I thought, ‘We’ll have to see how this plays out.’”
“But it became clear relatively soon — and certainly sooner than I expected — that I had to get back on the field and be in effective opposition.”