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Politics behind Obama evoking executive privilege

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    Impact of Fast and Furious development

  • Duration 3:23
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For the White House asserting executive privilege over documents related to the fast and furious investigation the move made.

After attorney general Eric Holder could not cut a deal with the chairman of the house oversight committee all of it happening over the documents related to the botched gun running scandal and now.

We're waiting for the committee's vote on whether to hold the attorney general in contempt Charlie hurt.

It's a columnist for The Washington Times if before today it was just.

A problem for Eric Holder today it's problem for the president isn't it Charlie.

Absolutely if if nothing else that this executive order.

It is -- it's an admission.

That this scandal reaches.

All the way into the White House.

Either the the earlier stages of it or.

The efforts to sort of deal with the fallout of it -- at that as you point out is it that is a very it's a major development and something that that we were very clearly led not to believe before today.

Now I resist talking to our White House correspondent Ed Henry says what the White House is making a distinction here they're saying.

Yes it's true the president never had anything to do or advanced notice and involvement in knowledge of fast and furious we still stand by that what they're saying is that it executive privilege is being asserted here because.

More recently after the disclosure of all of this there were discussions in the White House as to how to deal with the political -- out.

I'm not sure those discussions.

However would necessarily protect.

The documents over at the Justice Department on related.

To those political discussions.

-- this may be a false application of executive privilege.

Oh absolutely I mean you just because you had one conversation last week doesn't mean that that executive privilege applies to everything.

That -- that what goes from that discussion all the way back to.

February of 2011 or or or prior to that even.

Hey you know what we see here -- there's no great high principle here what we see here is the White House is he wants to.

Conceal documents.

That relate to the effort to deal with the fallout of this it's called a cover up.

And that's what the White House -- and and the reason that they don't want this information out there is not because you know.

National secrets security is at stake or or anything like that it is it is to conceal.

An embarrassment and that's what the White House wants to to conceal with this.

It -- -- with exerting executive.

And today is suddenly very inconsistent with everything -- -- -- in fact I looked at the transcript of his under -- testimony before senator Grassley is committee.

In which he said no I'm not invoking executive group privilege and he seemed to agree with the notion he wasn't entitled to it.

Now all of sudden it's just the opposite if nothing else.

It really looks bad.

Yeah it looks terrible but one thing you know the politics of this are -- absolutely fascinating.

And you know it could be that the politics here are that the White House wants to you know to to keep this embarrassment from becoming how public whatever it is.

The -- that the flip side of it is you know.

Maybe the White House would rather talk about this than talk about the economy either way it doesn't bode very well politically for the president all right Charlie hurt thanks very much good.

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