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Former Attorney General Eric Holder attends the Legal Defense Fund’s 36th National Equal Justice Awards Dinner, May 16, 2024, in New York.
Of all the people available to review and recommend possible candidates for Kamala Harris’s running mate, why did she choose Eric Holder? It’s a reminder that the corporate wing of the Democratic Party, which served the country so badly under Clinton and Obama, may be down somewhat under Joe Biden, but it is never out.
More of that crowd will be angling for appointments in a Harris administration, lubricated by immense campaign contributions. Dozens of people who have worked for Harris over the years are now employed as corporate lobbyists.
Harris is looking far more impressive as a leader and a campaigner than her detractors imagined. But in a sense, Eric Holder was her first major appointment, and it is a troubling one.
As attorney general under Obama, Holder was well known for overruling career prosecutors who wanted to bring cases against corporations and banks. He epitomized the revolving door, having come from the power law firm Covington & Burling, which even kept an office empty for him while he was AG, knowing that he would return.
In one high-profile case, as reported by David Dayen, Holder overruled career prosecutors who wanted to charge HSBC with numerous criminal violations involving drug trafficking proceeds in Mexico as well as illegal business dealings for customers in Cuba, Iran, Libya, Sudan, and Burma, all nations under sanctions.
Harris is directly linked to Holder as the key state attorney general who signed off on a weak financial settlement after the 2008 financial crisis that ended federal and state prosecution of the biggest banks. As AG of our largest state, she had the power to hold out for a much tougher settlement or file criminal charges for the mountain of fraud evident in the public records.
Two other state AGs wanted to reject the deal, but they needed Harris’s support. The one who was angriest about Harris’s decision was the Delaware AG at the time, a fellow named Beau Biden.
Why on earth would Harris want to remind anyone of that chapter in her career linked directly to Holder, which was not one of her finest hours? If she has a blind spot on just how weak the bank settlement was, that’s a problem. It’s even more of a problem if she views Holder as a trusted friend and benign elder statesman.
Some may say that Holder’s role in the veep-vetting is merely administrative. He is just assembling the facts, looking for any skeletons in closets or political liabilities, and Harris herself will make the call.
Don’t kid yourself. Holder did not get to where he got by playing the role of clerk. Given his career as a power lawyer for banks, it would be normal for him, even subconsciously, to polish the résumés of candidates who are his sort of Democrat. Then he will have a nice IOU with the winner that he can call in when needed.
Like most progressives who have been amazed and heartened by the events of the past week, I’m finding a great deal to like about Kamala Harris. Where Biden was on track to facilitate the election of Donald Trump, Harris may literally save this country from fascism. But as she continues to find her own strong voice and to energize progressives, Harris will need to resist the relentless undertow of the corporate wing of her party.
