Archive for the ‘Eric Holder’ Category

Nipsey Hussle: LAPD names suspect in shooting; autopsy results in

A vigil to honor the slain rapper turned violent on Monday leaving one person stabbed and many injured. Harrison Hill, USA TODAY

The Los Angeles Police Department has released the name of a suspect in the shooting death of rapper Nipsey Hussle.

Police have identified the suspect as Eric Holder, tweeting, "Eric Holder is wanted for Homicide in the shooting of Nipsey Hussle. He was last seen in a 2016 white 4 door Chevy Cruze CA license plate 7RJD742. Anyone with information related to his whereabouts or this deadly shooting is urged to contact South Bureau Homicide at 323-786-5100."

Hussledied from gunshot wounds of the head and torso, the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner said Monday.

The rapper's autopsy was completed Monday and his deathwas certified a homicide.

Hussle, the 33-year-old rapper, whose real name wasErmias Asghedom,was shot multiple times outsidehis South Los Angeles apparel store, The Marathon Clothing, around 3:20 p.m. PDT Sunday and pronounceddead at the hospital.

By Monday, hundreds of people had gathered in front of the store to pay their respects. A memorial of candles, flowers and paintings took shape, and some of Hussle's songs blared through speakers. But after nightfallthe crowd grew violent, and a stabbing contributed to a massive stampede, with at least 19 peopleinjured.

More: Violence breaks out at Nipsey Hussle memorial: One stabbed, 19 injured

On Tuesday morning Police Chief Michel R. Moore "will address the surge in violence in the city of Los Angeles and there will be an update on the murder investigation of Nipsey Hussle," according to the LAPD's website.

Meanwhile, a confab Hussle had requested with the Los Angeles Police Commissionon how to stop gang violence, previously set for Monday,is being rescheduled in the rapper's honor, Steve Soboroff, president of the commission, told NBC Newsand ABC News.USA TODAY has reached out to the commissioner's office.

Soboroffrevealed earlier Monday that he and Moore had aMonday meeting scheduled with Hussle and Jay-Z's record label,Roc Nation, "to talk about ways he could help stop gang violence and help us help kids," he tweeted."Im so very sad."

A native of Crenshaw, Hussle was widely admired forhis community-building and investment in local businesses, public schools and in young adults learning coding and other tech skills.

"I'll remember the beauty that he saw in our community. And the beauty that he was. He loved us," film director Ava DuVernay tweeted. "He's left that love with us. And it cannot die. Rest in Power, King. You mattered."

Born on Aug. 15, 1985, Hussle said his first passion was music, but getting resources was tough after leaving his mother's house at 14 to live with his grandmother. He said he got involved in street life as he tried to support himself, and he joined the gang Rollin 60s Neighborhood Crips as a teenager.

Autoplay

Show Thumbnails

Show Captions

I grew up in gang culture, Hussle told The Los Angeles Times in 2018. We dealt with death, with murder. It was like living in a war zone, where people die on these blocks and everybody is a little bit immune to it. I guess they call it post-traumatic stress, when you have people that have been at war for such a long time. I think L.A. suffers from that because its not normal yet we embrace it like it is after a while.

Autoplay

Show Thumbnails

Show Captions

Contributing: Susan Haas, Carly Mallenbaum, The Associated Press

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2019/04/01/nipsey-hussle-autopsy-results-his-anti-gang-efforts-highlighted/3337986002/

Read the rest here:
Nipsey Hussle: LAPD names suspect in shooting; autopsy results in

Eric Holder says he’ll decide on 2020 run in March

Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

Feb. 13, 2019, 5:50 AM GMT

By Dennis Romero and Vaughn Hillyard

Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced late Tuesday that he'll decide on a 2020 presidential run in about three weeks.

He made the remarks to reporters outside the Harkin Institute for Public Policy and Citizen Engagement at Iowa's Drake University, where he had just engaged in a 90-minute discussion on redistricting and voter rights with Marsha Ternus, former chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court.

"I'm going to decide if Im going to try to find that space within the next month or so," he said.

The key questions, Holder said, are "whether you have the vision, the experience, the ability to inspire others to deal with the issues of the day. So Im going to sit down you know with my family, you know, very soon."

NPR reported earlier Tuesday that Holder would decide whether to join the already crowded Democratic Party field for president in about two week's time. Pressed for a time frame Tuesday night, Holder said that it would be "closer to three than four" weeks.

He said he was not in Iowa its influential Democratic caucus is scheduled for Feb. 3, 2020 to measure support among party influencers. In fact, he said, the Harkin Institute discussion had been scheduled for fall but was postponed.

"I met with some party leaders but not to discuss that, no," he said. "This is really just kind of a Drake University visit."

Holder said he has spoken to former President Barack Obama, whom he served under, about the decision he faces in March, but he wouldn't reveal any advice.

Asked if he has urged former Vice President Joe Biden to run, Holder said, "I think Joe Biden was a great senator, a great vice president."

"I worked with him on important domestic issues," he said. "I sat with him in the situation room. You know, I think that his would be a good voice to have as part of this primary process. But you know, I would totally respect his decision if he decides not to become involved, but I would hope that he would."

Dennis Romero writes for NBC News and is based in Los Angeles.

Vaughn Hillyard is a political reporter for NBC News.

See more here:
Eric Holder says he'll decide on 2020 run in March

Former Attorney General Eric Holder Visits Iowa, Weighs …

Former Attorney General Eric Holder speaks at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tenn., in April 2018. Mark Humphrey/AP hide caption

Former Attorney General Eric Holder speaks at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tenn., in April 2018.

Former Attorney General Eric Holder travels to Iowa on Tuesday as he weighs whether to join a growing field of Democrats seeking the presidential nomination in 2020, and he's expected to make a decision in the next two weeks, NPR has learned.

Holder, who served for six years under former President Barack Obama, will make a decision on a White House run in the next two weeks. Meanwhile, the speech he plans to give at Drake University Law School in Des Moines certainly sounds like the building blocks of a possible campaign with a heavy condemnation of President Trump.

"We should be dissatisfied with an administration rife with corruption, stunning incompetence, and shameful intolerance," Holder will say in his speech, according to prepared remarks. "Most of all, we should be dissatisfied by that same administration's total abdication of moral and policy leadership and its failure to address the many other urgent challenges we face: A democracy that's under attack. A climate crisis that's ignored. And racial and cultural divisions that are weaponized and exploited for political gain."

Holder will recall his visits before to Iowa in 2007 "on behalf of a long-shot presidential candidate who had inspired me with his optimism and his vision for our country." And the former attorney general will talk about his upbringing the grandson of immigrants from Barbados and son a of a World War II veteran and the racial discrimination he and his family faced throughout the years.

"I am dissatisfied just as so many of you are dissatisfied with the inequities that continue to divide us, the injustices all around us, and the refusal of some elected leaders to rise to this defining moment," Holder will say. "That's why I cannot be silent and I hope you won't be silent as our nation confronts this time of challenge and consequence."

Should Holder choose to mount a 2020 presidential run, it would be the first bid for elective office by the career prosecutor, who served as deputy attorney general under President Bill Clinton and then assumed the top job under Obama, when he became the nation's first African-American attorney general. While leading the Justice Department, he made civil rights and voting rights a major focus.

When Holder first floated the possibility of a White House bid last year, it took many by surprise. Since leaving the Obama administration in 2015, he rejoined a private law practice and also chaired the new National Democratic Redistricting Committee, designed to help Democratic candidates in key state races and to challenge gerrymandering ahead of 2020 redistricting and reapportionment.

Holder will talk about that work and the importance of voting rights and an accurate census count during his speech Tuesday.

"Intolerance and cynicism may appear to be gaining strength but that's simply not the case when our elections are fair and the true spirit of our people is accurately reflected," the former attorney general will say. "The bad news is that in far too many places elections are not fair. The system is being rigged by politicians who are willing to bend or break the rules in order to stay in power."

If he runs for president, the fact he was the first sitting Cabinet member in history to be held in contempt of Congress over his role in the bungled gun-trafficking operation known as "Fast and Furious" is sure to be brought up.

He also helped Democratic candidates in the 2018 midterm elections, though he stirred controversy for saying "When they go low, we kick 'em" while on the campaign trail in Georgia a riff on former first lady Michelle Obama's 2016 mantra "When they go low, we go high." Holder later had to clarify he wasn't advocating violence.

Holder seems to make a possible allusion to that sentiment in his remarks, closing with a push for change.

"Together, we must call out and throw out public officials who seek power by bringing out the worst in us. Now in that effort we must seek civility but not at the expense of truth telling or the protection of treasured principles," Holder will say. "The fact is: America is at its best when we face difficult questions and hard truths. America is at its best when we open our arms and widen the circle of opportunity for everyone who loves this country enough to make it their home."

See the original post here:
Former Attorney General Eric Holder Visits Iowa, Weighs ...

April Ryan: Eric Holder in Iowa, Considering 2020 …

Holder is scheduled to appear in Iowa to deliver what Ryan says will be a major speech in February, and Ryan says he will make his determination on a potential 2020 presidential campaign sometime in mid-to-late February.

When Ryan first suggested Holder may be running for president in 2020, back in the middle of last summer, Holder was then asked about her tweet saying he was considering a bid by Stephen Colbert on The Late Show.

Yeah, Im thinking about it, Holder told Colbert when the comedian asked him if hes seriously considering running in 2020. And what Ive said is that Id make a determination sometime early next year. My focus really now is on 2018, the midterms, and trying to make suretrying to make sure that Democrats take back the Senate, take back the House, and that we do well importantly at the state level so that were going to be picking half the people right now who will be doing redistricting in 2021 and we have a real problem in this country with regard to partisan gerrymandering.

As Breitbart News has reported even earlier in 2018, Holder has previously hinted at the possibility of running for president before.I think Ill make a decision by the end of the year about whether or not theres another chapter, Holder said at a February 2018 Christian Science Monitor breakfast when asked if he would run in 2020. Well see.

If Holder does pull the trigger on a presidential bid, he will have a lot of scandal and baggage to overcome to get elected to the highest office in the land. His time as Attorney General is the most scandal-plagued in the history of the office, and he remains the only sitting Attorney General ever held in criminal or civil contempt of Congress. Congress held Holder in both types of contempt, criminal and civil, with official U.S. House floor votes in 2012 over refusal to cooperate with the congressional investigation into the Operation Fast and Furious scandal. Holder also had a very combative relationship with Congress generally, and with the media. He attacked media for critically reporting on the Justice Department, and came under intense criticism for seizing phone records from the Associated Press. His officialgovernment staff also enlisted outsideleftist groups to attack journalists with dishonest smear campaigns in his broader effort to silence critics.

Holder did end up surviving through the 2012 election deep into former President Barack Obamas second term, before he eventually resigned to be replaced by similarly controversial Loretta Lynch. Fast and Furious, the scandal for which Holder was held in both criminal and civil contempt of Congress, was one of the deadliest scandals in U.S. history. Not only were Fast and Furious guns used in the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, but Mexican prosecutor Patricia Gonzalezwhose own brother was kidnapped and murdered with a Fast and Furious weaponsaid that thousands died as a result of the Obama administrations incompetence.

The basic ineptitude of these officials [who ordered the Fast and Furious operation] caused the death of my brother and surely thousands more victims, Gonzalez said, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Holders criminal and civil contempt charges from Congressboth of which won bipartisan support, from Republicans and Democratscame in the wake of Obama using executive privilege to shield his attorney general from being compelled to comply with lawfully issued congressional subpoenas served upon Holder from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Fast and Furious, for which many questions remain unanswered, is not the only scandal of which Holder was at the center during the Obama administration. He similarly found himself in the middle of various financial scandals, the IRS scandal where the government overly criticized conservative groups, the Benghazi terror attack scandal, and countless more that all would surely come back to life front and center should Holder throw his hat in the ring.

Holder would also be running against a very crowded Democrat field, in which several top Democrats including Sens. Kamala Harris (D-CA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), former Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julian Castro, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Rep. Robert Francis Beto ORourke (D-TX), former Vice President Joe Biden, and potentially many others are either already running or considering getting in.

Go here to see the original:
April Ryan: Eric Holder in Iowa, Considering 2020 ...

Eric Holder: Northam Should Resign, National Conversation …

I have come to know Ralph Northam as a good, very decent man, Holders statement shared to Twitter began. I regretfully conclude that he does not now have the ability to effectively govern and effectively stand for the issues moral and political that Virginia and the nation must confront. The Governor should resign.

Holder then went on to say that while Northams resignation would be correct,it would not put an end to the matter. We still need to have a difficult and necessary conversation about how racism and racist symbols still pervade too much of our society and the pain they cause, Holder said.

What have we learned as a nation? he concluded his statement by asking.

Holders call for Northam to resign comes as the Obama-era official weighs a run for the presidency in 2020 and is scheduled to deliver a major speech inIowa in February, according to CNN contributor April Ryan. Appearing onCBS Late Show host StephenColbert last year, Holder revealed he is toying with a White House bid, saying that he would make up his mind in the coming months.

Im thinking about it and what Ive said is that Id make a determination sometime early next year, Holder told the comedian. My focus, really, now is on 2018, the midterms and trying to make sure that Democrats take back the Senate, take back the House, and that we do well, importantly, at the state level.

Earlier Saturday, Northam denied being in aphoto with another individual in blackface and a Ku Klux Klan robe and hat featured in his 1984Eastern Virginia Medical yearbook.

Yesterday, I took responsibility for content that appeared on my page in the Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook that was clearly racist and offensive, the embattled Virginia Democrat said. I am not and will not excuse the content of the photo. It was offensive, racist, and despicable.

I stand by my statement of apology to the many Virginians who were hurt by seeing the content on a yearbook page that belongs to me, hecontinued.It is disgusting, it is offensive, it is racist, and it was my responsibility to recognize and prevent it from being published in the first place.

The stunning reversal came after Northam admitting and apologizing for being in the photo, which he called clearly racist and offensive.

Despite denying he was in the photo,Northam did reveal that he once darkened his face as part of a MichaelJacksoncostume for a dance contest in the same year the yearbook was published.

My belief that I did not wear that costume or attend that party stems, in part, by my clear memory of other mistakes I made in the same period of my life, Northam admitted. That same year, I did participate in a dance contest in San Antonio in which I darkened my face as part of a Michael Jackson costume.

I look back now and regret that I did not understand the harmful legacy of an action like that, headded. It is because my memory of that episode is so vivid that I truly do not believe I am in the picture in my yearbook.

Holder joins a slew of leading Democrats and Republicans calling for Northam to resign over the flap.

Late Friday night, the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus issued a statement calling on the embattled governor to leave his post.

But given what was revealed today, it is clear that he can no longer effectively serve as governor, said the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus. It is time for him to resign, so that Virginia can begin the process of healing.

Democrat presidential contenders, including Sens. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) joined the fray, both saying that the time had come for the states chief executive to step aside.

Leaders are called to a higher standard, and the stain of racism should have no place in the halls of government. The Governor of Virginia should step aside so the public can heal and move forward together, said Harris.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) criticized Northam over the phone, yet stopped short of calling on him to exit his post.

The photo is racist and contrary to fundamental American values, the Speaker said in a statement via Twitter. I join my colleagues in Virginia calling on Governor Northam to do the right thing so that the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia can heal and move forward

Original post:
Eric Holder: Northam Should Resign, National Conversation ...