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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.

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

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."

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Former Attorney General Eric Holder Visits Iowa, Weighs ...

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.

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April Ryan: Eric Holder in Iowa, Considering 2020 ...

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

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

When Attorney General Eric Holder released a statement on Monday regarding the developments in Ferguson, Missouri, he gave a clear signal of how seriously he is taking the matter.

The attorney general did not say that President Obama is dispatching him to Ferguson on Wednesday. Instead, Holder said that when he met with Mr. Obama on Monday, "I informed him of my plan to personally travel to Ferguson Wednesday."

While in Ferguson, Holder plans on meeting with FBI officials who are investigating the shooting of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown, as well as prosecutors on the ground from the Justice Department's Civil Rights division and officials from the U.S. Attorney's Office.

"The full resources of the Department of Justice are being committed to our federal civil rights investigation into the death of Michael Brown," Holder said in his statement, noting that more than 40 FBI agents have been canvassing the neighborhood where Brown was shot.

The unusual investment of time and resources in Ferguson shows Holder's personal commitment to the case, according to legal experts.

"It is an extraordinary level of personal involvement by an attorney general," Thomas Dupree, who served as deputy assistant attorney general during the George W. Bush administration, told CBS News. Additionally, Dupree called the ongoing investigative efforts "an extraordinary commitment of resources."

"The fact that the attorney general is personally traveling to Missouri sends a message that this investigation is a top priority of the administration, it's a top priority for the attorney general personally," he said.

Holder's efforts so far are encouraging to those looking for reforms to the systemic problems that led to Brown's shooting on Aug. 9 and the subsequent unrest in Ferguson, such as racial inequities in the criminal justice system and mistrust between local police forces and the communities they protect. Still, they're looking for a commitment to reform from the Justice Department that will last long after the dust settles in Ferguson.

"It's tremendously important the attorney general is going to Ferguson," Vanita Gupta, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, told CBS News. Holder can provide moral leadership on the ground that Gupta called "vitally important." However, she added that "this is not a situation where moral leadership alone is going to be satisfactory."

"There are very direct ways in which the Department of Justice can engage in reforms of specific policies and practices, and funding streams, to ensure another Ferguson doesn't take place."

In the immediate aftermath of the ugly confrontations between protesters and police forces decked out in combat gear, the Justice Department has sent experts from the Justice Department's Community Relations Service to Ferguson. Additionally, Ronald Davis, the director of the Justice Department's Office of Community-Oriented Policing Services (COPS), is also traveling to Ferguson Wednesday.

Adolphus Pruitt, president of the St. Louis NAACP branch, told CBS News that these Justice Department agencies are already working with local police forces and groups like his. They're playing a constructive role, he said, by giving community leaders "training and instructions on how the community can play a role to abate the overall [tense] atmosphere, and at the same time, amend the broken trust between the community and police department."

Pruitt said that in the longer term, the Justice Department can facilitate research into the sort of policing currently conducted in the St. Louis region, so that future unnecessary shootings are prevented.

"We have to do some significant research and analysis on the type of policing, the number of stops, things of that nature, not only going on in Ferguson but the entire region," he said. "In reality, Ferguson is one of 200-plus municipalities that exists within St. Louis county. They all are neighbors... While Mike Brown was killed in Ferguson, the next killing could be two blocks over in Riverview Gardens."

Just hours after Pruitt spoke with CBS News, an knife-wielding African-American man was shot and killed by police in north St. Louis.

While the Justice Department works with local police forces, Pruitt said community leaders are also expecting the federal agency to be thorough in its civil rights investigation into the Brown shooting.

"If the Justice Department finds there was a... case for charges,it would go for a long way to abating the temperament of those in the community," he said. It would show, he said, that "when police do make a mistake, there is an ability for them to be prosecuted for doing so. Right now, among the folks out there, the sentiment in the community is that this doesn't exist."

The federal government has multiple options at its disposal, in terms of the role it can play in the investigation, and ultimately in terms of whether it will file criminal or civil charges in the case, Dupree said. In a case like this, the decision to file charges would be made "at a very high level," he said, and is often dependent on the status of state or local investigations.

The Justice Department opened a civil rights investigation after the shooting of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012, but it never filed charges against the shooter, George Zimmerman. Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder by state prosecutors, but he was found not guilty in that case.

Dupree said the administration likely "drew a lesson" from that experience.

"The administration was heavily criticized -- in many cases from people who are typically their allies -- for not being more proactive in the Trayvon Martin case and not making that more of a civil rights case from the get-go," he said. By contrast, after the Michael Brown shooting, "from virtually the moment it happened, there was a very high level of real involvement and repeated statements by the president himself."

Gupta of the ACLU said that "there is a concern about the back-up of some of these investigations."

"People need to see activity and forward steps on these investigations in order to have faith in the value of independent federal investigations," she added.

While the Justice Department pursues its investigations, groups like the ACLU are waiting for the agency to take broader steps to reform the justice system. For one thing, the department should update its guidance on the use of race by law enforcement officials, including state and local law enforcement who work in partnership with the federal government, Gupta said. The Justice Department could also take steps such as requiring racial bias training and guidance for forces that receive federal grants, Gupta said.

The ACLU and other groups are also calling on the Justice Department to apply stricter rules -- or at least some oversight -- to local police forces that are given military equipment for free.

If Holder truly wants to make a difference, Gupta said, it will become more evident "once the cameras are no longer in Ferguson."

In an op-ed published Wednesday in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Holder pledged, "Long after the events of Aug. 9 have receded from the headlines, the Justice Department will continue to stand with this community."

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Eric Holder heads to Ferguson with a clear message - CBS News