Attorney General Eric Holder said that not being able to pass expanded gun control laws was his biggest failure as head of the Justice Department during an interview on CNN's "The Lead," further criticizing former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's recent remarks on President Obama.
Appearing in an interview on Monday, Holder was questioned about what he considered to be his greatest failure, Breitbart reported.
"I think the inability to pass reasonable gun safety laws after the Newtown massacre is, for me, something that I take personally as a failure, and something that I think we as a society should take as a failure," he said.
Regarding his biggest successes, he listed that he considered "where we are with regard to our criminal justice reform issues, the stands that we've taken against voter suppression efforts, the attempts to include the LGBT community in ways that it has not been before, and to knock down those final vestiges of discrimination."
Holder also targeted the CIA chief for criticizing Obama's decision to not heed his advice, including Hilary Clinton and the national security team, on the matter of leaving a sustained presence in Iraq and over his vacillating policy in Syria while doing the rounds for his new memoir "Worthy Fights."
"I think [what] Leon said in the book is unfortunate. But frankly, I don't think it's something that a former cabinet member should do while the president he served is still in office," Holder said. "That's not something that I would even consider doing."
In addition, Holder said Panetta's characterization of the president is inaccurate, according to The Daily Caller.
"The president is a deliberate person in an appropriate way. But he's also resolute once he makes up his mind," Holder told CNN. "Let's remember, this is the president who took a chance in going after Osama bin Laden in the way that he did. He has been decisive in a whole variety of areas to keep the American people safe in doing it in a way that's consistent with our values."
In the coming weeks, Holder will finish his tenure as one of the original members of Obama's cabinet and retire after the president announces a nominee and the Senate confirms his successor, CNN reported.
