Well, what's up Wisconsin, welcome everybody. My name is Maggie Don. You're listening
to the Maggie Don show here on the Civic Media Radio Network. I'm very excited to bring
my next guest to the show. We've got former Attorney General Eric Holder. He served as
the nation's chief law enforcement officer for six years from 2009 to 2015 in the Obama
administration. Since that time, he has dedicated his professional life and I think probably
a whole ton of his personal time as well to protecting the rights of every American citizen
to their franchise, to the vote, to fighting partisan gerrymandering that effectively
robs us of this basic promise of one person and one vote. Welcome Attorney General Holder.
It's a pleasure to have you. Hey, Maggie, it's great to talk to you and I'm looking
forward to the conversation. As a minister, let me start with this. I ended my career
as Milwaukee County's chief legal officer. When I took that role, I swore an oath to uphold
our state and federal constitutions. And as part of that, it simply means that I do the
job objectively and fairly that I don't let that office be used for personal partisan
purposes or that certain outcomes would be predetermined. I want to start there, sir.
How important is the independence, the objectivity of the DOJ to a regular American?
Oh, it's, it's everything. I mean, the rule of law is really the foundation for America.
But in addition to that, at the justice department, we also have to have people at the state
and local level as well, who are committed to the rule of law, who will administer the
law in a fair way. We'll try to ensure, at a most basic level, that people have the
ability to express themselves politically by being able to vote and not deal with voter
suppression tactics, not deal with racial and partisan gerrymandering, not deal with unfair
voter purges. There's a whole range of things that we have to deal with now in 21st century
America. And it's vitally important that we have an justice department, a federal justice
department that is focused on those issues, but as well, we always have to remember, at
the state and local level as well, we need to have fair-minded people.
It's so important, sir. This brings me to, of course, Project 2025, which, you know,
there's many elements of Project 2025. But of course, one of them is this idea that
the Department of Justice should be an arm of the White House, that it's okay to use
the Department of Justice to try to accomplish political ends. When we look both at what
Project 2025 promises in terms of decimating the independence of the Department of Justice,
but also bringing the apparatus of the federal government, not to do the job as good civil
servant experts do objectively and fairly, but to basically make every single department
within the federal government subject to the political whims of whomever occupies the
Oval Office.
Sir, again, to a regular Wisconsinite, a regular American, what sort of threat, based on your
experience in federal government, does Project 2025 pose to everyday life here in the United
States?
Well, I don't think people can underestimate the negative impact of Project 2025. It would
do away with, essentially do away with the federal civil service as we know it, and essentially
make people who are in those positions in all kinds of positions, and especially in law
enforcement positions, political appointees who would be beholden to a Trump administration
to a President Trump. And when you compound that with this Supreme Court decision, the
immunity decision that gives him or gives any president, but would be a President Trump,
if you were elected, the ability to direct the justice department to do a whole variety
of things without any kind of criminal liability, you would really unleash Donald Trump and
it would have a negative impact on the average American in a whole range of ways, from health
care, from criminal law enforcement, from voter protection, from the ability for a woman
to decide what she wants to do with her own body. All of these things would be impacted
by a politicized civil service, and especially by a politicized United States Department of
Justice, for no other reason. If for no other reason, people need to vote for Kamala Harris
and Tim Wall, just to ensure that Project 2025 does not become the law of the land.
Folks, that's former Attorney General Eric Holder. I want to ask you a follow-up question
about that because I helped Milwaukee County both organize and then defend our recount
in 2020 that was requested by the Trump campaign. And it was in fact a Republican, a Trump-appointed
judge in the federal courts that rejected all of the claims made by the Trump campaign
after the 2020 election. In other words, rejected the big lie. Can voters rely on the federal
courts as currently constituted to protect their vote, to respect the integrity of our elections
and to defend that?
Yeah, I think that we generally can. I fear that in a second Trump administration, however,
you would have placed on the federal courts ideologues as opposed to good lawyers. But I
think as presently constituted, Americans can have faith in our system, but also have faith
in the Trump and the Walls Harris effort to make sure that their votes in fact are protected.
We have tons of lawyers all around the country prepared to go into court to deal with whatever
Republicans throw at us in terms of these false claims of ballot manipulation and rigging
of the ballot, all that kind of stuff. And be as successful in 2024 as we were in 2020 when we
had to win 60 cases and a variety of courts, federal courts as well as state courts. So I still
think that we can rely on the courts. And people should not be intimidating. People should not
be negatively impacted by the prospect of what the Republicans are going to try to do,
what the courts might do. The first and foremost thing that we as American citizens have to do
is to elect Donald Harris and Tim Walls and making sure that we have a plan to vote
and then making sure that we actually cast our ballots by November of the 5th.
Folks, that's a former Attorney General Eric Holder. You can find out more about your vote
where to register if you're registered, the ward that you will vote in at myvote.wi.gov.
We've got just a little bit under a minute left, former Attorney General Holder speaking to
Wisconsin voters out there. What is your message, including your message to Republicans,
Independents, and swing voters as they consider who to cast their ballot for?
Well, I would hope that people in Wisconsin will vote for people who stand for democracy.
We have really kind of unraveled. Jerem Anderson was put in place by Republicans in Wisconsin
in 2011. It took almost that over a decade to get it done. And this is the first
time in almost 13, 14 years where Republicans tonight will have the ability to cast a ballots
for in a fair way. So I want people to vote, make focus on the Harris and Walls ticket,
but make sure that you're also voting up and down the ballot for State Assembly and for
State Senate for people who will stand for democracy. Thank you, Mr. Attorney General Eric Holder.
And thank you for your work on behalf of Wisconsin voters. We'll be right back on the
Maghion show on the Civic Media Radio Network.
