Former Attorney Gen. Eric Holder's contention that former NSA contractor Edward Snowden performed a "public service" by leaking classified documents is "outrageous," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday.
"That's a truly outrageous comment," the Kentucky senator told Fox News'
"Fox and Friends" program. " It makes me glad I voted against confirming him. He's the worst attorney general in history.
On Monday, Holder told fellow former Obama administration official David Axelrod, now a CNN correspondent, on
"The Axe Files," produced by CNN and the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, that Snowden's actions were "inappropriate and illegal" and he should come back to the United States to face justice.
But still, Holder said, "I think that he actually performed a public service by raising the debate that we engaged in and by the changes that we made."
McConnell, on the program to speak about his new book
"The Long Game," also discussed the state of the presidential election, including the news that Weekly Standard founder and editor Bill Kristol had said on Twitter that there was to be a third-party candidate added soon to the presidential ticket.
If that happens, it will "only help Hillary Clinton," McConnell told the show. "The last thing the country needs is four more years like the last eight. I don't think it's good idea to do anything that helps us elect Hillary Clinton."
And as far as presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, the New Yorker got more votes than anyone else during the primary season, McConnell said, and he thinks Washington's establishment should "respect the wishes of the Republican voters. They have chosen him as the candidate."
Trump, though, "won't change the Republican Party," McConnell continued. "We know what we believe in . . . but I think he would have to adapt to, you know, to where sort of the right of center world is."
But a Clinton presidency would be a continuation of the last eight years under Obama, said McConnell.
"This has been a tough eight years for the country," said the senator. "That's why people are in an angry mood. They want to go in the different direction and Hillary Clinton is not a different direction."
McConnell, pivoting to his book, recounted behind-the-scenes dealings with President Barack Obama, saying that it was Vice President Joe Biden who was the one who could really get things done.
"The president is a very smart guy, but I think it's a little grating for him to continue to try to impress you with his intelligence when you're in a meeting that you're trying to make progress on things that needed to be done," said McConnell. "Fortunately he did delegate Joe Biden on several key occasions."
McConnell also discussed his book as being a "memoir of my whole life," including a discussion of his contracting polio as a two-year-old, and the difficulties in recovering from the illness.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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