In an interview Friday on the Family Research Council’s Washington Watch, Rep. Louie Gohmert said that Congress should considering passing a resolution directing the sergeant at arms to arrest Attorney General Eric Holder.
FRC president Tony Perkins repeated his suggestion from earlier this month that the House sergeant at arms should have “slapped the cuffs on” Holder and “stuffed him down there in the cell in the Capitol” during the State of the Union Address in response to the House GOP’s 2012 vote to hold Holder in contempt of Congress.
In response, Gohmert suggested Republicans consider passing “a resolution directing the Sergeant at Arms to detain anyone who is in contempt of Congress.”
“There is a cell there on Capitol Hill,” he added.
Gohmert: When you have someone like an attorney general who is in contempt of Congress, what can we do? Someone in contempt of Congress comes waltzing into the House chamber and he’s in contempt of Congress as found by the Congress, what can be done? I was told that actually you can pass a resolution directing the sergeant at arms to detain anyone who is in contempt of Congress until such time as they comply with the requirement that put him in contempt. In this case, they didn’t provide information from the Justice Department, they had it, they refused to provide it, we found him in contempt.
Perkins: It’s interesting you bring that up because as you recall I was sitting next to your guest at the State of the Union address, Sean Hannity and I were sitting up in the balcony and that was the thought that crossed my mind when I saw the attorney general, Eric Holder, walk into the chamber along with the president’s cabinet. I said, here’s a guy—this guy’s got a lot of nerve, he’s in contempt of Congress, and this didn’t just happen, this has been going on now for over a year or longer, almost two years or three I guess since ‘Fast & Furious’ and he’s refused to provide this documentation to Congress, he’s in contempt of Congress, and he just strolls right in and sits on the front row there. I’m thinking, my goodness, why doesn’t Congress do something about that?
Gohmert: My thought was the only thing that we can probably do is defund any area of the Justice Department that is in contempt, that won’t produce the documents that were demanded. But apparently another option would be to direct a sergeant at arms, somebody comes into our jurisdiction at Capitol Hill, you restrain them until such time, and there is a cell there on Capitol Hill.
