WASHINGTON – Former Attorney General Eric Holder slammed President Trump for not immediately labeling the incident in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which a suspect rammed a car into a crowd of counter-protesters an act of "domestic terrorism."
But Holder now is being accused of hypocrisy for insisting a few years ago that a jihadist's attack at Fort Hood, Texas, was "workplace violence."
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"If ISIS rammed a car into a crowd this would be labeled quickly & logically. Charlottesville – call it what it is, domestic terrorist," Holder tweeted Saturday night.
If ISIS rammed a car into a crowd this would be labeled quickly & logically. Charlottesville - call it what it is, domestic terrorism.
— Eric Holder (@EricHolder) August 13, 2017
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But while he was at the Department of Justice, his tune was different for acts of violence committed by Muslim jihadists.
Army psychiatrist Nidal Hassan, yelling "Allahu akbar," Allah is supreme, opened fire in November 2009 at Fort Hood, killing 13 soldiers and injuring dozens more.
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But Holder and the Obama administration declined to call the al Qaida-inspired mass murder an act of "terrorism," arguing it would be "unfair to the victims."
Hasan was charged as a criminal defendant in a military court in March 2010. Thirteen were killed and 31 were wounded in the massacre, the worst shooting ever at a U.S. military facility.
The Obama administration's refusal to classify the massacre as terrorism resulted in the victims of the attack and their families being denied Purple Hearts and benefits.
Holder's tweet Saturday drew reaction:
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Seriously. It’s not like some guy shot up a military base and people tried to call it “workplace violence.”
Oh, wait…. https://t.co/Os66O7ydXW
— Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) August 13, 2017
Maybe you should sit this one out, Mr. Workplace Violencehttps://t.co/rpmKr9MVeA
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) August 13, 2017
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Fort Hood. Boston. San Bernardino. Orlando. Not once did your administration quickly say domestic terrorism
Empty suit. A cheap one at that https://t.co/ShVVvuCUKL— DeplorableDonSurber (@donsurber) August 13, 2017
The treatment of the Fort Hood massacre spotlighted the Obama administration's politically correct view of classifying terrorists as criminals who should be read Miranda rights, instead of enemy combatants.
Holder was the administration's chief advocate for prosecuting terrorists in criminal courts, affording them the same rights as common criminals.
He decided that 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-conspirators should be tried in a civilian courtroom in New York City, just blocks from where the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center once stood, instead of military tribunals.
Holder was unmoved by the millions of dollars for security a trial would cost and by warnings from counter-terrorism experts that trying terrorists in a New York civilian court would make the city a prime target for terrorist acts designed to disrupt the trial.
He only reversed his decision after a Democratic Congress passed an act withholding any federal funds to house the terrorists in New York.
The Obama White House was so reluctant to classify violence perpetrated by Muslims as "terrorism" that former secretary of homeland security Janet Napolitano declared in 2009 that the term "terrorist attack" would be substituted by "man-made disaster."
A White House spokesman explained at the time that Obama was using "different words and phrases [than war on terrorism] in order to denote a reaching out to many moderate parts of the world that we believe can be important in a battle against extremists."
