Eric Holder: Institutions Have Failed Us, the American People Have Not
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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You know, Dr. King always said that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. But the deal is it doesn't bend on its own. It only bends when people like us, that is average, ordinary, but extraordinary American citizens, put our hands on that arc and pull it towards justice. And that's what each of us has to ask ourselves. What am I going to do to save this democracy and make this nation the exceptional one that it has shown that it can be?
Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Best People Podcast. We have a real treat for you this week. Someone whose words are really precious in these tumultuous times. Someone I seek out when he's on my colleagues' programs. Someone we always invite to be on ours. Someone we feel very, very fortunate to have an hour with today. Without any further ado, because I want you to hear from him, this is the best people. This is former Attorney General Eric Holder. Thank you for being here.
Hey, Nicole. Good to see you. Thanks for having me.
So I always like to pull back the curtain and sort of show our listeners my work, our work. And the first thing I said to you was that I'm wrestling with the story we're covering right now, which is about Alex Preddy and the horrific way in which he was killed by Donald Trump's immigration agents. And you had a very profound note for me. So I'd love to pull that out of you again. You think it's important that people see what's happening with their own eyes.
Yeah, I do think it's important for people to understand the totality of what happened to an American citizen who was only there demonstrating, consistent with his First Amendment rights, and to see how he was treated. It is a difficult thing to watch, but it is something that I think we need to see in order to really get a sense of what happened there. And I think back to the 50s and what Mamie Tillis did with regard to her son Emmett Till, when she made the determination to display to the world his disfigured face after he had been beaten, thrown in a river, and that had a profound impact on the civil rights movement. And I think if America could handle that in the 50s, America can certainly handle it in the 21st century.
Why does Eric Holder say Americans must pull the arc of justice—what catalyzes civic action?
Now, it's an easy thing for me to say that's not my boy. who was lying there on the street of Minneapolis. And yet, I think the issues are larger, the questions are more profound, and I think a demonstration of what actually happened to that good man, that nurse, that good man, needs to be seen in its totality by the American people.
His parents had a note to that effect. I mean, when the lies were told about him after he was killed, they wanted the truth to come out about their son with a real echo to what you're talking about.
Yeah, and I think that's important. You know, immediately after the incident, the incident, the shooting happened, potentially the murder. No legal determination has been made. We had Kristi Noem, other administration officials describing him as a domestic terrorist or a person who brought a gun to do great harm to people in law enforcement. And we need to know who this, given my age, I can say this, who this young man was, you know, a nurse who cared for our veterans, the things that you all have been showing, the words that he said. as a deceased veteran is being taken out of the hospital. I mean, that shows, from my perspective, the compassion, the caring that inhibited this young man. And so I think we need to know who he was so that we can push back on the narrative that the administration would have us believe.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–2:50
2
Why does Eric Holder say Americans must pull the arc of justice—what catalyzes civic action?
2:50–10:25
3
How did the Minneapolis protests and Alex Nieto/Preddy killing shape Holder’s view of citizen power?
10:25–32:13
4
What lessons does Holder draw about the limits of federal institutions and who must save democracy?
32:13–54:41
Speakers
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