Ex-US Attorney General Eric Holder holds forth at UPS, drawing laughter and applause

Speaking on Thursday before a packed house at the University of Puget Sound, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder talked of personal history, policy victories and defeats, and cracked a few jokes.

Holder, 65, who served in President Barack Obama’s administration from 2009 to 2015, gave a talk titled, “Principled Leadership: The Courage to Face Challenge.”

The format was low-key and affable: Holder and attorney Michael Reiss, a fellow New Yorker, sat in two chairs on a stage. The hourlong chat — roughly 40 minutes of discussion followed by questions from the audience — touched on racism, gun control, drug policy, terrorism and Obama’s basketball prowess.

Holder referred to his first speech as attorney general in 2009. The topic was racism, and he had written the text himself, but one line stirred controversy he admitted he didn’t foresee: “We, I believe, continue to be in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.”

The comment drew immediate pushback at the time. Remembering the moment Thursday, Holder said he came home and spoke to his wife, Sharon Malone, who asked, “Who wrote that speech?” The crowd at UPS laughed.

Holder shifted to other subjects, including his efforts, blocked by Congress, to try terrorist suspects, including one of the masterminds of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, in criminal courts rather than military tribunals. He still thinks it was the right idea.

“Those people would be on death row now, or be dead, executed,” he said.

He referred to the Department of Justice investigation of the criminal justice system in Ferguson, Missouri, a stinging report that found numerous questionable practices.

“The justice system was constructed there to generate income for the government,” he said.

His worst day on the job? That was Dec. 15, 2012, the day after a lone gunman fatally shot 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Massachusetts. He called the subsequent unsuccessful effort to pass laws restricting firearms his biggest failure.

Asked by an audience member why his name isn’t among those in consideration for a vacant seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, Holder said he wouldn’t want the job, partly because he thinks he’s too old, partly because serving as a judge doesn’t appeal to him.

Regarding the country’s political climate, he said political polarization meant, “We’re leaving it to the people on the fringes to define too much of the nation’s path — in the past, more people in the middle were engaged.”

Near the end of Thursday’s chat, a spectator asked how Holder would defend Obama on the basketball court. At first Holder batted the question aside. Then, with an air of mock confidentiality, he gave an assessment.

“I’d sit on his left hand, because he likes to go left,” Holder said. “I can take him.”

This story was originally published March 3, 2016 at 10:44 PM with the headline "Ex-US Attorney General Eric Holder holds forth at UPS, drawing laughter and applause."