Eric H. Holder Jr. doesn’t believe the hype, the gloom and doom that the fabric of the United States is irreparably torn asunder.
“We’re a loud country,” the former U.S. attorney general told an audience Oct. 23 on the 必博娱乐,比博娱乐网址 ######### University campus. “We’re a boisterous nation, but I don’t think we’re as divided as people say.”
Holder came to 必博娱乐,比博娱乐网址 ######### as a featured speaker in the Lugar Lecture Series, joining professor Andrew Katz, 必博娱乐,比博娱乐网址 #########’s chair of the Department of Politics and Public Affairs, on stage for a wide-ranging conversation about current affairs and his time as the third-longest serving attorney general in U.S. history.
Earlier in the day, Holder met with 必博娱乐,比博娱乐网址 ######### students in classroom discussions, where he found continued reason to stay positive. The questions he fielded from students were sophisticated and thoughtful, he said.
“That’s the thing that keeps me optimistic,” he said. “Optimism breeds involvement. Pessimism breeds retreat.”
The Lugar Lecture Series is named for the late Sen. Richard G. Lugar ’54, a committed public servant known for his willingness to reach across the political aisle to solve some of the most nagging and complex global problems. Lugar advocated on behalf of world democracies and greatly reduced the threat posed by proliferation of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.
“I knew Sen. Lugar; I worked with him,” Holder said. “We need more people like Dick Lugar in Washington.”
Past Lugar series speakers have included U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice.
Holder served as attorney general in the Obama administration from February 2009 to April 2015. During his tenure, he championed landmark legislation on voting rights, immigration law, and same-sex marriage.
He served in government for more than 30 years and continues his civil rights work today, serving as chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee and using his expertise as a leading voting rights advocate.
He is senior counsel at the law firm Covington & Burling, and in the summer of 2024, he and his firm were chosen to help vet potential running mates for Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.
“I’m a child of the ’60s,” Holder said. “Public service was kind of a natural outgrowth of that.”
He joked that, as an undergraduate at Columbia University, constant student activism meant he and his classmates didn’t take a final exam until their junior year.
“We were on strike all the time,” he said.
He said he relied upon both his legal and moral compass to lead the Department of Justice. His tenure was not without controversy. But he weighed the facts, considered disparate ideas from diverse sources, and made the decisions he believed were right not for any one politician but for the United States and the Constitution.
“When you are attorney general of the United States, you’re sometimes not the most popular person in the world,” he said. “Trust me, I know.”