does the majority call for former attorney general mukasey to testify? does the majority examine the full history of these operations in a fair and responsible manner? does the majority even attempt to avoid the appearance that this is a politically motivated attack? i think from the evidence we know the answers to those questions, and mr. chairman, i will now yield the balance of my time to the ranking member. >> okay, the ranking member has five seconds. >> mr. chairman in light of the latitude that you've given on your side i'd just ask for two minutes, to the gentleman's time, unanimous consent. i think you've been very -- >> i would approve -- any objections? without objection, the gentleman from missouri has an additional two minutes. >> thank you very much. i'm going to look at this organizational chart, attorney general, and i see that every single person with immediate supervisory responsibility for operation fast and furious has been removed or reassigned. let's look at atf. here the people that have been removed from their management positions

they did not call mukasey. and as i -- and has not said he will call him.f who said he didn't know about it, that is the atf head under -- while the president -- president obama was in office said he didn't know about it and there's not one -- and he said he did not inform the attorney general, nor did anybody else above him inform the attorney general. but we could have easily have solved this hearing by bringing in that attorney general -- the head of the atf. but he refused to bring him, too. that would have cleared it all up. >> didn't bring the atf or the attorney general. looks like more fast and furious stuff going on than the name of the program. congressman cummings, thanks for joining us. >>> up next, how the republicans don't let the facts get in the way of their attacks on the president. stay with us. your finances can't manage themselves. but that doesn't mean they won't try. bring all your finances together with the help of the one person who can. a certified financial planner professional. cfp. let's make a plan. we have to thank you for the

the same can probably be said of former attorney general mukasey. i assume that if either of you actually heard about, that gun walking was taking place, you would have put a stop to it. as i review this report from my staff, however, i get a little upset. first, i get upset that this happened. hundreds of weapons went to criminal network on both sides of the border because agents did not arrest suspects when they could have. i also get upset that in this went on for so long. we identified four different operations in phoenix over five years across two administrations involving hundreds of weapons. and these weapons put law enforcement agents in danger. in your written statement, you noted that 177 officers lost their lives in the line of duty last year, and 70 of those deaths involved firearms. as the country's chief law enforcement officer, what is your reaction to the fact that these operations continued for so long? >> well, it bothers me a great deal when one sees the death toll that we have seen in mexico, 40, 50,000 people have been killed ov

mukasey. the majority is not willing to bring him forward. he's the only attorney general that had documents in front of him that even mentioned some of those programs although that doesn't indicate that he authorized it or condoned it. certainly if they're trying to find out more facts about what happened, he would be somebody worth talking to and would not be given that opportunity. we could explore reforms that are necessary beyond those that you implemented in the atf and look at statutory changes and the committee doesn't seem -- at least the majority doesn't seem interested in doing that. or unfortunately as we seem intent on doing at this hearing, we can continue to chase what seems to be a political agenda or trying to find out somebody in the administration, new particular somehow had knowledge or authorized or condoned this operation. if that were the case, it would seem to me that a good witness to talk to is mr. melmer. mr. nelson, i should say, the then acting atf director. mr. cummings asked the chairman to bring kenneth nelson

former attorney general mukasey. i assume if you heard gun walking had taken place, you would put a stop to it. as i review a report from my staff, i get a little upset. first i get upset that this happened. hundreds of weapons went to criminal networks on both sides of the border because agents did not arrest suspects when they could. i also get upset this went on for so long. we identified four different operations in phoenix over five years across two administrations involving hundreds of weapons. these weapons put law enforcement agents in danger. in your written statement you noted 177 officers lost their lives in the line of duty last year and 70 of those deaths involved firearms. as a country's chief law enforcement officer, what is your reaction to the fact these operations continued for so long. >> it bothers me a great deal when one sees the death toll we have seen in mexico, 40, 50,000 people have been killed over the last five years. 64,000 guns traced from the united states into mexico. that's traced, wh

federal prosecutors, also served as top legal advisor to attorney general michael mukasey during the george w. bush administration, involved in the prosecution of the times square bomber, the infamous russian spies and the pakistani scientist with ties to al qaeda whose actions were responsible for the 1998 bombings of the u.s. embassy in kenya and tanzania, the sort of person any president, republican or democratic, would want on the bench. he had impeccable credentials including having khrurpblged for justice -- clerked for justice souter on the supreme court. but delays. my friends on the other side of the aisle applied a double standard to president obama's nominees. they have departed dramatically from the long tradition of deference of home state senators and judicial court nominees. since 1945, the judiciary committee's reported more than 2,100 district court nominees to the senate. of those 2,100 nominees, only six have been reported by party-line votes. only six of the last 65 years. five of those six party-line votes have been by republican senators against president obama'

despite alerting then attorney general mukasey about the spelled operations, they continue.t documents a case in 2008 in which atf agents watched in real time as suspects who were part of a trafficking ring that bought more than 100 firearms pack weapons into the backseat of a car and drove them across the border. it documents operation fast and furious, during which the same atf special agent in charge of the phoenix steel division in all three previous operations, take an order from the deputy director of atf to shut down the operation. as the agent stated, "i don't like headquarters driving our operation." instead, field agents continue to encourage gun dealers to sell firearms suspects for months. there are several things are investigation did not find. we found evidence that agents or prosecutors in arizona acted in bad faith. they sincerely wanted to put away gun traffickers and higher level targets. in pursuit of that goal, however, lots of predictable collateral damage by letting guns walk. contrary to many unsubstantiated allegations, the committee retained no evide