Holder Defends Dems Pushing Gerrymandering in Md. Despite Pledging to Ban Gerrymandering

EXCERPT:

HOLDER: “Well, what I have said is that, given the moment in which we are -- in which we find ourselves, Republicans are attacking our system. And so what are Democrats supposed to do, nothing, while they actually destroy the system? And so what I have said is that we have to take necessary steps on a temporary basis, save our democracy, and then ultimately heal it. And I think what the governor is talking about in Maryland, something that I support, and what I also supported -- I also support what Governor Newsom did in California, again, on a temporary basis -- is to respond to that which Republicans have started. When Donald Trump said, I want five extra seats in Texas, the question was, what are Democrats going to do in response? I think a lot of people expected us to clutch our pearls, to write op-eds, come on talk to you on television. But what we decided to do -- and I'm head of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee -- what we decided to do was to fight back and to take these necessary temporary steps. And so we fought back by filing lawsuits in Utah and Missouri, won those. We had this -- the steps that were taken in California. And then we also got people in the grassroots. We got the people of the United States to say, especially in places like Georgia and South Carolina, we don't want this to happen.”