Although the attorney general is a part of the president's team, you're really separate and apart. You have a special responsibility as the nation's chief law enforcement officer. There has to be a distance that you keep - between this department and the White House.
Interpretation
The attorney general must maintain independence from the president to uphold justice effectively.
This quote by Eric Holder emphasizes the distinct role of the attorney general as the chief law enforcement officer of the nation. Despite being part of the president's team, the attorney general has a unique responsibility to ensure that the laws are enforced fairly and without political influence, highlighting the importance of maintaining a professional distance from political power.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of the rule of law.
While he was in the service, in the South and in Oklahoma, he was refused service at a couple of places where he was in uniform, and was told that African Americans, blacks, Negros, were not served. And in spite of that, I've never known a man who loved this country more than my father did.
Guantanamo is a chief recruiting tool for al-Qaida. It has put a wedge between the United States and at least some of its allies.
Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards
In a lot of ways, civil rights division is the conscience of the Justice Department. You can almost measure what kind of Justice Department you have by what kind of civil rights division that you have.
One of the things I learned is that you've got to deal with the underlying social problems if you want to have an impact on crime - that it's not a coincidence that you see the greatest amount of violent crime where you see the greatest amount of social dysfunction.
Those who peacefully gather to express sympathy for the family of Michael Brown must have their rights respected at all times. And journalists must not be harassed or prevented from covering a story that needs to be told.
It's always hard, after you've been in command, to take a lesser role.
When a president makes life and death decisions, he should draw strength and wisdom from broad and deep experience with the reasons for and the risks of committing our children to our defense. For no matter how many others are involved in the decision, the president is a lonely man in a dark room when the casualty reports come in.
If you can influence the leaders, either with or without their conscious cooperation, you automatically influence the group which they sway.
To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them.
Leaders learn to leverage the problems that never go away in a way to create progress for the organization.
The leaders come up from the volunteers that do the work, and it's amazing because then they do these incredible things in their community that they never thought they had the power to make that happen.
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