Samuel Wurzelbacher, more commonly known as Joe the Plumber, weighed in on the Fast and Furious controversy on Wednesday, criticizing Attorney General Eric Holder in a tweet.
"Fast & Furious isn't Bill Clinton carrying on w/ an intern his daughter’s age," Wurzelbacher tweeted, referring to the former president's affair with Monica Lewinsky. "This is a gov lie resulting in the murder of a border agent!"
Wurzelbacher's assessment of the situation came hours after the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee voted to hold the attorney general in contempt of Congress. The committee reached the 23-17 vote despite President Obama's assertion of executive privilege in response to requests by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the committee chairman, who has pressed Holder for documents pertaining to the Department of Justice's Fast and Furious gun-running program.
HuffPost's Sam Stein and Nick Wing reported earlier Wednesday:
The Department of Justice has released over 7,600 documents detailing the Fast and Furious program over the course of the House committee's lengthy investigation, which was launched in the wake of reports that Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry had been killed by one of the firearms involved in the operation. Those documents described a controversial practice carried out by agents of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that was designed to allow firearms to "walk" into Mexico in hopes of tracing them back to higher-level gun traffickers.
The gun-walking technique, which had roots in previous operations carried out by federal agents in Arizona during the administration of President George W. Bush, eventually led to a number of weapons being lost in the flow. Some of the guns were recovered at crime scenes on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Issa's latest push pertains to documents that would shed light into how the Justice Department handled the congressional probe into the failed program. Issa contends that Holder has engaged in a "cover-up" and attempted to "obstruct [the] investigation and deceive the public," a charge that hinges on the Justice Department's initial denial that the gun-walking had been officially sanctioned or previously known about.
Wurzelbacher, a Republican who rose to national prominence during the 2008 presidential race, is currently running against Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D) for the House seat in Ohio's ninth district. Earlier this week, he caused a stir when he released a web video that blamed gun control for the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide.