MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry sat down with outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder for an exclusive interview for Essence magazine that aired on Sunday morning and the MSNBC host eagerly gushed over his tenure at the Justice Department.
Speaking to Holder, Harris-Perry played up how over at MSNBC “we call you the duck” because “we say you have a very sort of placid and even way of presenting, but you are just working for justice underneath." The MSNBC host proceeded to ask if he "would you quack for us?”
While Holder refused to “quack” for Harris-Perry he made sure to acknowledge that “I like the analogy.” The MSNBC host beamed at her guest before concluding the interview by allowing him to go on a lengthy monologue aimed at promoting his tenure even further:
For an African-American guy, the thing was to be cool, you've got to be cool, you know, things don't bother you. And so on the surface I’d like to think that that's the way I appear to be, but you're absolutely right, those little duck feet are just moving as fast as they can underneath, and things are going as fast as they can behind the scenes.
See relevant transcript below.
MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry
February 8, 2015
MELISSA HARRIS-PERRY: You know, we know we call you the duck in nerd land.
ERIC HOLDER: The duck?
HARRIS-PERRY: We call you the duck. So in nerd land we say you have a very sort of placid and even way of presenting, but you are just working for justice underneath. Would you quack for us?
HOLDER: Well, I'm not sure I'm going to do that, but I like the analogy.
HARRIS-PERRY: You do like the analogy, good.
HOLDER: Yeah, because I’d like think that–you know, I was born and raised in New York City in the '50s and the '60s, and for an African-American guy, the thing was to be cool, you've got to be cool, you know, things don't bother you.
And so on the surface I’d like to think that that's the way I appear to be, but you're absolutely right, those little duck feet are just moving as fast as they can underneath, and things are going as fast as they can behind the scenes. And I may have been cool in congressional hearings on the outside, but I was pissed off a lot of the time, too, you know? And it was a question of trying to rein in those feelings and make sure that on the outside I was cool.
HARRIS-PERRY: Attorney General Eric Holder it has been a real pleasure. Thank you for joining us.
HOLDER: Thanks for having me.
