Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, unlike Attorney General Eric Holder, has been a regular on the Sunday show circuit (photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice).
Attorney General Eric Holder will appear ABC’s “This Week” and NBC’s “Meet the Press” this weekend, marking the first time he has made the rounds on the Sunday morning show circuit since he took office.
The interview on “This Week” with ABC’s Jake Tapper will be prerecorded, while Holder’s appearance on “Meet the Press” with NBC’s David Gregory will take place live on Sunday morning.
Previously the Attorney General has favored print interviews and has only agreed to a handful of television interviews since taking office.
Before now, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has been the public face of the Obama administration’s counterterrorism operation as a regular on the Sunday talk show circuit. But that approach seems to be changing.
This week marked a departure from from’s Holder’s previous behind-the-schenes media strategy. On Tuesday, Holder convened a 1:30 a.m. news conference and later a subsequent appearance with an array of law enforcement officials to tout the government’s capture of alleged Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad.
Holder has taken a number of hits for his handling of previous terrorism cases, specifically from Republicans who complained that FBI agents should not read Miranda warnings to terror suspects.
Holder’s handling of the Times Square case has won him high praise from White House officials including Rahm Emanuel, who declared Holder “has his mojo back.”
A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on the apparent change in Holder’s media strategy.
