Washington, D.C. - Congressman Charles B. Rangel issued the following statement after Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted strictly along party lines (23-17) to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress:

"It's clear that this entire operation is truly just political theater, created by Republicans to impugn President Barack Obama in an election year. The President’s Administration has worked consistently and diligently in good faith to provide the Oversight Committee with the information it needs to do its work. Attorney General Holder has taken time to testify on this issue in nine different hearings and has supplied thousands of pages of documents. Two days ago, the Attorney General’s offer to provide more documents about the ‘Fast and Furious’ initiative was rejected by Chairman Darrell Issa, a brazenly political move.

Since President Obama's inauguration, the GOP leadership’s goal has been to artificially cause conflict between Congress and the executive branch in effort to defeat the President. It is appalling that they would focus so much energy on playing political games rather than to work on the most important job Congress has right now: getting America back to work.

We should be focusing on the many people in need in this country and making sure they have good-paying jobs. Republicans are spending time on a law enforcement tactic—‘gun-walking’—that ended under President Obama, which should not be used. They have created division where there is consensus. My number one goal, and the Democrats’ priority, as I’ve said before, is jobs, jobs, jobs and more jobs."