The Question an MSNBC Host Asked Eric Holder That Seemed to Stun Even Him

MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry has a nickname for Attorney General Eric Holder. And on her show Sunday, she asked the nation's top attorney to humor her by living up to it.

That request? To quack like a duck.

"You know, we call you ‘the duck’ in nerdland," Harris-Perry said.

"The duck?" Holder responded.

"We call you 'the duck' in nerdland," she responded as Holder slightly chuckled.

"We say you have a very sort of placid and even way of presenting, but you are just working for justice underneath," she explained.

Then she hit him with the odd question: "Would you quack for us?"

"Oh, I'm not sure I'm going to do that," a taken aback Holder responded as he grabbed his ear, seemingly nervous. "But I like the analogy."

Harris-Perry doubled over in laughter.

Holder later responded: "I may have been cool in congressional hearings on the outside, but I was pissed off a lot of the time too. It was a question of trying to rein in those feelings and make sure that on the outside I was cool."

Watch the awkward interaction below:

(H/T: The Hill)