Attorney General Eric Holder fought back tears on Thursday as President Barack Obama praised his legal legacy, just hours after he announced his sudden resignation.

Although Holder will leave the Justice Department under a cloudbank of controversies, the president gushed in his political eulogy that America's top cop 'believes, as I do, that justice is not just an abstract theory. It’s a living and breathing principle.'

Obama said in the State Dining Room that he believes Holder's 'proudest achievement' was his record on civil rights reform – what Holder calls 'the conscience of the building' that the DOJ occupies just six blocks down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House.

'Under his watch,' Obama said, 'the department has brought a record number of prosecutions for human trafficking, and for hate crimes – because no one in America should be afraid to walk down the street because of the color of their skin, the love in their heart, the faith they practice, or the disabilities that they live with.'

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Attorney General Eric Holder (right) fought back tears on Thursday at the White house as President Obama (left) offered an emotional tribute to the nation's top cop who is leaving after nearly 6 years on the job

Obama and Holder both talked at length about the personal as well as professional friendship they share

Holder returned Obama's compliments after a hearty embrace, saying, 'You have been there for me. I'm proud to call you my friend'

Kissing goodbye: Holder embraces his wife Sharon Malone as they leave the White House. He paid tribute to his wife for supporting his career and their family in a deeply personal speech

Holder told a televised White House gathering that he has 'very mixed emotions' about his departure, which is on hold until his replacement can win Senate confirmation. But he had heartfelt words for his longtime friend, the president.

'We have been great colleagues,' he said of Obama, following a firm embrace, 'but the bonds between us have been much greater than that. ... You have been there for me. I'm proud to call you my friend.'

Holder also lauded his 'good friend,' presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett, the third leg in a stool comprised of ambitious black Americans who sought and grabbed the reins of power in 2008.

'Work remains to be done,' Holder said, sniffling with emotion, 'but the list of our accomplishments is real.'

Obama told his audience that Holder had toiled for decades in public service 'to make sure that those words, "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," are made real for all of us.'

He was referring to the AG's family history.

'Eric’s father was an immigrant who served in the Army in World War II,' the president explained, 'only to be refused service at lunch counters in the nation he defended.'

'But he and his wife raised their son to believe that this country’s promise was real, and that son grew up to become Attorney General of the United States. And that’s something.'

'And that’s why Eric has worked so hard – not just in my administration, but for decades – to open up the promise of this country to more striving, dreaming kids like him,' Obama said.

ERIC HOLDER'S CAREER: Scandals, activism and race politics Eric Holder is the fourth-longest-serving attorney general in U.S. history and has attracted more than his share of scandal. 1995 – Holder told the Woman's National Democratic Club that the DOJ would soon launch a public campaign to 'really brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way ... in the way in which we changed our attitudes about cigarettes.' January 2001 – As deputy attorney general, Holder interceded with President Clinton and advised him to pardon Marc Rich, a substantial campaign donor and 20-year fugitive, in a tax-evasion and racketeering case. Clinton granted the pardon during his final hours in office. February 2009 – Holder was confirmed as attorney general by a 75-21 margin in the U.S Senate and became America's first black attorney general. February 2009 – A newly minted AG Holder said during a speech marking Black History Month that the U.S. was 'essentially a nation of cowards' on race-relations. He said in January 2014 that 'I would not take that back.; May 2009 – Holder stunned legal watchers by decided to trya terror-bombing suspect in civilian courts instead of giving him a military tribunal at the Guantanamo Bay detention complex. Ahmed Ghailani, indicted for the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies which killed 12 Americans and 212 otherss, became the first Guantanamo prisoner brought to U.S. soil for a trial. November 2009 – Following an Islamist Army doctor's jihad-related mass shooting at Fort Hood in Texas, Holder's DOJ classified the casualties as the result of 'workplace violence' instead of opening a terrorism case. April 2010 – Holder personally OK'ed search warrants demanding the secret collection of emails belonging to Fox News Channel reporter James Rosen. The DOJ wanted to track the source of a national security leak without Rosen being aware he was being surveilled. May 2011 – Holder testified under oath during a congressional hearing that he hadn't heard about the failed 'gunwalking' program Operation Fast and Furious until one month earlier. A memo later surfaced from 2010 showing that Holder had been briefed on the program, which lost track of nearly 2,000 guns that killed hundreds including an American border patrol agent. June 2012 – Congress voted to hold Holder in contempt, an unprecedented move, for refusing to turn over the Fast and Furious documents that a Republican-led committee had subpoenaed. November 2013 – a Texas Republican congressman filed Articles of Impeachment against Holder but only attracted 26 cosponsors for the bill. March 2014 – Holder declined Republicans' demands to appoint an independent Special Prosecutor to probe allegations that IRS officials politically targeted conservative groups with intrusive investigations. Instead he endorsed the work of a DOJ lawyer who was an Obama campaign donor. Advertisement

The question of who will replace Holder is an open one. Top candidates include Don Verrilli, the U.S. solicitor general who successfully defended the Obamacare law before the Supreme Court; former White House counsel Kathryn Rummler; and former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

The White House told a select few reporters of the impending announcement on Thursday morning.

Almost immediately civil right activist Al Sharpton, a liberal host on MSNBC, said the administration was consulting with him about who should be the next top dog at the Justice Department.

'We are engaged in immediate conversations with the White House on deliberations over a successor whom we hope will continue in the general direction of Attorney General Holder,' Sharpton said Thursday.

Washington tongue-waggers speculated all afternoon that Holder might be leaving in order to prepare himself for a Supreme Court nomination.

The next attorney general nominee will likely have an easy confirmation hearing, since Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has changed the rules so that only a simple majority – 51 votes þ is required to close debate and call a vote.

The previous rules, however, which hinge on a required supermajority of 60 senators, still apply to Supreme Court nominees.

Another Holder nomination would be welcomed with a chorus of raspberries from the political right.

Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus said Thursday after the Obama-Holder love fest that the attorney general 'lost the public’s trust years ago. His departure is overdue.'

'His politicization of the Justice Department was inexcusable, and his handling of issues ... was unacceptable.'

Sharpton, however, told Business Insider that Holder's resignation 'is met with both pride and disappointment by the civil rights community.'

'We are proud that he has been the best attorney general on civil rights in U.S. history and disappointed because he leaves at a critical time when we need his continued diligence most."

National Public Radio was first to report the news of Holder's decision to go.

'This afternoon, the president will announce the departure of Attorney General Eric Holder,' a White House official said in a statement. 'After serving for nearly six years as the head of the Justice Department, Holder is the first African American to be Attorney General of the United States and will be the fourth longest person to hold the position.'

'Holder’s accomplishments have established a historic legacy of civil rights enforcement and restoring fairness to the criminal justice system,' the official continued.

'Holder revitalized the Department’s praised Civil Rights Division, protected the rights of the LGBT community, successfully prosecuted terrorists, and fought tirelessly for voting rights, to name a few. He will remain at the Department of Justice until his post is filled.'

Separately, a DOJ official said Thursday morning that Holder had 'discussed his plans personally with the president on multiple occasions in recent months, and finalized those plans in an hour-long conversation with the president at the White House residence over Labor Day weekend.'

'A nation of cowards': Holder has cozied up to black civil rights leaders since his installation as attorney general, including MSNBC host and longtime race agitator Al Sharpton, who said Thursday he's being consulted on Holder's replacement

Out: Controversial Attorney General Eric Holder will resign his post on Thursday but stay on the job until his replacement takes over

That official said Holder will note in his farewell remarks how 'he has loved the Justice Department since, when he was a boy, he watched how, under Attorney General [Robert F.] Kennedy, the department played a leadership role in advancing the civil rights movement.'

'During his tenure as Attorney General, Holder has had Attorney General Kennedy's portrait in his conference room,' the official noted.

During a press gaggle on Air Force One, Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters that 'he’s certainly put in his time in a way that he can be proud of.'

'I’m confident there are members of the president’s team who have been thinking about who solid candidates might be,' Rhodes said, but 'I've not seen the list.;

Holder, the first black attorney general in American history, has been a lighting rod since the early days of the Obama administration when he proclaimed that the U.S. was a 'nation of cowards' on race issues.

His consistent embrace of the president's political priorities has sent his public approval ratings into the same tailspin that has plagued his boss.

In an August poll for NBC News and the Wall Street Journal, Hart Research found that only 15 per cent of Americans viewed Holder positively. That number was lower than any other federal official pollsters asked about.

He long ago lost the support of the few Republicans in Congress who once backed him on straight-line law enforcement, and a few issued statements of satisfaction on Thursday.

'The nation deserves an attorney general whose loyalty to the justice system will trump loyalty to a political party,' Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn said in a statement, 'and I hope the president will nominate someone who will uphold the basic standards of honesty, transparency, and accountability that have been so glaringly absent in this Justice Department.'

'Unfortunately the American people, myself included, lost confidence in the attorney general's ability to lead a long time ago because of his continued willingness to put politics before the law.'

Fellow Texas Kevin Brady, a GOP House member, said that 'enforcing the laws of our nation is the chief job of the U.S. Attorney General and Eric Holder has repeatedly refused to do so.'

'His resignation is great news for the American people.'

But Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, who as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman will run the hearings examining Holder's successor,called him 'an extraordinary leader.'

'My man!': Holder met with Capt. Ron Johnson of the Missouri State Highway Patrol in August following the shooting of a black teen by a white police officer, and hinted that the feds could charge the policeman with a crime even if a Grand Jury determines he acted properly

Blood on Holder's hands? A gun linked to Operation Fast and Furious killed Border Patrol agent Brian Terry in December 2010

'Under his leadership, the department has had remarkable success in convicting terrorists and disrupting threats to national security, while upholding the Department’s mission of keeping our communities safe from crime and fighting fraud,' Leahy said.

Holder notably traveled to Ferguson, Missouri this month to oversee a federal investigation into the police shooting of black teen Michael Brown.

His DOJ is expected to bring civil rights charges against Darren Wilson, a white police officer, even if a Missouri Grand Jury declines to indict him.

In a speech Wednesday at New York University's Brennan Center for Justice, Holder insisted that racial tensions 'simmer every day in far too many communities across the country.'

Critics say Holder's laser-like focus on civil rights and race issues has blinded him to the impact of unrelated scandals on the DOJ.

'If you want to call me an activist attorney general, I will proudly accept that label,' he told The Hill newspaper in August. 'Any attorney general who is not an activist is not doing his or her job.'

But handling of a series of embarrassing episodes has put him on a hot seat that has grown only hotter with time. The result has taken a toll on his health.

In February he was hospitalized after experiencing chest pains.

Holder presided over Operation Fast and Furious, an ill-fated attempt to track the flow of guns to Mexican drug cartels; after the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives lost track of hundreds of weapons it allowed to illegally 'walk' across the border, a U.S. Border Patrol agent was shot dead with one of them.

The resulting fury led nearly 140 members of Congress and two governors to demand his resignation in 2012.

Congress ultimately held Holder in contempt for failing to turn over documents related to the scandal, making Holder the only sitting cabinet member to ever suffer that humiliation.

A year later Holder's DOJ came under fire for tapping phone lines of journalists, and reading a reporter's emails, in a bid to identify a national security leaker.

California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, who led the impeachment charge, said Thursday that Holder 'is the most divisive U.S. Attorney General in modern history.'

Heading home: Obama paid tribute to Holder after returning to D.C. with wife Michelle from New York

Home for the weekend: The couple had been in New York for the meeting of the United Nations

'Time and again,' he said, 'Eric Holder administered justice as the political activist he describes himself as instead of an unbiased law enforcement official. By needlessly injecting politics into law enforcement, Attorney General Holder’s legacy has eroded more confidence in our legal system than any Attorney General before him.'

'Through strong arming reporters, practically ignoring high level wrongdoing, blocking his own agency Inspector General’s access to information, and overseeing a Department that attempted to stonewall Congressional oversight with denials of what is now established fact, Attorney General Holder abused his office and failed to uphold the values of our Constitution.'

Holder's career trajectory has been one of high expectations since he graduated from Columbia University law school in 1976. He took a job in the Public Integrity Section of the DOJ, which he would later helm, and worked there until 1988.

That year President Ronald Reagan appointed him to a federal judgeship in Washington, D.C. Five years later, President Bill Clinton made him U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia

He became deputy attorney general in 1997 under Clinton and was confirmed unanimously in the Senate to the role supporting then-AG Janet Reno.

When Barack Obama ran for president in 2008, Holder was his top legal adviser. He became attorney general at the beginning of Obama's first term and has held the post for nearly six years.