During today’s press briefing, White House spokesman Jay Carney retreated to President Obama’s line on the IRS targeting scandal. On Monday, Obama qualified his comments on it, saying that “if” the IRS targeted conservative groups, it was outrageous.
There is no “if.” The IRS admitted to the targeting when it apologized for it last Friday, at the same time that it dishonestly limited to the targeting to a single office in Cincinnati.
Today, Carney stretched the meaning of “if” to new lengths.
“If I could then goo back to the IRS issue,” said a reporter from the AP. “The president did use the word ‘if these activities had taken place,’ but there has been an acknowledgement on the part of the IRS leadership that these things did indeed occur. I wondered why the president used that phrasing in claiming that it was outrageous?”
“Those from the IRS that have spoken about this obviously have much greater insight into what took place than we do. We have not seen the report. We have not independently collected information about what transpired. We need the independent inspector general’s report to be released before we can make judgments. One person’s view of what actions were taken or what that individual did is not enough for us to say something concretely happened that was innapropriate,” said Carney.
Video at the link. Carney stated several times that he could not comment on the IRS scandal because an investigation is ongoing. That did not stop him from commenting on Benghazi, which continues to be investigated. Carney consistently characterized Benghazi as a political nothing that Republicans have trumped up to hurt the president.
NPR, meanwhile, reports that the IRS targeted 298 groups. There is no “if.”
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