Now seems to be the time to hit the Obama administration, what with the Benghazi scandal and the Department of Justice’s seizure of Associated Press journalists phone records — so Republicans were merciless when questioning Steve Miller about the IRS scandal this Friday.
Steven Miller was the acting commissioner of the IRS who resigned from that role earlier this week, and faced lawmaker’s interrogations this Friday regarding the IRS’s targeting of conservatives in May. In vetting groups seeking non-profit status, they filtered out such groups that had “patriot” or “tea party” in the name of their group.
“I do not believe that partisanship motivated the practices of the people described in the IG report,” said Miller, referring to the report IRS inspector general J. Russell George produced. “I think that what happened here was that foolish mistakes were made by people who were trying to be efficient in their work.”
In other words, the IRS was trying to streamline its process, not picking on GOP groups in particular. This at least is the story that both Miller and George are insisting on, in the face of such angry Republicans as Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, who said, “Is this government so drunk on power that it would turn its full force, its full might to harass and intimidate and threaten an average American?”
When asked if they had found any evidence that the IRS scrutiny of conservatives was politically motivated, Miller and George both answered the same: “We did not, sir.”