Obama Ousts Acting IRS Head After Agency is Caught Targeting Conservatives (+video)
Photo Credit: APPresident Obama on Wednesday forced out the acting director of the Internal Revenue Service and pledged to work with Congress as it investigates why the tax agency was inappropriately targeting conservative groups that opposed Obama and other Democrats.
IRS Acting Director Steven Miller was asked to resign less than a week after the public learned that the agency was giving closer scrutiny to conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status and delaying approval of their status change.
“Americans are right to be angry about it — and I’m angry about it,” Obama said during a hastily scheduled briefing in the East Room of the White House. “I’ll do everything in my power to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.”
Miller’s firing and the administration’s decision earlier Wednesday to release scores of emails about the terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, marked the start of a what promises to be an extensive damage-control campaign by the White House to quell criticisms over a trio of controversies, including the IRS probing of conservative groups, the Justice Department’s spying on journalists and claims that the president misled the nation about the nature of the Sept. 11 Benghazi attacks that left an ambassador and three others dead.
Obama said other changes will be made at the IRS to prevent similar abuses in the future, but said nothing about additional firings.
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