Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said President Obama’s denial that he was involved directly with the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups and other ongoing Washington scandals shows he is either lying or incompetent.
“One of two things are going on: … If the president actually knew something, well then clearly he’s not being truthful, and no one around him is,” Mr. Priebus told Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” program Tuesday. “If he didn’t know anything, then I think it suggests a level of aloofness or perhaps even incompetence that I think it pretty disturbing in its own right.”
The chairman called the Internal Revenue Service’s much maligned and abandoned practice of singling out for extra scrutiny tea party and other conservative groups that were applying for tax-exempt status “offensive” and “un-American.”
Mr. Priebus added House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, California Republican, will have a busy summer reviewing “what’s been going on in the White House” regarding the scandals, which include reports the Justice Department spied on journalists at Fox News and the Associated Press.
“This isn’t the end of the line. It’s only the beginning,” he said.
When asked to respond comments broadcast a day earlier on Fox by 1996 Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole, who suggested the GOP has become too radical and should put up a “Closed for repair” sign, Mr. Priebus declined to call out the former Kansas senator.
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“’Closing,’ I think in his mind means doing some reflection, making some big-time improvements and getting better at presidential elections,” Mr. Priebus said. “But in the midterms, I expect us to do very well.”
• Sean Lengell can be reached at slengell@washingtontimes.com.
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