If President Obama doesn’t take action to resolve the scandals plaguing his administration, he’s quickly losing his “moral authority to lead,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said on Sunday.
Paul appeared on ABC’s ‘This Week‘ via video call, speaking with Martha Raddatz about the President’s drone policy and his handling of the current controversies. He expressed a level of discontentment with the ethical behavior of the current administration.
“I think the constellation of these three scandals ongoing really takes away from the President’s moral authority to lead the nation,” remarked Paul. “Nobody questions his legal authority, but I think he’s really losing the moral authority to lead this nation, and he really needs to put a stop to this.”
He stressed that the government shouldn’t use its power to target groups for their religious or political affiliation, a point he also said both Democrats and Republicans could agree about.
When asked by Raddatz about the possibility of criminal behavior in the recent IRS scandal, Paul said he didn’t know, but expressed concern over the fact that the suspended IRS official Lois Lerner was still receiving a paycheck from the U.S. government.
“The main woman from the IRS that’s involved [Lois Lerner] has taken the fifth amendment. She’s no longer cooperating. So I have called for her suspension,” said Paul. “The president did respond to that and he has suspended her, however he’s still paying her, so I don’t want that to go on forever.”
Paul added that if no one is fired after the agency’s 30-day investigation of itself, it could cause “trouble” for the new IRS commissioner Daniel Werfel.
