Have suspicions that the IRS targeting of conservative groups was political in nature? Nothing is further from the truth, according to former Obama campaign advisor David Axelrod.
On NBC‘s ‘Meet the Press‘ this week, Axelrod and fellow panelists discussed the IRS scandal, with the now-political consultant claiming that the whole situation was too stupid to possibly be politically motivated.
“I’ve said this many times, if there was somebody political involved in this, it never would have happened,” said Axelrod. “Because it was the stupidest thing you could imagine. I don’t think it was necessary, and I don’t think it was smart.”
During the discussion, Axelrod also attempted to shift blame for the IRS scandal onto conservative groups and was immediately criticized for his claim by fellow panelists Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Republican strategist Ana Navarro.
“I think the whole 501 (c)(4) concept has to be looked at,” Axelrod said. “Groups applying for tax exemption and also to keep their donors secret — that’s the benefit they get from that. How do you decide what’s political and what is not political? You’re inviting this kind of problem.”
Blackburn rebuked that claim, reminding Axelrod that the IRS had specifically targeted conservative organizations and not liberal ones.
“See, the problem with this is, they were going after the conservative groups and not after liberal groups,” she said. “So there was a targeting mechanism that was built into that, and then individuals, conservative individuals that [the IRS] seemed to be going after. It is the IRS using their position for political intimidation.”
“Congresswoman, I think it was an idiotic thing to do,” Axelrod shot back, but added that the Inspector General’s report showed the targeting wasn’t for political reasons.
Navarro rejected the former Obama advisor’s claim as well, highlighting the specific target words that the IRS had instructed to look for when analyzing organizations.
“You know what, David, that’s very tough to swallow,” she said. “When you’re a Republican, it’s very hard to swallow that it wasn’t done for political reasons when the words that were chosen as target words were conservative, tea party, patriot.”
Blackburn also pointed out the number of times former IRS commissioner Doug Shulman had visited the White House during the Obama administration.
“One hundred and fifty-seven visits by Commissioner Schulman to the White House?” she asked.
Axelrod then played a desperate final card, asking how many times the IRS had met with Bush when he was President.
“I don’t think it was 157 times,” Blackburn answered.
