When Fox’s Bill O’Reilly asked the president about the perception of corruption in the IRS scandal with records showing former director Douglas Shulman visited the White House on a 157 occasions; his response was “no mass corruption, not even a smidgen of corruption.”
Despite the fact that directors normally have staffers handle project detail, the president insisted Shulman’s visits were tied to meetings involving the set-up of HealthCare.gov, adding that he didn’t recall meeting with Shulman.
While the president appears to consider the IRS targeting issue closed with no corruption, DOJ appointee Barbara Bosserman and the FBI continue to investigate it At least that’s what we are told.
Have you heard about this before?
While appearing on CNN’s The Lead, hosted by Jake Tapper on May 31, 2013, the president’s former deputy campaign manager, Stephanie Cutter*, said the number of visits actually refers to the number of times he was cleared into the White House, and doesn’t necessarily mean he went to a meeting.
As Tapper contemplated the report of Shulman’s 157 White House visits, he opened the IRS segment with the rhetorical question, Is it a smoking gun or a manipulated fact?
Cutter casually says, “Many of those meetings were for health care implementation, and I was in them with him.” And as if to say “trust me,” she arrogantly added, “So there is nothing nefarious going on here … it’s a fabricated debate … it doesn’t mean that there’s actually anything going on here.”
Stephanie Cutter confers with Obama senior advisor David Axelrod (Breitbart.com photo)
Does it surprise anyone that Tapper, a member of the fawning media, didn’t ask, ‘Wait a minute, Stephanie. You were the deputy campaign manager for President Obama’s 2012 campaign and while working in the White House you managed communications and outreach strategy for the health care act as assistant to the president for special projects. You don’t see any impropriety in being in meetings with Shulman? The Tea Party groups were trying to stop ObamaCare. Exactly what did you recommend in your outreach strategy?’
But there was no such questioning of Cutter. Instead, Tapper turned to another guest, CNN Senior Political Analyst Ron Brownstein, who remarked, “What takes this from where it is now to something bigger is if there is clear evidence that someone beyond the IRS ordered them to do this … I think we’re going to have a lot of examples, you know, information that kind of raises more questions. But until you find something that crosses the line, I think it is still a containable story for the administration.” Note the concern for the administration.
It’s not a “smoking gun,” and investigators probably won’t ever find Cutter’s name or the president’s on any communication mentioning the IRS targeting of Tea Party groups and other conservative organizations, but the smell of Chicago-style politics is there.
Meanwhile, Tea Party tax-exempt approvals continue to be delayed by the IRS and the agency is being encouraged by strong arm Democrats to change the rules in the middle of the game.
* At the time of the interview, Cutter was a CNN Political Contributor.
