WASHINGTON, May 19 (UPI) — U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Sunday accused the Obama administration of operating “a culture of intimidation.”
In an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” McConnell echoed language used by other Republicans on Sunday talk shows this week to describe the White House’s handling of the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative political groups applying for tax-exempt status, the terrorist attack on a U.S. mission in Libya, and the Justice Department’s seizure of Associated Press reporters’ telephone records.
“Actually, there is a culture of intimidation throughout the administration,” he said. “The IRS is just the most recent example.”
McConnell alleged Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius is trying to shake down health insurance companies in an effort to “convince the public that they should love” the Affordable Care Act. He charged Federal Communications Commission officials are trying to “shut down or make difficult people who are seeking to buy advertising to criticize the administration,” and said Obama appointees to the Securities and Exchange Commission “have been engaged in an effort to make it difficult for corporations to exercise their First Amendment, political rights.”
Asked whether he has “any evidence that the president of the United States directed what you call a culture of intimidation at the IRS to target political opponents,” McConnell said, “I don’t think we know what the facts are.”
“Well, what we’re talking about here is an — an attitude that the government knows best, the nanny state is here to tell us all what to do and if we start criticizing, you get targeted,” he said.
Senior White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer, who appeared on several other Sunday talk shows as well, rejected the suggestion there is “some big cloud of scandal” over President Barack Obama.
“I think we’ve seen this playbook from the Republicans before,” Pfeiffer said. “What they want to do when they are lacking a positive agenda is try to drag Washington into a swamp of partisan fishing expeditions, trumped up hearings and false allegations. We are not going to let that happen.”
He said there is no evidence to support a suggestion by U.S. Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., the chairman of the House Ways and Committee, that the White House has engaged in “a culture of coverups and political intimidation.”
Pfeiffer acknowledged there is “a breach of the public trust and we have to work together to rebuild that trust,” and called on Republicans “to do this in a legitimate, serious governmental way and not play politics with it.”
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI).
21 thoughts on “McConnell: White House operating ‘culture of intimidation’”
Finally some hope on the horizon.
http://www.wnd.com/2013/05/sheriffs-plan-to-put-feds-back-in-their-place/
Asked whether he has “any evidence that the president of the United States directed what you call a culture of intimidation at the IRS to target political opponents,” McConnell said, “I don’t think we know what the facts are.”
Of course he doesn’t have facts, he makes them up. At least he is being honest about that.
bodacious – He has no need to make up facts since they are becoming more & more obvious, day by day.
These multiple scandals are ballooning into a real challenge for Obama and the link to spectator.org seems to have a lot of dots checked & t’s crossed.
President Biden is waiting in the wings – now there’s something to look forward to.
To all you brain dead liberals, read this. This article will finally answer all your quiet questions. All those questions that you secretly thought of but never wanted to say anything out loud as to make yourself look like a doubter.
http://spectator.org/archives/2013/05/20/obama-and-the-irs-the-smoking
Yes your right…rolls eyes… The milf and madman would have been a better choice right? LOL
Palin and the Mavericky maverick would’ve been a better choice. hahahaha
NOT!
I never said Palin and Romney would be a better choice, I know they would but that’s not the point here. The point is that here is evidence against Obama and his dogs and if you don’t like it then light up, being in a stupor makes things better.
You don’t even know who the Maverick is?
doesn’t matter, you are trying to change the subject. Your beloved god and savior is a crook and will soon turn on you too.
Every time you call God a crook, an angel loses her wings. 🙁
I’m a REAL conservative, you’re some Faux news nutcase. You don’t even know who the Maverick is?!
god with a little g is a false god hense Obama, a big G is the real God
There is one thing that I do agree with about what you did say, MILF.
That’s disgusting.
Remembering back…
maybe – thanks for a very informative link.
The drip, drip, drip like scandals past continues and Obama is in deep do-do. What did he know and when did he know it. There are way too many coincidences that tie him directly to this fiasco. We need a special counsel to purse this.
The main thing that makes a person a liberal is ignorance and gullibility. Until recently all the main stream news would report was what Obama wanted us to know but now that his dogs are attacking the news they are starting to report the real news so soon you will start to see the truth.
Well at least they didn’t out an American spy or start a $2 billion dollar war based on lies and bad intelligence.
Anonymous is confused because the way to confuse a LIBERAL is to tell the TRUTH. Something they just can’t handle.
are you talking about the same truth that the conservatives us when they alter emails to make the pres. look bad. or the truth about WMD. what truth are you talking about? big difference between conservative’s truth and liberal truth. more often than not liberal truth is fact based. conservative truth is fiction based.
@Dave-why is it that every time you liberals try to defend Osama Obama you go after Bush. When you can’t defend him you try to misdirect by blaming Bush. It is getting damn old. Yes, Bush had some issues but Obama has just as many if not more. You have just seen the tip of the iceburg so far. Bush has nothing to do with Osama Obama’s poor decisions or intimidation. He stands all alone so get off it.
Gomer/Andy Griffith show — SURPRISE SURPRISE !1
This should come as a surprise to no one.