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ICYMI: Sen. Cruz Presses IRS Commissioner on Illegal Targeting of Conservatives

WASHINGTON, D.C. — While chairing a Judiciary Subcommittee hearing yesterday, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) questioned Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner John Koskinen and delivered a powerful statement on the IRS’ illegal targeting of conservative groups.  

Fox News: Cruz on Lost IRS Emails: ‘Nixon’s Ghost Must Have Been Smiling’
…Ted Cruz grilled IRS Commissioner John Koskinen and assailed the agency he leads at a heated hearing Wednesday where he likened claims that emails from controversial ex-official Lois Lerner were lost to a Richard Nixon cover-up. View video coverage of the hearing here

Washington Post: Ted Cruz Beats Up on IRS, Obama White House, Comparing It to Watergate

During his 12-minute opening statement, Cruz invoked Richard Nixon multiple times to draw a parallel between the Watergate criminal acts and the modern day IRS scandal, specifically the subsequent allegations of a cover-up when e-mails of Lois Lerner, the former director of the IRS’s exempt organizations unit, couldn’t be found.

The Hill: Citing IRS Targeting, Cruz Compares Obama to Nixon

The difference during Obama’s tenure, Cruz suggested, is that the IRS didn’t have the courage to stand up to the administration.

“If the IRS has become a partisan arm of the Democratic National Committee, there can be no stronger argument for ending the IRS as we know it,” Cruz said at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing.

Washington Examiner: Watch: Cruz Compares Obama to Nixon

Sen. Ted Cruz compared the targeting of conservative groups by the IRS to the Watergate scandal during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday. The Texas Republican…blasted the Obama administration in his opening remarks, saying "When Richard Nixon did it it, it was wrong and he rightly resigned from the presidency in disgrace.”

National Review
Cruz Compares Actual Abuse by IRS in Targeting Obama’s Political Opposition to Nixon’s Attempted Abuse of IRS

…Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas), in his capacity as chairman of the relevant subcommittee, gave a hard-hitting opening statement, comparing the revenue agency’s actual abuses of political opponents during the Obama presidency to Richard Nixon’s unsuccessful attempt to use the agency to target political adversaries.

Dallas Morning News:Ted Cruz Presses IRS Commissioner on Non-Profit Targeting

It’s been two years since the IRS targeting scandal broke, but Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Ted Cruz, said on Thursday they’re still looking for answers. The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts, chaired by Cruz, on Wednesday questioned IRS Commissioner John Koskinen about the agency’s cooperation with investigations, and rehashed accusations of a White House conspiracy to target conservative groups.

Newsmax
:
Ted Cruz: Nixon’s Ghost Is Smiling While Watching Obama’s IRS

With Commissioner John Koskinen seated in front of him on Wednesday, Cruz tore into the agency's alleged abuses of power—namely its extra scrutiny of Tea Party groups seeking tax- exempt status and its destruction (inadvertent, the agency says) of e-mails sent by Lois Lerner, the former head of the IRS exempt organizations office. 

 

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