President Obama told wealthy Democratic donors Tuesday night that House Republicans’ attempt to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen is a “crazy” move based on an “inadvertent” failure to provide documents that lawmakers had subpoenaed.
Speaking at a fundraiser at the private home of a hedge-fund manager in Manhattan’s upper East Side, Mr. Obama told donors about the House effort to hold an impeachment vote for Mr. Koskinen on Thursday.
“You’re laughing, but this is a big deal,” Mr. Obama said. “This hasn’t happened before. It’s not that he’s venal or has stolen money or abused his office.”
House conservatives have introduced the long-shot impeachment resolution over Mr. Koskinen’s alleged attempts to impede a congressional investigation of the IRS for tough assessments of tea party groups that sought tax exemptions several years ago. Mr. Koskinen, who took over at the IRS after the scandal was uncovered, denies blocking the investigation.
The president explained the Republicans’ impeachment effort this way: “The reason is because stuff that happened before he even got into office, he responded to inquiries from one of the many congressional hearings to try to ferret out a scandal and I guess left some documents out inadvertently, and well, this is a good reason to impeach the guy. This is crazy.”
“No wonder people end up being discouraged and dispirited,” Mr. Obama said of voters.
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• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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