Gingrich On IRS Scandal: Obama Admin. Profiles Patriots, But Not Terrorists

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

 

Arguing that President Barack Obama owes an apology to all tea party groups in the wake of the Internal Revenue Service’s improper targeting of nonprofit organizations, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Monday that he finds it unseemly that the administration “will not profile terrorists but profile patriots.”

“I think the President has to say he’s going to open up totally, he’s going to demand everybody meet with congress, go to the hearings. He is going to fire everybody he can legally fire who’s been involved in this,” Gingrich said during MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “And they’ve to look at changes…Remember, this is an administration which will not profile terrorists but profile patriots. Profile constitutional groups? I mean, this is almost madness.”

Gingrich retierated the point later in the interview, calling on Obama to issue a mea culpa for the “culturally sick” targeting.

“He also owes every tea party in America, every group called patriot, every group that wants to study the Constitution an apology,” Gingrich said. “How can you have an American government profile against the word patriot? I mean, there’s something culturally sick if the American government says ‘Boy, you put that word constitution in your name, we’re going to come after you.’ Again, this isn’t an administration that is shocked at the idea of profiling for terrorism but apparently had an entire part of the IRS that was profiling for patriotism. I find that to be very, very chilling in terms of our political liberty.”

Latest Livewire
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: