White House press secretary Jay Carney on Monday dismissed comments made by House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) this weekend in which he called Carney a “paid liar” for the administration’s response to the Internal Revenue Service scandal.
“I hadn’t heard that. That’s amazing,” Carney quipped at a daily news briefing. “I’m not going to get into a back and forth with Chairman Issa.”
Issa told CNN’s Candy Crowley Sunday that Carney was “making up things” to whitewash over what he suggests is a directive by the White House to target conservative groups for additional scrutiny during the run up to the 2012 election.
“And the administration is still — their paid liar, their spokesperson, picture behind —he’s still making up things about what happened and calling this local rogue,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Asked multiple times by a reporter if he discussed the comments with President Barack Obama, Carney demurred.
“I’m not going to get into personal conversations with the president,” he said.
