Carney on IRS: We Cannot 'Say Something Concretely Happened That Was Inappropriate'

In a wild press conference today, White House press secretary Jay Carney blithely informed reporters that just because the IRS had admitted to giving extra scrutiny to conservative non-profit applicants doesn’t mean something negative had occurred. President Obama has already said that it would be “outrageous” if reports about IRS profiling were true.

An AP reporter asked, “The president did use the word ‘if these activities had taken place,’ but there has been an acknowledgement on the part of the IRS leadership that these things did indeed occur. I wondered why the president used that phrasing in claiming that it was outrageous?”

Carney’s response: “Those from the IRS that have spoken about this obviously have much greater insight into what took place than we do. We have not seen the report. We have not independently collected information about what transpired. We need the independent inspector general’s report to be released before we can make judgments. One person’s view of what actions were taken or what that individual did is not enough for us to say something concretely happened that was inappropriate.”

In other words, the IRS’s apology may have been wrongheaded. Carney is apparently unaware of the first rule of holes: stop digging.

Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).