WASHINGTON — Very rarely do you hear Harry Reid call out the Obama administration, but the Democratic Senate majority leader had tough words for both the scandal-plagued Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday.
“I have trouble defending what the Justice Department did,” Reid told reporters during his weekly press availability off the Senate floor, referencing the revelation that the DOJ had secretly obtained two months worth of telephone records of Associated Press employees in 2012.
“I really believe in the First Amendment,” Reid continued. “I think it’s one of the great things we have as a country. And I don’t know who did it or why it was done. But it’s inexcusable. And there’s no way to justify it.”
The Nevada Democrat also took aim at the IRS for its acknowledgment last week that it had specifically targeted tea party and conservative groups.
“What the IRS did, of course, was inexcusable,” Reid said.
He went on to make the point that this isn’t “the first time we’ve seen this” from the IRS, specifically mentioning how liberal organizations like the NAACP and Greenpeace have been “inappropriately targeted” in the past. He criticized Republicans for not being upset at those examples.
“Where was their outrage when groups from the other side of the political spectrum were under attack?” Reid said.