On Sunday’s edition of ABC’s “This Week,” Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul warned that if President Barack Obama fails to decisively address the scandals plaguing his administration, he could soon lose the moral authority to lead the country.
“I don’t know whether people were targeted for conservative religious values or just conservative political values and sometimes there’s an overlap,” Paul said. “I think we have to get to the bottom of this. I think the constellation of these three scandals ongoing really takes away from the president’s moral authority to lead the nation. Nobody questions his legal authority, but I think he’s really losing the moral authority to lead this nation. And he really needs to put a stop to this. I don’t care whether you’re a Republican or Democrat, nobody likes to see the opposite party punishing you for your political beliefs.”
To overcome that potential challenge, Paul said Obama must fire someone from Internal Revenue Service within 30 days.
“The main woman from the IRS that’s involved has taken the Fifth Amendment,” Paul said. “She’s no longer cooperating, so I have called for her suspension. The president did respond to that and he has suspended her. However, he’s still paying her, so I don’t want that to go on forever. I think there needs to be a speedy resolution on this, and I think the president is in danger of losing his moral authority to lead the nation if we don’t get to a resolution. Now he says he’s going to listen to his commissioner — new IRS commissioner — in 30 days. Well, the investigation’s been going on over a year now, so I would think it wouldn’t take very long. If he goes beyond 30 days and if no one is fired over this, I really think it’s going to be trouble for him trying to lead in the next four years.”