‘Angry’ Obama says acting IRS chief fired over conservative targeting

President Barack Obama will make previously unannounced remarks on the IRS scandal at 6 p.m. Wednesday, his press office said. The president's statement from the East Room of the White House will come a little more than an hour after a meeting with senior Treasury Department officials to discuss the controversy, which centers on the IRS' acknowledgement that it improperly targeted conservative groups for scrutiny.

In a written statement late Tuesday, Obama called the IRS' behavior "intolerable and inexcusable," and said that he had directed Treasury Secretary Jack Lew "to hold those responsible for these failures accountable."

On Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder promised angry lawmakers that the Justice Department will undertake a national investigation into the IRS wrongdoing.

"We will take a dispassionate view of this," said Holder, who faced tough questioning from the House Judiciary Committee. "This will not be about parties ... anyone who has broken the law will be held accountable."

Holder said he had launched an investigation last Friday into why the IRS subjected conservative groups to more review when they applied for tax-exempt status. The IRS inspector general's report said that a group of low-level staffers in an Ohio office were responsible, and a top IRS official has apologized on their behalf.

But Holder promised that the investigation will look well beyond Ohio, and suggested that civil rights laws could have been violated.

Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., asked Holder at the hearing whether an "apology" from the IRS protected them from criminal prosecution. Holder answered, "No."

The Obama Administration is under fire over the IRS, the president's handling of the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, and the Department of Justice's secret collection of telephone records of Associated Press reporters and editors.

Republicans have been hammering Obama on all three matters. While Democrats have largely defended him—and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton—on Benghazi, they have joined their GOP colleagues in denouncing the IRS and in expressing deep concerns about the AP phone records.

On Monday, Obama dismissed Republican charges of a cover-up in the Benghazi situation as a "sideshow" lacking any merit. He has yet to comment directly on the AP issue.

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