The Democrats brought in an expert witness to weigh in on whether or not a special counsel needs to be appointed to investigate the IRS scandal, but he didn't make it very far once Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) started to question him. Gowdy pushed Professor Charles Tiefer to answer whether or not there was a conflict of interest at the Department of Justice when it came to the IRS scandal, and pretty soon there were fireworks. Why does this matter? Because the IRS is being weaponized, and the Obama administration and the Department of Justice seem to be perfectly fine with it.
Gowdy went after Prof. Tiefer for dodging questions about Obama's statements on the "The O'Reilly Factor", where he said he didn't think there was a "smidgen" of corruption at the IRS before the investigation had begun. Since the DOJ ultimately reports up to President Obama, Gowdy wanted to know if Tiefer thought that represented a clear conflict of interest.
"So you don’t think it matters that the chief law enforcement officer of this country, before there is an investigation, while there are emails missing, before he’s analyzed one scintilla of evidence, prejudges and says there’s not a scintilla of corruption. You don’t think that matters," Gowdy asked.
"You can't prejudge the outcome of an investigation that hasn't even started. You can't do that when you are the chief law enforcement officer of this country," Gowdy added.
"You want us to expect the outcome of this is going to have any validity or credibility?" he asked.
Gowdy also criticized ex-IRS official Lois Lerner's comments calling conservatives "assholes" and "crazies".
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Why does this matter? Glenn said that the administration is weaponizing the IRS against conservatives, a dangerous move that has happened before and will continue to happen until people stand up for their American values over their personal interests.
"Everybody in America should be cheering for Trey Gowdy," Glenn said. "What does our American value say about using the IRS as a weapon? Our American values say this is wrong. They used it against Martin Luther King. They were using the IRS against Martin Luther King. They were using the Justice Department and the FBI against Martin Luther King, and we all know that's wrong. It's wrong."
"Once that thing is weaponized, you're over. You are over as a nation. And they are weaponizing it. It's happened in the past. And what happened in the past? They stopped it, because people rose up and said this is wrong, and they stopped it, but now people in America, half of the country is not rising up."
Glenn said that right now, there are people in both parties who are likely perfectly fine with the IRS being used as a weapon. The Democrats are fine with it now because they are in power, and Republicans are thinking it will soon be their time and they will get some payback against anyone standing up against the GOP. That is why you don't see the Lindsey Graham's or the Mitch McConnell's of the world leading the charge of this.
"Same with the NSA, because they want that information, because when they have access to it and control of it, they will use it themselves, against me or against you. Doesn't matter. Anyone who stands against their power," Glenn said.
"I did it, I looked the other way. My principles should have told me there's no way you could do the PATRIOT Act. My principles should have told me no, we don't even have the discussion on torture, but what happened? We were Jack Bauer. What happens if we know there's a bomb?" Glenn asked. "No. Our values tell us we don't torture. And when we get to Jack Bauer, what happens?"
"My values should have set off alarm bells," he added. "No secret trials, no secret courts. You go to a judge and you work within the framework of the Constitution, period."
"Anything worth doing is hard, and the reason why we are in so much trouble as a nation is because no one knows what we stand for anymore. We don't even know what we stand for."
"What are our values? There's a few of them, torture is tough. There's a few of them that are easy. The IRS being weaponized, that's simple. Or at least it used to be for America. Stop paying attention to our political interests and start worrying about our values."