A fiery President Barack Obama demanded and received the resignation of the acting director of the Internal Revenue Service, Steven Miller, on Wednesday night. This is the first step the administration has taken to address the IRS's inappropriate screening of conservative groups requesting tax exempt status prior to the 2012 election.
The president called the actions of the IRS "inexcusable" while showing a very rare angry side while speaking for reporters in the East Room.
"Americans have a right to be angry about it, and I'm angry about it," Obama said. "It should not matter what political stripe you're from. The fact of the matter is the IRS has to operate with absolute integrity."
Steven Miller, the newly resigned chief, had known about the targeting of conservative groups since early in 2012, although it remains unclear if any of his superiors were aware, according to The New York Times. Miller will be testifying in front of the House Ways and Means Committee on Friday, hopefully he will shed more light on what happened within the IRS at the hearing.
On his way out of office, the 25-year IRS veteran sent an internal email to IRS employees explaining his need to resign.
"This has been an incredibly difficult time for the IRS, given the events of the past few days, and there is a strong and immediate need to restore public trust in the nation's tax agency," Miller said. "I believe the service will benefit from having a new commissioner."
Attorney General Eric Holder has ordered a criminal investigation into any potential crimes committed within the IRS. Holder made it clear that the investigation will not just focus on the Cincinnati field office where the allegations stem from, but will instead conduct a broad investigation covering the entirety of the tax collection agency, according to The New York Times.
"The facts will take us wherever they will take us," Holder said. "This will not be about parties. This will not be about ideological persuasions. Anyone who has broken the law will be held accountable."
The actions taken by the Obama administration so far have yet to ease the concerns of Republican lawmakers, according to the Washington Post. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., attacked the president for not acting on the issue in a quicker manner.
"More than two years after the problem began, and a year after the IRS told us there was a problem, the president is beginning to take action," McConnell said. "If the president is as concerned about this issue as he claims, he'll work openly and transparently with Congress to get to the bottom of the scandal - no stonewalling, no half-answers, no withholding of witnesses."
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, called for jail time for officials involved in the scandal, according to the Washington Post.
"The IRS admitted to targeting conservatives," Boehner said. "My questions isn't about who is going to resign. My question is who's going to jail over this scandal?"
