Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt’s camp claim that his quote to the New York Times last week was “completely mischaracterized.” The quote from my piece:
Senator Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri, said that in retrospect, suggestions that Mr. Obama had orchestrated an I.R.S. attack on his political enemies were unwarranted.
“Presidents have always been very careful about maintaining the appearance of keeping hands off the I.R.S.,” he said. “I don’t have any reason to believe there wasn’t targeting of conservatives, but it might well have been a lot more than that as well.”
Blunt’s camp says the Senator believes other groups were targeted in addition to conservative non profits, and said nothing about a connection to President Obama in his NYT interview. The Senator’s communications director, Amber Marchand, says they have attempted to get the NYT to clarify their mischaracterization but the publication has refused, to no one’s surprise. Marchand adds:
The fact of the matter is Senator Blunt has – and will continue – to call attention to and criticize the Obama administration’s unprecedented and unwarranted efforts to target conservative organizations and other Americans.
I know many hope to see these words become action and that the Senator puts his influence behind legislative actions such as Tom Price’s in the House and its senate version.
