President Barack Obama spoke at a news conference to address the two political hot topics of the moment, the Benghazi hearings and the IRS scandal.
The president was especially critical of the Benghazi hearings dismissing them as a "sideshow" intent on obtaining political gain at the expense of American lives, according to the Los Angeles Times.
"We dishonor them when we turn things like this into a political circus," Obama said. "What happened was tragic. It was carried out by extremists inside of Libya. We are out there trying to hunt down the folks who carried this out, and we're trying to make sure we fix the system so that it doesn't happen again."
Conservatives have accused the State Department of altering the talking points used in the days immediately following the attacks in Benghazi for political gain; by refusing to acknowledge it as a terrorist attack the Obama administration would look better going into the November elections.
In email was released on Friday, it was revealed that the State Department sought changes to the CIA version of the talking points in order to dodge blame for failing to recognize a threat in Benghazi, according to the Los Angeles Times. Jay Carney, spokesman for the White House, has maintained throughout the ordeal that any changes made were purely stylistic.
These emails were turned over to Congress months ago, a point the president made in his remarks on Monday.
"And suddenly, three days ago, this gets spun up as if there is something new to the story. There's no 'there' there," Obama said. "The fact that this keeps on getting churned out, frankly, has a lot to do with political motivations."
The president also addressed the current IRS scandal. The IRS had admitted that it placed extra scrutiny on Tea Party groups hoping to obtain tax-exempt status on Friday and on Monday was accused of giving extra scrutiny for an even broader range of reasons. Conservative leaders have been calling for an investigation of the IRS with some calling for firings, according to the Associated Press. The president said that the IRS would be held "fully accountable," according to the BBC.
"You don't want the IRS ever being perceived to be biased and anything less than neutral," Obama said. "This is something that I think people are properly concerned about. I've got not patience with it, I will not tolerate it and I will make sure that we find out exactly what happened."
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., stated on Friday that a simple apology from the IRS would not suffice.
"I call on the White House to conduct a transparent, government-wide review aimed at assuring the American people that these thuggish practices are not underway at the IRS or elsewhere in the administration against anyone, regardless of their political views," McConnell said.
While the president did not announce exactly what actions will be taken to investigate the IRS he did say the organization needed to operate with "absolute integrity," according to the BBC.
