GOP Rep. Hageman: IRS Can’t Answer the Phone, But It Can Send an Agent to Taibbi’s House — ‘I Smell a Rat’ 

On Tuesday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “The Record,” Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) said she thinks the IRS’ visit to journalist Matt Taibbi’s home “is an attempt at intimidation” and noted that it’s odd that an agency that can’t answer the phone was able to spare an agent to go to a journalist’s house.

Hageman stated, “I smell a rat, and it absolutely warrants additional investigation. The fact is, Greta, how often do we hear about IRS agents actually making personal visits to tax filers in this country? It just doesn’t happen. There aren’t enough of them, number one. And number two, that just isn’t the way that they do business. How many people complain that they can’t even get somebody from the IRS on the telephone? They may be on the telephone for hours on end. And yet, they’re sending an agent out to the personal home of a journalist who just happens to be testifying before the Select [Sub]committee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government about the bad actions of the federal government and the violations of the First Amendment. So, it absolutely warrants additional investigation. And I think that it is very obvious that this is an attempt at intimidation and to send a message to any other witness that may appear before our committee.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett