President Barack Obama announced Wednesday that the acting IRS commissioner Steven Miller has resigned in the wake of the controversy surrounding the agency's unfair targeting of Tea Party and other conservative groups.
"The misconduct uncovered is inexcusable," he said in a brief statement to reporters in the White House East Room. "I will not tolerate this kind of behavior at any agency, but especially the IRS."
"I am angry about it, Americans are angry about it — and they are right to be angry about it."
He said that he had directed Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to ask for Miller's resignation, and that Miller had agreed to step down.
"Given the controversy surrounding the audit, it's important to institute new leadership that can restore confidence going forward," Obama said.
But, he added, the problem is "fixable."
"I'll do everything in my power to ensure nothing like this happens again."
The statement comes as the White House goes into full damage control mode to deal with the swirl of scandals that has engulfed the Obama administration, and now threatens to derail the President's second-term agenda.
In addition to the IRS investigation, the Obama administration has come under fire this week over the news that the Department of Justice secretly seized Associated Press phone records, and the White House continues to face questions about its response to the Sept. 11 attacks in Benghazi, Libya.
Of the three scandals, the IRS targeting of conservative groups appears to be the most pressing for the White House. Earlier Wednesday, Obama met with senior Treasury Department officials to discuss the IRS investigation.
An inspector general report released Tuesday blamed ineffective IRS management for allowing agents to inappropriately target conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
In a statement Tuesday night, Obama called the findings of the report "intolerable and inexcusable," and said he had appointed Lew to make sure that whoever was responsible is held accountable.
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