WASHINGTON — A Capitol Hill hearing skidded off the rails Wednesday when the star witness refused to testify and then a shouting match erupted between the top Republican and Democrat on the committee.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) shut off the microphone on Rep. Elijah Cummings as the Maryland Democrat raised a ruckus denouncing the panel’s probe of the Internal Revenue Service targeting of Tea Party groups.
“We’re adjourned. Close it down,” Issa told the committee staff as he walked away from the dais, where Cummings continued to shout out his objections.
“I am a member of the Congress of the United States of America. I am tired of this,” thundered Cummings. “You cannot do this! This is a one-sided investigation!”
The bluster followed the abrupt adjournment of the hearing after the only witness, former IRS boss Lois Lerner, invoked her Fifth Amendment right to remain silent and refused to answer questions about her role in the targeting of Tea Party groups.
It was the second time Lerner, who ran the IRS office at the center of the scandal, appeared before Issa’s committee only to take the Fifth.
“Ladies and gentlemen, seeking the truth is the obligation of this committee. I can see no point in going further,” Issa said after Lerner refused to talk.
“I have no expectation that Miss Lerner will cooperate with this committee, therefore we stand adjourned,” he said.
At that point, Cummings, the top Democrat on the committee, requested to make a statement. But Issa got up to leave.
“Mr. Chairman, you cannot run a committee like this. You just cannot do this,” insisted Cummings. “We’re better than that as a country. We’re better than that as a committee.”
He continued speaking into the live microphone: “What’s the big deal? May I ask my question. May I state my statement?”
Issa said Lerner was free to leave, but he told Cummings he could ask his question.
Cummings began ridiculing the proceedings, calling Issa’s IRS probe “a one-sided investigation.”
At that, Issa repeated that the hearing was over and orderd the staff to “close it down,” referring to Cummings’ microphone.
Cummings continued to shout out his objections as the room slowly cleared.
Outside the hearing room, Issa told reporters that Cummings was out of line and complaining because he didn’t like the “truth” that the IRS was going after conservative groups, an effort that ultimately benefited the Democratic Party.
“Just because Mr. Cummings would like to have a more convenient truth does not give him the right to make a speech,” said Issa.
Issa defended his decision to shut off the microphone.
“He was talking into a mic at an adjourned meeting,” said the chairman. “He was actually slandering me at the moment that the mics did go off by claiming that this had not been a real investigation.”