let me begin with senator portman.llegations have been looked at the white house, the inspector of the irs and this house committee has had its hearings. no one at the white house knew about the wrong doing in cincinnati. do you accept that first of all? and given that, what's the most important unanswered questions at your hearing this week? >> well, george, first, we just don't know yet. there was an audit done by an inspector general. a bipartisan investigation is necessary. i also think that special counsel is going to end up being necessary here. what we do know politics was put ahead of the public interest. it was done in two of the most sensitive areas of our government. and second, our national security. second, look, i was one of the people that sent a letter, in march a year ago, what's going on here? we're hearing from all of these consecutive groups. there seems to be targeting. the irs apparently took a look at it. responded to our letter, indicated that there was no problem. unfortunately, they were infor

we have more from bob portman and john thune. and john thune.re welcome to the new buffalo... where new york state is investing one billion and john thune. they were dollars to attract and grow business. where companies like geico are investing in technology & finance. welcome to the state where cutting taxes for business... is our business. welcome to the new buffalo. welcome to the new buffalo. welcome to the new buffalo. new york state is throwing out the old rule book to give your business a new edge, the edge you can only get in new york state. to grow our start your business, visit thenewny.com if you're suffering from constipation, miralax or metamucil may take days to work. or faster relief, try dulcolax laxative tablets. dulcolax provides gentle relief overnight unlike miralax and metamucil that can take up to 3 days. for predictable relief try dulcolax. and metamucil that can take up to 3 days. all stations come over to mithis is for real this time. step seven point two one two. rify and lock. command is locked. five seconds. three, tw

senator portman, give us your take away from today. >> two things.we need more information because the i.g. told us this was an audit and not an investigation. he didn't ask the tough questions. he didn't subpoena folks. he didn't ask the treasury department or white house when they knew it. we have to do more. that is why the investigation needs to proceed. if a bipartisan investigation it's appropriate we dig into this. this is classic example and think benghazi is, too, of unfortunately a troubling pattern in this administration to put politics ahead of public interest. we learned today, not only was this outrageous conduct of targeting american citizens, something we are learning much more about, but also that they knew about this and yet didn't tell members of congress who had specifically raised questions about it. i personally had sent a letter with senator hatch, march 14th. they knew about this. this is 2012. yet a week after the response, they get a full briefing they don't bother to tell us. this is why you heard from senator hatch, he sai

ohio republican rob portman did just that last night at an event in washington. he was also careful to point out that he has a long record of supporting drug prevention programs. portman is considered a likely presidential candidate in 2016. >> ah, yes, but did he inhale? >>> all right, time for weather across the nation. it'll be wet in the southeast. and that will go into the ohio valley and parts of the mid-atlantic as well, thunderstorms rumbling across the middle of the nation. and there will be showers from california into the rockies. >> temperatures will be just about normal for most of the country right along the canadian border. readings will be about five degrees above normal. it will be cooler than usual in the southern corners. >> all right, coming up, congress changing the way we all shop online. >>> and bracing for a new cyberbattle. the online attack coming today and how it could mess with your digital domain. >>> and we will return to the morning's breaking news, the incredible story from cleveland. three women missing for years found alive. the

portman's took a net drop of 18 points. ayotte was a rising star in the gop but now she's falling fast. that's what happens when 75% of your voters in your state support background checks and you vote against it. senator ayotte saw that firsthand in town hall meetings back home. >> you don't want to regulate guns. >> you had mentioned that owners of gun stores, that the extended background checks would cost. i'm just wondering why the burden of my mother being gunned down in the hall of her elementary school isn't as important as that. >> now these republicans are trying to spin their way out of trouble. senator flake said, i've always supported background checks. senator portman wrote a letter to which he insisted of a background check and senator ayotte wrote an op-ed claim supporting background checks. sounds great but it's not really true. these senators are trying to pull a fast one. the only thing that they support is a gop background check bill that is so weak that did they think we would be fooled when they claimed

i'm looking to see. >> let's get to rob portman. defending the company's tax policy and a special hearing. check it out. > apple has real operations in real places with apple employees selling real products to real customers. we pay all of the taxes we owe every single dollar. we don't stash money on some caribbean island. >> and senator rob portman, a member of the senate on investigations, was one of the senators questioned cook, he joins us now, good morning, senator, it's great to see you. >> good morning, thanks for having me back on, guys. >> i shouldn't admit. i need a commentary thing all the time, rob. but i watched you and i was cheering your questions. a lot of times, the public, the only people they see initially are people like carl levin and others talking. and then finally the officers get up in front of them and answer the actual questions. it's like night and day. and the one thing that i think might have happened yesterday, it was really useful in highlighting something needs to be done so that our economy can grow

that was rob portman making the debt ceiling threat, not somebody more idea logical. there's no incentive for republicans to make a deal with a weaker hand. it may be the last window the white house has. republicans of the house are going to run into a pr problem if they don't even pretend they want to negotiate with snalt democrats. they have refused to name their -- to the conference committee to begin their process of hammering out a real deal. yesterday, congressman ryan had an odd explanation as to why they're not doing that. >> when does the clock start? >> so, we do want to go to conference, but when we have a good chance of getting something done. the president should get create for putting chain cpi out there. wasn't in our budget, wasn't in patty's budget. if we go to congress early, i can guarantee you'll see votes on the house floor prior to going to conference where nobody votes and it makes it that much harder to be part of the final agreement. >> what's paul ryan talking about? republicans are afraid that house democrats will be able to bring up poison

we have folks like ken mel man and rob portman who are on the right side.ut you'll notice whenever one of these guys come to do the right thing it's always because they have a personal reason. rob portman has a kid who is gay. ken mel man himself comes out and then is for equal rights. when these people before they knew somebody were willing to throw us under the bus. u agree with wilson that's important for our community to work those angles but i also think it's important to recognize that 98% of the hate is coming from the gop. >> it is hate, too. let's be very clear about that. do you think that john roberts, supreme court justice gives a damn about equal rights for americans rchl i think john roberts is a corporatist. i think he is there to rule on a whole lot of tax an corporate issues. i think that's why he was put in. i think maybe he does care, he doesn't care. i don't think he wants to go down in history as anybody who has taken away rights that have been earned from people. he's not that naive. he would not want that to be his legacy. >> what doe

rob portman say there is no choice.he president said he will not use the debt ceiling as a negotiation tool. how is it not inevitable? >> look, the president has been very clear. he is not negotiating on the debt limit. he believes the era of anyone threatening -- >> arguably he has done it twice. even at the end of the year, the idea of negotiating, but there has been negotiation through it in some form, has there not? >> there was in 2011. what we saw was how harmful that was, the idea that the united states to, in all that we have done in 200 plus years since alexander hamilton to build up our credit rating, are full faith and credit, i think when the president saw what happened in 2011 and saw the hit to the confidence, the economy, are standing -- our standing, he made the right decision. he will not negotiate on the debt limit. no one should never threatened a default of the united states as a way of getting their budget through. >> you are not thinking it will be used to trigger budget talks? >> no one for any re

>> thank you senator portman. we have definitions of distances. 60 miles would be an example and time, 60 minutes to services. those are not really used in a great since when we are evaluating whether someone should read cnas recall ever cared for in the community. much of it has to do with convenience of them or inconvenience of them being able to travel. if you have an 81-year-old gentleman who lives even 60 miles from a medical center, it is a burden to ask that individual to travel for a routine clinic appointment. some individuals who are much closer but have it travel in an urban area, that can be a daunting task for somebody who is 81 years old. so we tried to do two things. number one and option is providing the care and a local community and we have got two pilots that are running right now looking at that option. another one that we are doing using in increasing numbers is what we call telehome health. a video camera in the patient's home, instruments to monitor the patient's weight, ekg, blood pressure

i heard rob portman talk about presidential leadership.cember after the speaker decided he couldn't bring back a package that would get a majority of his own party in the house he didn't want to meet with the president one on one any more. having that conversation in public reinforced by whatever conversations people want to have could be useful. one of the main impediments to moving forward obviously has been the republican position on revenue. they have taken the position that you cannot close one tax loophole, eliminate one tax break for the purpose of reducing the deficit. that every dollar you raise in terms of eliminating tax rate has to go into reducing rates or some other -- as if democrats said we agree this is not a high priority spending program so let's cut that spending program but you've got to backfill the spending dollar for dollar. why should tax expenditures which are a form of spending to the tax code get totally different treatment in these negotiations? yet that is obviously independent. >> as gene sperling pointed out

rob portman in ohio.lso seeing an 18 opinion point drop and one of the senators is kelly ayotte from new hampshire who is facing angry voters back home as she works to try to defend that vote against become checks for criminals. >> i took a lot of heat. i will say from even members of my own party didn't like the fact i went to debate on this issue because we can have strong disagreements but ultimately everything should be debated and discussed. >> then we showed the pp poll a couple of days ago. her approval rating down 15 percentage points. can i say i shocked a lot of people a couple of days ago when i said something about ted cruz. when ted cruz actually sat down, had the guts to actually sit down and talk to the newtown family members and explain why he was against the bill. and kelly ayotte, you and i have both seen a lot of congressman and congresswomen hide in their offices. maybe she had to do this but she had to know. >> this was previously scheduled. >> she had to know she couldn't cancel it a

from ohio. -- senator rob portman.applause] the joke and never gets old. ,very time he gets introduced the audience will live to regret the joke. anyway, with about i bring out gene sperling, chairman of the president's national economic council. [applause] a man of many budget wars, a veteran. here, mr.e last word sperling. >> my privilege. house are on the white side of things meaning you are probably aware of where the level of conversation are. i will start with basically the same question. what is the status of the talks? have they truly begun between the president and senate republicans? that seems to be where this is headed. is it fair to say it's formally begun or not? >> i would say but you have seen the president do is doing everything he can to create the conditions for a bipartisan agreement. you see that by the fact that he was willing to keep his offer to speaker boehner on the table, even put it in his budget even after the speaker had pulled it back. yet seen it in the out -- has done to senate republic

and all it's "tanks" to ohio's senator rob portman and congressman jim jordan. it's a brave stance for these fiscal conservatives. congressman jordan who represents lima ohio where the tanks are manufactured defended the cost saying, quote, the one area where we are supposed to spend tax payer money is in defense of the country. the other area, you know, his district. and if the army doesn't really want them, that's fine. these two have voted to cut funding to all kinds of services and the tanks can help fill the gaps. for instance, meals on wheels got hit by the sequester. let's replace it with breads on treads. ( cheers and applause ). i mean, one of these tanks can barrage the elderly with sticky buns from three miles away. and we may not be able to pay for cancer patients' medicine anymore, but we can offer them one last bad-ass day of adventure. and it's not just the social services. i mean in the military the blue angels' budget has been splashed but it will be just as exciting to watch the gray tankles. oh, they're making another square. the best part is

senator portman? >> i appreciate the opportunity, having just left the finance committee on the irs to talk about tax reform, not just tax administration. this hearing is important, because it's talking about a specific provision of our international tax rules allowing companies to effectively takes ip rights created here in the u.s. to foreign jurisdictions, some by means of cost-sharing, some of it by other agreements. i agree with you, mr. chairs, that we need to address this issue. i totally disagree that we ought to do it through picking out specific loopholes or preferences. we've got to reform this code. if we don't do that, our companies will continue to be uncompetitive. you think about it, we have an uncompetitive tax system now. it may make us feel better about -- so that's why we've got to do tax reform. we have to do it now when the rate was lowered to 34%, now 35%, so we are -- we're looking at several decades now of tax policy that really is antiquated and doesn't keep up with the times

portman y otros posibles, collins, y estÁ el senador de utah que votÓ a favor.grupo de los 8 enfatiza que serÁ clave la presiÓn del pueblo a sus senadores. en washington, lourdes univisiÓn. >>> el senador marco rubio a plo con noticias univisiÓn. sobre el tiempo que tomara a los indocumentados legalizarse y hacerse ciudadanos. vamos a mÉxico. las remesas de los estados unidos, han disminuido considerablemente, y la balanza deaosn dÉficit de 5.000 millones de dÓlares. y como si fuera poco, aumentÓ el desempleo. nos hablan mÁs de este oscuro pan rac econÓmico en mÉxico. >>> las remesas familiares a la baja lo anuncio el banco de mÉxico. 4. 047 millones de dÓlares. esta suma es preocupante so% menos que la del mismo perÍodo del 2012. >>> las remesas apuntaron alva loro del peso y son el ingreso que dependen directa e indirectamente entre 15 y 20 millones de mexicanos. >>> no los atiende o los atiende de forma deficiente evidentemente cuando el Único pilar son las remesas. las familias que solo viven de eso. >>> para que steexperto en migraciÓn. por la escasez de em

senator rob portman ohio of lost a net of 18 points. new hampshire republican kelly ayotte has slid 15 points. >> stephen: poor kelly ayotte. apparently new hampshire voters don't want to change their state motto to live free and die. but, folks, to win the fight against these enormously popular modest gun regulations, we can't care about the voters. we can't care about coherent argument. we can't even care about what feels right. we have to go beyond all previous experience of political engagement and human interaction and achieve what i believe the zen buddhists call satori, wherein we are but empty vessels waiting to be filled. these senators must reach a state beyond truthiness, a complete nonattachment to anything other than keeping their jobs. and that's the word. ( cheers and applause ). >> welcome back, everybody. my guest tonight is the hip hop duo behind the sit song thrift shop which is the same place... please welcome mclemore and ryan lewis. thank you. >> how are you doing. stephen: ryan, thanks for coming, man. very excite

i look forward to working with ranking member portman and our witnesses today on these issues to make sure that we can address the healthcare needs of our citizens and they are met, regardless of where they live. to thankegard, i want you fellas for being here this morning. this hearing record will remain open 15 days for any additional comments or questions that maybe some men did to the record. with that, the hearing is adjourned. [ gavel pounds] >> next, president obama towards the tornado damaged area of moore, oklahoma. after that, "q&a." your calls and., comments on "washington journal ." >> i do not underestimate the difficulty of doing this auction. it has never been done before. he has never done a reverse informant auction. it is very complicated. and know they are working diligently to get it right. our job the communications and technology center is to make sure they are inherent to the laws created we are in constant communication so our intent is clear. made available for sale and the auction is possible. we can build out more wireless infrastructure. >> oregon congressm

and john stanton, the washington bureau chief of "buzzfeed" interviewing senator rob portman from ohioe. john joins us in studio this morning to bring -- did you bring some brews with you? >> it is a little early yet. >> hey, you would be surprised how early we crack them open here man. last one was green head gin here at 8:30. >> i've always operated under the notion if the banks aren't open, it is too early. >> bill: we've even had anchor steve beer in here. >> we have d.c. brau coming in. good event last night. >> bill: congratulations. we have one little clip from your interview maybe the most important question of all that you asked senator portman at all >> like a dirty hippy with the long hair. did you ever smoke weed? [ laughter ] >> this is all off the record, right? >> right. just you and me. >> yes. >> you did. >> yes. i think i've been asked that now in 20 years three times. >> bill: the man is an honest man, huh? >> you look like a dirty hippy. >> you look like a prep school hippy. long hair. playing hackie sack or something. >> bill: you saw the long hair and you knew. po

be worried about immigration stands, their stance on same-sex marriage in the case of portman. scandals give them opportunity to court and curry favor with a really far right wing of the base. that's why you see boehner grabbing the benghazi scandal and running with it, i think you'll see more of that in the house. >> ari, this is such an important point nia brought up, multidimensional nature of the politics of scandal, not just i want to taint the other guy with something, but it is frequently i want to you not pay attention to what i'm not doing, like anything on the budget, and i need you to think i'm really a hardcore guy on this because i plan to vote in a way you aren't going to like very much a few months from now. >> right. certainly the case on the irs where a key constituency, the republican party, that's always saying they're not good enough is now in the news, whether it was low level targeting or not, they're in the news, feel attacked. this is a way the republicans can with relatively low cost, i'm sorry to say, can go and make the bones there. the comparison to

. >> yes, sandstrom had been infectioned with portmannitis named for ohio senator rob portman who reversed his position on gay marriage after finding out his son was gay. i had hoped sandstrom's case was not too severe. >> we should have comprehensive immigration reform. >> wow. you were really far gone. >> this is about human beings. this is about people's lives. >> how are you feeling? do you have a feverness we have to make sure that they have a pathway to citizenship. a glimmer of hope. >> your ears are very warm. you seem a little warm up here. of course sandstrom supporters in utah were devastating. but the beautiful thing about compassion is that when given, it is returned tenfold. >> i was called a traitor, a latino lover. one person said i was exkrement that should be flushed down a toilet. i don't want to use the real word. >> dood do o, fessest, gah gah, do head. do do butt. >> i was cow towning, i was called a panderer. >> what about [bleep] ball -- [bleep]. >> i that kind of refers to the time i was called exkrement to be flushed down the toilet. >> i needed to know sandstrom'

bayern benefit from decades of strict management, but portman nearly went bankrupt in 2004 and have had to claw their way back since then. saturday's game at wembley stadium will show if bayernsn's money will give the edge, but to the fans, it is all just football. >> one person who will not be celebrating on saturday is the head of the german soccer association. he has bowed to remain neutral whatever the outcome, but he can celebrate another achievement -- being elected to one of the most powerful bodies in european soccer. >> he is set to join the governing committee, tasked with overseeing the organization of the 2020 european championship, which will be hosted by 13 cities across the continent. >> cycling and an unexpected day off for the teams. snowfall has forced the cancellation of the 19th stage. that leaves little time to challenge the race leader before sunday's final leg. meanwhile, it is another italian cyclist who has been making headlines. it has emerged that the 2007 winner failed a doping test shortly before this year's race. if confirmed, he could face a lifetime ban.

bayern benefit from decades of strict management, but portman nearly went bankrupt in 2004 and have had to claw their way back since then. saturday's game at wembley stadium will show if bayernsn's money will give the edge, but to the fans, it is all just football. >> one person who will not be celebrating on saturday is the head of the german soccer association. he has bowed to remain neutral whatever the outcome, but he can celebrate another achievement -- being elected to one of the most powerful bodies in european soccer. >> he is set to join the governing committee, tasked with overseeing the organization of the 2020 european championship, which will be hosted by 13 cities across the continent. >> cycling and an unexpected day off for the teams. snowfall has forced the cancellation of the 19th stage. that leaves little time to challenge the race leader before sunday's final leg. meanwhile, it is another italian cyclist who has been making headlines. it has emerged that the 2007 winner failed a doping test shortly before this year's race. if confirmed, he could face a lifetime ban.

i read your piece in yt national review" about senator rob portman and his thoughts on the irs and tea republican says "it seems unlikely that people would target groups based on their ideology without some direction." so it's not just the tea party folks we saw this morning who are furious, is is t? >> that's right. there's a lot of speculation right now within the right about the conservative movement about the white house's involvement. of course, there's no direct link yet, but the concern on the right is basically this. there's a sense that eric holder, the attorney general, is quite close to the president. and they think that he -- if he was up to something, or if the administration, the bureaucrats were up to something, the obama white house in some way, may have known. that's why you're going to see subpoenas, investigations continue. the president may have felt like he settled a lot of these issues with his press conferences today and yesterday. when i talked to senate republicans, when i talked to house republicans, they're just starting, martin. they feel this is really an i

you've been in this town as long as rob portman, perhaps longer.h his analysis that the debt ceiling fair or not has been the trigger to force these big deals when they happened? >> i agree with him that i think historically there has been surrounding the debt ceiling from time to time other issues that have been associated with the debt limit in terms of consideration. what i don't agree with him is that this is analogous to other situations. after all, for the first time in 2011, when they took us to the brink, they being the republicans, took us to the brink of default, that was the first time in history that we had been downgraded, the first time the crisis was really perceived to be real in the sense that a party or a group in the party, and in this case, the republican party thought that the default was an acceptable alternative that you could take the national debt, the credit worthiness of the united states, hostage, in order to accomplish an objective. one thing we discussed last night, chuck, was that neither the president nor ourselves a

senator rob portman of ohio became the first sitting republican senator to come out for gay marriage. coming out of the closet. portman's revelation then led to a parade of senators declaring their support for marriage equality. today, a majority of the u.s. senate is in favor of allowing loving and committed same-sex couples to enjoy all the rights and responsibilities that are true to marriage. then there's the supreme court which heard arguments in two cases that could end the so-called defense of marriage act and california's state constitutional ban on same-sex marria marriage. but for all those amazing steps forward in the march to lgbt equality, we have witnessed a few stunning steps backward in just the last seven days. one week ago tonight, mark carson was murdered because he was gay. right here in new york city in the heart of greenwich village, the capital of gay america. on wednesday, senate judiciary chairman patrick leahy reluctantly pulled a provision from the immigration reform bill that would have allowed americans to sponsor their same-sex foreign born spouses for gr

senator port map, -- portman, you are next. >> thank you, mr. chairman. let me say i also had a town hall meeting last night. we had about 25,000 people at any one time. the questions were coming in from democrats and independents saying the same thing which was outrage. the outrage being expressedded at the very least the irs ought to have an even-handed and a fair administration of our tax laws given the power of the agency. mr. miller, in response to concerns expressed by grassroots organizations around ohio, as you know, senator hatch and i, joined by eight of our colleagues, sent a letter to the irs on march 14, 2012. you responded to that letter. and i want to tell you why i joined senator hatch on the letter. the tea party of ohio was asked to print out ever posting it ever made on the facebook page. it determined the names ever spoke, at the meeting. i thought that was odd. the ohio liberty township -- in march of 2011 in response to the january application. it included resume of employees, social media post. one asked about any connection with a

peter: yesterday, another republican lawmaker, senator robert portman of ohio, called for a special prosecutor to investigate the scandal. ashley: peeling away the layers. peter barnes, thank you. ashley: does the iris make a case for a flat tax which are marked my next guest seems to think so. steve forbes joining us now. you have made a name for your self calling for a flat tax. you even tweeted responding to rupert murdoch. it makes perfect case for flat tax. nothing could be fair and abuse free. >> absolutely. they can go after anyone. you can literally do it in a few strokes on the keyboard or a single page. you can do the same thing on the business side. simplicity is the best enemy of the abuse of power. lori: does anyone achieve this status? >> the nice thing about the flat tax is with the low rate, you do not have these deductions anymore. you do not have to worry about what is a mortgage, what is a home office, and less you have a small business. the terms of the charities, the contributions are tax free. that is where the irs gets power. under the flat tax, that goes away. many worr

. >> rob portman says the reason the story is so important is because the power to attack is the mostensitive area of government. >>> thank you so much. peter doocy. i was about to call him steve his dad. >>> the deadly attack in benghazi. the top white house advisor refuse to do say exactly where the president was that night. he even called the president's where ds abouts irrelevant. >> what did the president do the rest of that night to pursue benghazi? >> the president was kept up to date on this from the moment it started until the end. it is a horrible tragedy. these are people that he sent abroad whose lives are at risk and people who worked for him. i realize there's a conspiracy theory rumors since the night it happened. but there has been an independent review of this they provided 250,000 pages of documents out there with 11 hearings 20 staff briefings. >> what did the president do that night? >> he was in constant touch that night with national security team and kept up to date. >> you wouldn't say he didn't go off to the secretary of state except for the one time when the

lisa murkowski, mark begich, dean heller, rob portman in ohio, all voted against background checks, allseen their poll numbers drop since. in every one of those polls constituents say the vote against background checks makes it less likely that senator will ever get their vote. if you wonder why joe manchin says he is not giving up on the issue and is bringing this background thing back up for vote with whatever tweaks are needed to pass it, those are the poll numbers that are why. also, this kind of pressure is why. here is another new ad. this starts running tomorrow. watch this. >> i'm a grandmother, a hunter, and a gun owner. i've been the victim of a home invasion. i hid my girls in a closet, called for help, aimed the handgun at the door and waited. guns can protect us, but we're less safe with guns in the wrong hands. 79% of montana voters support background checks, so why did senator max backus vote against us. now that you're retiring, please put montana first. >> a new ad from the progressive change campaign committee. it is running tomorrow and also running in d.c. follows th

i think senator portman by the way is a terrific republican on this.arth, he's not -- ears not being hysterical, he's being very calm and matter-of-fact in saying that we need a special counsel in this. of course a special counsel could be bad news for the administration, because whenever a special counsel gets into a situation it becomes not only who knew what when, but are you providing a truthful rendering of events that have occurred? and that is always where administrations get tripped up with special counsel investigations. jon: right. and republicans have been criticized for trying to politicize the scandals, if they hand it over to a special counsel does that that i can away the stench of politics from it all? >>i think it helps. they are definitely being accused, concern lee by the spokes people coming out of the white house, for being -- for politicizing this. right now you look at the polls that came out this weekend, and a majority ever americans actually think that these controversies, scandals, whatever you want to call them are important

got a little media for that, and congressman jimmy jordan, daryl issa, wrote letters and senator portmanon board and tea party groups wrote me and said, let me tell you about the question they want to know all our past' present board members and directors and names of their family members and whether they or their family members held political office or intend to do so in the future. or a woman in the fremont tea party. when you fill outer 1024 application you have to list you're activities, bus trips, and they have a book club, and irs says we want to know every book you read and write a book report on it. and marion bauers said, read them yourself. >> neil: incredible you. had the guts to say, the hell with this. we're not doing this. and because of the way you handled it, you wouldn't back down. you were able to get this process through and achieved. but many other groups did not, and the irs said -- the irs can be intimidating and whatever they want, it generally gets. so i'm thinking of all the other organizations that folded, i was talking to one on espn that said the hell with. so

your colleague, senator rob portman from ohio, apparently gave an interview with several reporters last week and he suggested it was impossible for the president not to know about this much earlier because there were news reports about it. as long as a year ago. what is your reaction to that? >> well there were news reports out there. there was, the terms of the irs commissioner, one of the reasons i said last tuesday at our leadership press conference he needed to be removed is he clearly knew about it and didn't, wouldn't give the right answer to a ways and means committee, to three different members of congress who wrote letters. he writes letters back and basically leads everybody to believe this isn't happening. if the president didn't know about it, i think the president needs to find out why he didn't know about it and be sure that that never happens again. these are, these issues are too big for the president not to know about. is, this is not on benghazi. the president said it was a sideshow. it is not a sideshow at all when we find out now that the facts are not what the ameri

senator rob portman of ohio lost a net of 18 points. i thought he was untouchable. according to the quinnipiac poll, senator pat toomey of pennsylvania who was the partner in the deal, picked up a net seven points since the vote. the washington examiner's tim carney is with me now. also sam stein is politics editor of "the huffington post." whatever your view, i thought your analysis was great in that column. it showed something new on the republican side. the enormous power of the hardliner, the tough guys, led by cruz, led by mike lee, and, of course, rand paul to basically draw the line. you cannot support expanded background checks. not at the 30-clip rounds. 30-round clips. not at the assault weapons. you can't vote for that, and that's what -- >> and it works. it's an inside/outside game. there are other groups that do this in washington, too. here you have the most conservative senators. they stand up. they take a stand. in this case, it's public letter saying we're not going to allow a vote on it. and then when senators and congressmen go back to their distr