CBS’s Bob Schieffer Interviews Democrat Elijah Cummings, Ignores His Relationship With Lois Lerner

Earlier this week, Town Hall revealed [1] that former IRS official Lois Lerner fed tax information from the conservative group “True the Vote” to Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-MD). Cummings is the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, and recently made headlines for his confrontation with Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) over Lois Lerner’s recent testimony before the committee. 

Despite this new report, CBS’ Bob Schieffer failed to bring up the IRS scandal at all during his interview with Cummings on Face the Nation on Sunday April 13. Instead, Schieffer found time to discuss liberals’ newest talking point, that women get paid less than their male counterparts. 

According to Town Hall: 

New IRS emails released by the House Oversight Committee show staff working for Democratic Ranking Member Elijah Cummings communicated with the IRS multiple times between 2012 and 2013 about voter fraud prevention group True the Vote. True the Vote was targeted by the IRS after applying for tax exempt status more than two years ago. 

Further, information shows the IRS and Cummings' staff asked for nearly identical information from True the Vote President Catherine Engelbrecht about her organization, indicating coordination and improper sharing of confidential taxpayer information.

Instead of asking Congressman Cummings about this damaging new report surrounding the IRS scandal, Schieffer ignored the entire issue, and focused on ObamaCare and equal pay for women for the entirety of the interview. 

The CBS host even falsely claimed that the GOP did not support equal pay for women: “Marsha Blackburn says Republicans are actually for equal pay for women. But yet, it was blocked in the Senate by Republicans…What is going on here?” 

Given that Schieffer had the opportunity to interview the ranking Democrat on the committee leading the IRS investigation, it would have made sense to ask Cummings about the scandal, or the Democrats' questionable relationship with IRS agents.  

From the April 13 Face the Nation:

BOB SCHIEFFER: And joining us now Democratic congressman Elijah Cummings who has come down from his district in Baltimore this morning. Congressman thank you for being here. 

ELIJAH CUMMINGS: Good to be with you, Bob. 

SCHIEFFER: What about this, Marsha Blackburn says Republicans are actually for equal pay for women. But yet, it was blocked in the Senate by Republicans. 

CUMMINGS: Yes. 

SCHIEFFER: What is going on here? 

CUMMINGS: I respectfully disagree with my colleague. Keep in mind, Bob, that white women are making 77 cents for every dollar a man makes, African-American women and Hispanic women, 64 cents .54 respectfully. There is something absolutely wrong with that picture. I have not seen them leading, as a matter of fact they seem to be very much against it. And I for the life of me I can't understand why

SCHIEFFER: Let me go back to Kathleen Sebelius and her resignation. You heard Marsha Blackburn say and she was at this conference of this group of Republicans many of whom are thinking about running for president. She says it is not going to change anything. Do you think -- what was the impact of her resignation? 

CUMMINGS: Well, I think first of all, I am glad that Secretary Sebelius was able to accomplish all the things that she set out to do. Keep in mind she was with the president from the very beginning of doing what no president has been able to do in over 50 years. That is bring healthcare to people who do not have it. She’s accomplished what she needed to accomplish. She set a goal of 7 million people signing up for healthcare. She got 7.5 million, 3 million others, expanded Medicaid. She’s accomplished a lot with regards to disparities, healthcare disparities, women’s health and she brought us, Bob, closer to an HIV/AIDS free generation than anyone. She has accomplished a lot. And now she sends the baton off to a wonderful public servant, Sylvia Burwell of OMB.

SCHIEFFER: Do do you think that ObamaCare is going to be an anchor, a rock around the neck of Democrats running this fall? It is by every poll still very unpopular. 

CUMMINGS: Yeah, I think that we have to go out there and argue the moral issues, Bob, and I have said that. I’ve never ran away from ObamaCare, because I see in my district and I have a very diverse district of people who have been helped by it. And the idea that we now have gotten rid of preexisting conditions, which was affecting millions upon millions of Americans stopping them from getting insurance I think that is very significant. We have got to look at the good things, and we have got to go out there and make it clear it is something good for America. 

SCHIEFFER: Is your sense of it that the problems with this system, not disastrous rollout, I mean that is over. But the problems with the system itself is it your sense that those have more or less been smoothed out or will there be more problems ahead? 

CUMMINGS: I think that they have been smoothed the out. When it comes to the web site, the web site was a significant problem and that goes back to Sebelius. She was able to even with all of that and with opposition from the Republicans, she was still able to achieve the 7.5 million goal. And again, Bob, I think that it is going to be fine, and I think a as far as the web site situation it will be a footnote in history.