The Obama administration's refusal to audit Planned Parenthood in the wake of undercover videos on the sale of aborted fetal body parts is "absolutely unconscionable but very consistent with a White House that picks and chooses things that it thinks need to be looked at," Rep. Mike Kelly told
Newsmax TV on Thursday.
"They're willing to have audits of the conservative and the church groups and get into the content even of their prayers — and then they look at Planned Parenthood, and it's like, 'Oh move on, folks. Nothing to see here,'" the three-term Pennsylvania Republican told "Newsmax Now" host Ed Berliner.
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"You can't watch those videos … without thinking to yourself is there not something wrong here," added Kelly, who called on IRS Commissioner John Koskinen last week to investigate the tax-exempt Planned Parenthood. "They pay no taxes. They take hard-earned American taxpayer money."
White House deputy press secretary Eric Schultz said in response to a question from Newsmax about
a Planned Parenthood audit that the administration had "not seen anything to suggest that an audit is necessary.
"I haven't heard that any of the videos or any of the issues surrounding Planned Parenthood have anything to do with the IRS," Schultz said. "So I'm sure the commissioner of the IRS will evaluate that request as he does all the others."
Kelly is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, which is investigating the targeting of tea party and conservative groups by the IRS.
Planned Parenthood itself should be demanding an audit to "clear things up," he told Berliner.
"You should be asking for an audit yourselves to prove that you're not doing anything wrong and telling us there's no reason to even look," he said. "If you're clean and you're truly innocent, then say: 'You know what we want people to look into it. We want people to see who we are.'"
"If I'm sitting at Planned Parenthood right now — and I know that this information is out there and I've watched these videos, and I can see what's taking place, you know what? I'm going to disprove that."
"How are you going to disprove it? Just by making a statement? No, come in and audit us — and you tell me after you've looked that we're doing something that's not right."
"If you're truly innocent, if you're truly clean, welcome the audit, open your doors," Kelly said. "There's nothing like sunshine to clear things up."