Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, said Wednesday that facts were not often on the side of Oversight chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA).

Speaking with MSNBC host Chris Matthews, Cummings was asked if he thought Issa was going to be more transparent about investigations into the IRS.

“I don’t know what he is going to do, but I can say one thing,” Cummings responded. “You asked how did this get out of hand with all these other people repeating what the chairman has said. I think they thought, they just assumed that when he said things like political enemies or the president was involved, they assumed that he had evidence.”

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The Democratic congressman said Republicans appeared to just be “throwing things out there” and hoping it would stick. “And then when there is no evidence, people are still left with the same impression that what was said was true.”

Issa has repeatedly sought to link IRS targeting of tea party groups to the Obama administration, though new evidence casts doubt on the claim the tea party was singled out for harassment.

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