O’Reilly noticed that CNN’s Candy Crowley took a “slightly skeptical tone” in how she phrased a question to Senator Rand Paul over Benghazi. Goldberg lumped this kind of questioning in with a reporter asking a scientist about the possibility of the earth being flat. He said that when Republicans are involved, it’s unambiguously a scandal, but when Democrats are involved, the headlines focus on how the Republicans are cynically manipulating said scandals.

RELATED: ‘More Political Than Policy’? Candy Crowley Confronts Rand Paul Over Motivation Behind Hillary Criticism

Goldberg specifically cited a New York Times front page headline about the scandal, and slammed MSNBC’s Joy Reid for claiming the story is “not about you” unless you’re trying to form a 501c4 organization. Goldberg remarked, “This is how far liberalism has fallen in this country.”

O’Reilly found it striking how Crowley was “almost arguing” with Paul in an apparent defense of the Obama administration, and while he did admit there is a legitimate conversation to be had about the politics of the scandal, but said the main story has to be about credibility. Goldberg added that while the Times story on the GOP reaction was on page one, the main story about the scandal was covered on page 11. Goldberg brought up the people interviewed on the street by O’Reilly’s producer last week, calling them the kind of “clueless people” Obama is counting on to help him get through all the scandals he’s facing.

Watch the video below, courtesy of Fox News:

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

Charles Krauthammer found it amazing that the government would make such a “huge assault on the first amendment” in trying to go after Rosen for doing his job. Baier pointed out that Rosen was never formally charged nor contacted by the government. Powers accused the Obama administration of being overconcerned with prosecuting whistleblowers while not going after leakers who reveal positive information about the administration.

Baier then highlighted documents revealing that the seized phone records also included “records [that] relate to James’ parents’ home in Staten Island.”

Tucker Carlson went after the press for being silent when the White House was trying to basically kick Fox News out of the press room, and warned that the scandal could get bigger with the revelation that a CBS reporter’s computer was compromised.

Watch the video below, courtesy of Fox News:

h/t Twitchy

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

During today’s press briefing, Carney sequentially smacked down the outrage over Benghazi, the IRS, and the AP seizures by blaming most of the scandal fever on over-the-top Republican outrage. When CBS’s Major Garrett threw the fundraising scandal involving Sebelius into the mix, Carney deflected by dismissing all the outrage as misplaced as birtherism.

“We could go down the list of questions–we could say ‘What about the president’s birth certificate? Was that legitimate?’”

At this stage of the game, when outrage is building on both sides of the aisle, it may be just a little too late to dismiss this as just petty politics.

Watch the video below:

h/t BuzzFeed

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

Fox was #1 in total viewers for prime time with 2.603M viewers. CNN came in at #2 with 1.882M total viewers and, once again, MSNBC was third with 926K. Fox peaked at 8pm with a special report from Shepard Smith, which drew 3.107M total viewers. CNN’s peak came two hours later at 10pm with Cooper, who drew 2.053M total viewers.

During heavy coverage of the Oklahoma tornado Monday night in prime time, CNN was #1 in the 25-54 demo with 790K viewers. Fox came in second with 632K and MSNBC was a distant third with 337K. Anderson Cooper‘s 10pm broadcast was a high point for CNN, winning the demo in that hour with 916K viewers.

Also notable, Fox outpaced The Weather Channel, a major destination for storm coverage, which saw 1.245M total viewers in prime time.

Here are the rest of your Monday night ratings:

TV NEWS RATINGS: 25-54 DEMOGRAPHIC (L +SD)
5 pm	The Five  364	Blitzer  321	Tornado Special  135	Express  182
6 pm	Baier  463	Blitzer  465	Tornado Special  193	Express  203
7 pm	Smith  455	Burnett  558	Matthews  253	Velez-Mitchell  218
8 pm	Smith  688	Cooper  686	Hayes  380	Grace  236
9 pm	Hannity  645	Morgan  766	Maddow  361	Dr. Drew  222
10 pm	Van Susteren  555	Cooper  916	O’Donnell  265	After Dark  231
11 pm	Van Susteren  519	Burnett  641	Hayes  196	After Dark  129
TOTAL DAY	352	343	153	206
PRIME TIME	632	790	337	229
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data.

TV NEWS RATINGS: TOTAL VIEWERS (L +SD)
5 pm	The Five  2.398	Blitzer  1.022	Tornado Special  709	Express  558
6 pm	Baier  2.429	Blitzer  1.206	Tornado Special  714	Express  609
7 pm	Smith  2.365	Burnett  1.379	Matthews  959	Velez-Mitchell  698
8 pm	Smith  3.107	Cooper  1.663	Hayes  1.025	Grace  738
9 pm	Hannity  2.642	Morgan  1.924	Maddow  926	Dr. Drew  653
10 pm	Van Susteren  2.040	Cooper  2.053	O’Donnell  815	After Dark  626
11 pm	Van Susteren  1.511	Burnett  1.364	Hayes  478	After Dark  407
TOTAL DAY	1.696	858	495	589
PRIME TIME	2.603	1.882	926	672
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer demonstrated why you should never assume someone believes in God while interviewing a survivor of the Oklahoma tornado Tuesday afternoon. Blitzer spoke to a young woman named Rebecca, who escaped with her 19-month-old son just moments before the tornado destroyed their home.

While their narrow escape from harm may have seemed miraculous, Rebecca evidently didn’t see it that way. At the end of the interview, Blitzer told her, “You’re blessed. Brian, your husband is blessed. Anders is blessed… I guess you got to thank the lord, right?” When the woman shrugged off the question, he repeated it, asking, “Do you thank the lord for that split-second decision?”

“I–I’m actually an atheist,” she responded. After the awkward laughter that followed, she added, “We are here and you know, I don’t blame anybody for thanking the lord.”

“Of course not,” Blitzer replied.

Watch video below, via CNN:

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>> Follow Matt Wilstein (@TheMattWilstein) on Twitter

Tuesday afternoon on Fox, the hosts of The Five took a break from covering the Oklahoma tornado aftermath to turn their attention to tea party rallies across the country today and mainstream media’s refusal to take them seriously. Even after, as Greg Gutfeld said, tea party groups “actually earned victim status for real,” the press is cautioning against giving them too much credibility.

“For the media, this has to be awkward,” Gutfeld said of the anti-IRS rallies, adding, “maybe painting [the tea party] as racist” helped encourage the IRS to target them for audits. Now, the AP is reporting that “the tea party runs the risk of going too far in its criticism, which could once again open the door to Democratic efforts to paint it as an extreme arm of the GOP.”

Comparing the tea party to “your parents,” Gutfeld said, “You hate them for their opinions until you realize they were right all along. Wouldn’t it be great if the American media could grow up and do the same?”

“Remember what birthed the tea party?” Eric Bolling asked. “Obamacare.” Making a connection recently promoted by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and others he said, “Look what we have now. We have the IRS about to take over administering Obamacare–a perfect circle–and the tea party was right from the very beginning to push back from this. This is bad.”

Andrea Tantaros said she sees opportunity for the tea party after the IRS scandal. “It should be bigger and stronger now,” she said, “because they have more sympathy from the other side of the aisle. Now they’re not the big bad bullies. Maybe now they should make a case to abolish the IRS, get rid of it all together.”

Curiously invoking Mitt Romney‘s “47 percent” line, Kimberly Guilfoyle argued that all Americans should take the tea party seriously becayse they care about “being able to make sure that an agency that is so powerful and crushing like the IRS is above corruption. Because what they’ve done here by targeting Americans is not only unconscionable, it’s illegal.”

Watch video below, via Fox News:

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>> Follow Matt Wilstein (@TheMattWilstein) on Twitter

During a nearly 20-minute-long allocution, Arias explained to the jury that although she once told the media she prefers to die as soon as possible, she no longer wishes that upon herself or her family.

“I wanted to pull myself off life support,” she explained before telling the court of her plans for contributing to society if given a life sentence to jail. Showing a photograph of her hair donated to the Locks of Love charity, Arias said, “If I’m allowed to live in prison, I will continue to donate for the rest of my life,” adding that she has already donated her hair three times to the charity that makes wigs for cancer patients.

Arias also apparently has plans to start a recycling program at the local jail. “If I get permission, I could start a recycling program for the huge loads of waste taken to the landfill.” She suggested the program would do more than just “green” up the jail: “It could create new jobs and have a far-reaching impact on the planet.”

She also showed off a tee shirt she designed with the word “Survivor” printed on it, explaining her intention to sell the clothing and donate the profits towards a charity benefiting victims of domestic violence.

For most of her presentation, Arias used a projector machine to show off images of her life before the grisly murder, including her own childhood, family members, and previous relationships.

“Here I am with Bobby, in our dirty little house,” she said of one ex-boyfriend. “We didn’t have power or heat. In the winter we could see our breath. My parents didn’t support this relationship. I’m reminded of that Charles Dickens quote, ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.’”

She concluded her remarks by pleading with the court to spare her life so that her family may not experience the same pain Alexander’s family experienced upon his loss.

“Either way, I’m going to spend rest of my life in prison,” she said. “It will either be shortened or not. If it is shortened, the people that will be hurt the most will be my family. Please don’t do that to them. I’ve already hurt them so much and I want everyone’s pain to stop.”

Watch below, via CNN:

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>> Follow Andrew Kirell (@AndrewKirell) on Twitter

At issue is whether Arias’ killing of Travis Alexander was committed in an aggressively heinous manner. Arias said in an interview immediately following her sentencing that she would prefer the death penalty to life in prison.

- RELATED: PHOTOS: See Jodi Arias’ Trial Style Evolution From Day One

First the trial will go through an “aggravating phase” to determine whether there was an aggravating factor, such as cruelty, in the way the first-degree was committed. Most analysts expect it will be easy for the prosecution to secure such a factor and move the trial into the death penalty phase.

(UPDATE) On May 15, the Jury concluded the killing was with extreme cruelty, and now will consider death or life in prison.

Watch the live stream below:

Upon the advice of her attorney, Lerner will refuse to answer the questions of members of Congress when she is called to testify about what she knew regarding the improper and excessive screening of conservative groups by the IRS.

RELATED: GOP Rep. Darrell Issa Was Informed About IRS Investigation Last July

“She has not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation but under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course,” read the letter from Lerner’s attorney to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA).

Lerner’s attorney has requested that, since she will be pleading the Fifth Amendment, that she be excused from testimony. Issa has not yet responded to that request.

UPDATE: The National Journal has learned that Issa will compel Lerner to attend Wednesday’s hearing regardless of her intention not to testify.

> >Follow Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) on Twitter

Here’s something you would probably never see on an American talk show. During a segment on breastfeeding during the Dutch Saturday night show Langs de Leeuw, host Paul de Leeuw decided to try some of the milk himself, by sucking it directly from one of his guest’s breasts.

The women on the show were apparently from a charity organization that allows women to share breast milk with each other. One of the women was demonstrating her dual breast pumps when de Leeuw casually asked if he could taste some of her milk. Surprisingly, the woman happily obliged, removing the pumps and allowing the host to suck the milk from each of her breasts.

According to the Daily Mail’s in-depth report on the segment, de Leeuw told his guest, “I find the second one better tasting, but I can taste that you’ve eaten asparagus yesterday.”

Only in the Netherlands?

Watch the extremely NSFW video below, via Showbizz Nieuws:

(Photos via Daily Mail)

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>> Follow Matt Wilstein (@TheMattWilstein) on Twitter

In case you missed it, Ron Christie was trying to make the case that the IRS imbroglio is the result of an “Obama administration culture,” which prompted Joy Reid to place Christie in a “Who appointed Schulman?” half-nelson, until Martin Bashir stepped in and made her let go so Christie could answer:

The point that Joy and I were trying to make is that, in order for Ron Christie’s premise to hold, that an administration culture is responsible for the IRS’ conduct, then the top political appointee at an apolitical agency would  have to be the driving force behind that. In this case, that appointee was a George W. Bush appointee, so under Ron Christie’s theory of the case, it would be a Bush administration culture that led to the misdeeds, not Obama.

From that bit of commentary, Newsusters‘ Matt Vespa (just don’t call him “Scooter”) concludes that “Mediaite Writer (that’s me) Furthers MSNBC Spin (that’s Joy Reid, I guess) On IRS Scandal: ‘They Have To Pin This On George W. Bush’”:

You just knew this was bound to happen. Some on the left are trying to blame George W. Bush for Obama’s IRS fiasco. Take for example Mediaite’s resident Obama apologist Tommy Christopher, who wrote a much ado about nothing post on May 16 insinuating that this egregious abuse of government power stems from former Bush appointed IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman – and that credit for clearing this whole thing up will go to Obama.

Here’s what I actually said (emphasis mine):

Christie continued to argue that the IRS is not independent, because the President was able to fire Miller (or to demand his resignation), but that’s the key difficulty that the President’s opponents will have with this scandal, going forward. In order to argue that the misconduct was the result of an administration culture, they have to pin this on George W. Bush, but the credit for fixing it will all go to President Obama.

It’s my view (and Joy Reid’s, if I’m reading her correctly) that the IRS controversy is not a political scandal, it’s a bureaucratic one. Based on the available facts, there’s no evidence to suggest otherwise. The extent to which the IRS operates independently from the White House, ability to demand resignations notwithstanding, is what makes this a bureaucratic scandal, and not the reincarnation of Nixon’s enemies list. If Republicans like Ron Christie continue to insist that an agency run by a Bush appointee ran amok on Obama’s orders, without any evidence, then they’ll look foolish. The President will have an opportunity to gain politically by fixing the problem quickly and decisively.

Let’s see what Newsbusters‘ Matt Vespa thinks of the IRS scandal:

Earth to Christopher: this isn’t a partisan issue. In fact, Democrats and Republican alike are furious over this bureaucratic nightmare.

Wha??? Wait, so we agree? Eh, not so fast. Here’s what he says next:

It reeks of Nixon, which has left a sour taste in the mouth of liberals.

I get it. Matt Vespa (like much of the mainstream media, to be fair) has no idea what Nixon’s “enemies List” was.  It was not a “bureaucratic nightmare,” it was a political hit squad. Based on the available evidence, this is not that. It was Ron Christie’s premise that an “administration culture” was behind the current fiasco, not mine, and not Joy Reid’s. I was simply pointing out the glaring, self-defeating flaw in it. If the President’s opponents really want to get some mileage out of this, they ought to either let the facts catch up with Terry Moran‘s imagination, or focus on the urgency and efficacy of his response.

Newsbusters wasn’t the only conservative outlet to pounce on this. PJ Media also took up the cause, and after block-quoting eleven paragraphs of my column, came to this eerily familiar conclusion:

Really? So, because this current administration is in the suck, the left has resorted to blaming Bush – again?

No, as I said before, that was not what I was saying, PJ Media’s Matt Vespa. Wait, what? The same guy wrote two different commentaries, for two different websites, about my column on last week’s Martin Bashir show? I have to say, I’m impressed, and a little bit flattered. That’s a good hustle. One stone, two differently-worded birds, two paychecks. I figure it’s only fair that I get one more piece of content out of the deal.

Standing before a poster of the earth with the words “TIME TO WAKE UP” in bold lettering, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) delivered a speech yesterday that he must have known would get under conservatives’ skins. Shortly after the devastating tornado first touched down in Oklahoma, and before the first images of the destruction began to emerge, the senator spent 15 minutes on the Senate floor tearing into Republicans for their rejection of climate science. When a tornado like this one hits Oklahoma, Whitehouse explained, it doesn’t just affect the people who live there–it affects all of us.

“We are stuck in this together,” he said. “When cyclones tear up Oklahoma and hurricanes swamp Alabama and wildfires scorch Texas, you come to us, the rest of the country, for billions of dollars to recover. And the damage that your polluters and deniers are doing doesn’t just hit Oklahoma and Alabama and Texas. It hits Rhode Island with floods and storms. It hits Oregon with acidified seas, it hits Montana with dying forests. So, like it or not, we’re in this together.”

Whitehouse said he longed for a “Republican Party that has returned to its senses and is strong and a worthy adversary in a strong America that has done right by its people and the world.” He added, “I don’t want a Republican Party disgraced, that let its extremists run off the cliff, and an America suffering from grave economic and environmental and diplomatic damage because we failed, because we didn’t wake up and do our duty to our people, and because we didn’t lead the world. I do not want that future. But that’s where we’re headed. So I will keep reaching out and calling out, ever hopeful that you will wake up before it is too late.”

Conservative websites like The Daily Caller immediately jumped on Whitehouse for “using” the Oklahoma tragedy to push his “anti-GOP” climate policy agenda. These accusations of “politicization” after a horrific event like the Oklahoma tornado are reminiscent of the criticism President Obama and other Democrats received when they tried to pass meaningful gun legislation following the Newtown, Connecticut shooting.

For conservatives who oppose new laws to help curb climate change or gun violence (and even some liberals), it’s always “too soon” after a tragedy to start discussing the concrete steps we can take to prevent it from happening in the future.

Perhaps it’s President Obama’s role to console the people of Oklahoma for their horrible loss. But at the same time, there’s nothing wrong with a member of the Senate speaking out against the climate deniers who can’t see the evidence in front of their faces or accept the the overwhelming scientific consensus that shows a warmer climate causes stronger storms.

As Mother Jones‘ Harry J. Enten points out in an illuminating piece today, “we’ll never know whether larger global warming factors were at play in Monday’s storms.” Lowering the amount of CO2 in our atmosphere won’t eliminate every major tornado, hurricane and other devastating storm from happening, just as implementing stricter gun laws won’t prevent every mass shooting. But if scientists believe that cutting greenhouse gases will have a reasonable chance at lowering the probability that weather events will be as severe as the tornado in Oklahoma, don’t we have an obligation to try? Senator Sheldon Whitehouse certainly believes that to be the case, and that’s why he didn’t hesitate to “politicize” yesterday’s tragedy.

Watch the impassioned conclusion to Sen. Whitehouse’s speech below, via C-SPAN 2:

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>> Follow Matt Wilstein (@TheMattWilstein) on Twitter

RELATED: White House Officials And IRS Discussed How To Break News Of Conservative Targeting

“I wasn’t present when he learned about it, but I know that he was not happy with the apparent conduct,” Carney said. “I think that the tenor of the president’s public comments about it, both in his statement Tuesday night and his public comments the next day, reflect his feelings upon learning about the apparent conduct by IRS officials in Cincinnati.”

Carney added that the president has complete faith in White House Counsel and chief lawyer Kathryn Ruemmler. Carney repeated that it would have been wrong for the president to comment on the investigation into the IRS scandal while the Inspector General was investigating the abuses.

“It would been, at the very at least, created the appearance of intervening in an going investigation or audit,” Carney said. “And the cardinal rule here, as it should be, is that you do not intervene in ongoing investigations.”

Carney added that “this is not about public relations” and the White House’s goal was to react to facts rather than partial information.

Watch the clip below via C-SPAN.org

h/t Washington Free Beacon

> >Follow Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) on Twitter

RELATED: Pressed By GOP Senator, Former IRS Commissioner Refuses To Apologize For Targeting Conservatives

Carney told reporters on Tuesday that there was “discussion about the possibility of a speech” by Lois Lerner. Lerner, who oversaw the IRS department that dealt with applications for tax exempt status broke the news of the controversy during a news conference on May 10.

It has since been uncovered that Lerner’s admission that the IRS had been targeting conservative groups was elicited by a questioner who was planted in the audience. Outgoing acting IRS commissioner Steven Miller called that decision “an incredibly bad idea” in testimony before Congress.

h/t POLITICO

> >Follow Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) on Twitter

“In my 18 years covering tornados, this is, without question, the most horrific thing I’ve ever seen,” the Emmy-winning reporter said as he began to cry upon viewing children being pulled out of Plaza Towers Elementary. When he pulled himself together, he told the anchors that he is now racing over to the wreckage to offer any assistance he can.

Just devastating.

Watch below, via KFOR:

[h/t Uproxx]

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>> Follow Andrew Kirell (@AndrewKirell) on Twitter

The Collier County Sheriff’s Office report did not specify whether the arrest was for drugs or alcohol — and the Daily Mail reported it was her first known offense as an adult.

Danforth has struggled with substance abuse in the past, dating back to her teenage years, which she and Walters have spoken about. She later went on to run a program called “New Horizons,” an effort “devoted to rescuing other people’s daughters — troubled teenagers like she used to be.”

“Little did I realize that God works in funny ways. These girls obviously are doing the same things that I did. So I have a better understanding of what my mom went through,” Danforth told NBC News in 2003. “The people are so wonderful and the staff is so wonderful that I work with. And the girls are beautiful.”

An unidentified man in Newcastle, Okla., shot the following video from his car with tornado sirens blazing in the background. The footage shows the storm revealing a funnel writhing its way out of the clouds and eventually growing into a full-blown tornado touching the ground.

The twister seen at the beginning of this video is likely a fraction of the size the final F4 tornado we saw tearing its way through Moore, Okla., destroying medical centers, schools, and entire neighborhoods.

Think of this as the birthing video of a monster. The stuff straight out of nightmares.

Watch below, via YouTube user Charles Cook:

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>> Follow Andrew Kirell (@AndrewKirell) on Twitter

“When they do issue this subpoena,” Smith noted, “by law, they have to tell you they’ve done it, don’t they? I mean, they went into our computer servers at Fox News, went around around our security, pulled things out, and didn’t tell us they’d done so.”

Napolitano noted that both the network and Rosen found out about it from the reports — but that the “government has an obligation to report this to the target, James, and to anybody else involved.”

William Miller, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia gave a statement to the Washington Post’s Erik Wemple, noting the Justice Department is “not publicly identifying the news organization or the reporter involved in the Stephen Kim investigation.”

He added, per Wemple:

“The search warrant obtained from the court in this case was solely for a Gmail account – housed on Google’s servers – under an alias of the reporter that had previously been used to covertly communicate with Mr. Kim. No computer servers of any news organization were searched in this investigation.”

Yesterday, Fox News responded to the “downright chilling” actions toward Rosen, “unequivocally” defending him. Another Fox executive told Mediaite, “The Obama White House is starting to make the Nixon administration look like Sesame Street.”

Smith’s remark below, via Fox News:

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>> Follow Andrew Kirell (@AndrewKirell) on Twitter