Obama: Extra tax scrutiny for conservatives 'outrageous' 13 May 2013 Last updated at 18:24 President Obama: "I've got no patience with it, I will not tolerate it" President Barack Obama has said reports the US tax collection agency targeted conservative groups for extra scrutiny before an election are "outrageous." At the White House, Mr Obama said the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) needed to operate with "absolute integrity." Groups with the words "Tea Party" or "patriot" in their names were singled out, the tax agency has acknowledged. He also said criticisms of the response to an attack on a US mission in Libya last year were politically motivated. Official talking points about the 11 September assault against the diplomatic facility in Benghazi, in which four Americans died, were edited by the state department to remove references to terrorism, it has been revealed. Republicans have alleged the Obama administration sought to downplay terrorism ahead of the November presidential election. No patience At a White House news conference alongside UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Mr Obama said the IRS had to be held "fully accountable" if it targeted tax-exempt groups for political reasons during the 2012 election campaign. He said US taxpayers had to have confidence the tax agency was applying the law in a non-partisan fashion. "You don't want the IRS ever being perceived to be biased and anything less than neutral," Mr Obama said. This is something that I think people are properly concerned about. I've got no patience with it, I will not tolerate it and I will make sure that we find out exactly what happened. Suddenly, three days ago, this gets spun up as if there's something new to the story. There's no there there End Quote Barack Obama The number of groups filing with the IRS for tax-exempt status shot up between 2010-12, ahead of last year's election. It has been revealed the agency was checking to see if the conservative political groups were violating their tax-exempt status. The head of the IRS tax-exempt office has said the practice was started in a branch office in Cincinnati, Ohio where most of the applications were processed, and was not motivated by political bias. The Associated Press news agency has reported senior IRS officials knew the agency was targeting Tea Party groups as early as 2011. Republican leaders have urged the White House to investigate. No there there On Benghazi, Mr Obama called Republican concerns over talking points prepared for members of Congress and the news media a "side show" and a "political circus" that detracted from the effort to improve security for US diplomats. Gregory Hicks, deputy chief of mission in Tripoli, described events on the day of the Benghazi attack The controversy stems in large part from remarks by US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice several days following the 11 September assault. Ms Rice said on television the attack grew out of an anti-US protest, even as other officials have said they knew at the time it was perpetrated by an organised, armed militant gang. On Monday, Mr Obama said the idea that his administration had engaged in a cover-up lasting only three days "defies logic." He said his administration had disclosed the emails related to the talking points to a congressional committee months ago. "And suddenly, three days ago, this gets spun up as if there's something new to the story," Mr Obama said. There's no there there. The fact that this keeps on getting churned out, frankly, has a lot to do with political motivations.