Warren Tells IRS Nominee Billy Long He Shouldn’t Be ‘Within 1,000 Miles’ Of Agency

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) didn’t mince words during Tuesday’s confirmation hearing for Billy Long, President Donald Trump’s pick to be the next commissioner of the IRS.

“You shouldn’t be within 1,000 miles of the directorship of the IRS” if you can’t answer basic questions, Warren told Long after he refused to specify that, under his leadership, he wouldn’t let Trump direct the IRS to start or stop an audit into any taxpayer.

After telling Warren he doesn’t “intend to let anybody direct me to start an audit for political reasons,” she asked him if that included the president of the United States. Long offered a complex answer.

“They’re not going to tell me what to do. I can’t speak for others,” Long replied. “There’s other agents at the IRS that you’re talking about, but I’m telling you what I don’t want to have happen to my IRS.”

“You shouldn’t be within a thousand miles of the directorship of the IRS” — Elizabeth Warren grilled IRS commissioner nominee Billy Long so hard that he was left stammering and shaking by the end of her questioning

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-05-20T16:06:38.343Z

Growing visibly frustrated, Warren accused him of wanting to “sit there and dance around” her questions about the matter.

“Mr. Long, you’d have a lot more credibility if you just say, ‘Yes, it’s clear that the statute makes it illegal for the president to direct the IRS vis-à-vis any particular taxpayer,’” she continued.

Warren also got fed up when Long refused to say, in his own words, that the president cannot tell the IRS to change an organization’s nonprofit status ― as Trump is attempting to do with Harvard.

Long dodged Warren’s questioning, saying Trump “wouldn’t do that” but that he’d “have to go to the lawyers at the IRS” to find the answer. The closest he got to answering her was by reading the text of the law out loud, prompting Warren to ask him again: “All right, so is it illegal?”

Long once again offered a nonanswer.

“I’m gonna follow the law, and if that’s the law, yes,” he said.

WARREN: Can POTUS legally tell the IRS to change someone’s nonprofit status?BILLY LONG: I’m not able to answerWARREN: You can’t read these words and tell me what those words say?!LONG: I can read the statute and I didWARREN: Then tell me what they mean!

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-05-20T16:01:59.094Z

After more back and forth, Warren ripped into him.

“Why are you not having the answer? You’ve had three weeks to consult with lawyers. The statute is about as clear as plain English,” she said.

“I want to make sure that you understand what the law says,” she continued. “If you think follow the law means you just get to make it up on the spot, then bud, you don’t get to be the IRS commissioner.”

Long is a Trump loyalist and former Republican congressman from Missouri. Democrats have been highly critical of Long’s work as a tax adviser who encouraged businesses to look into a pandemic-era employee retention tax credit ― a program that’s been subject to massive fraud and cost the government billions of dollars.