Pew Research polled the different controversies rocking the Obama administration, including the AP phone record seizure and the Benghazi investigation, but the numbers on the IRS scandal where IRS officials deliberately and systematically targeted conservatives groups like the Tea Party, Patriot groups and 9/12 groups, among others, show that a plurality of those paying attention to the scandal, believe the Obama administration was "involved in the decision to target conservative groups."
Overall, 42% say the Obama administration was involved in the decision to target conservative groups. Fewer (31%) say that the decision to target conservative groups was made by IRS employees without administration involvement, while 27% offer no opinion.
Not surprisingly, opinions about this are highly partisan. Nearly seven-in-ten Republicans (69%) say the administration was involved in the IRS’s decision to target conservative groups, compared with just 12% who say the decision was made by IRS employees. By contrast, just 21% of Democrats say the administration was involved, while 54% say IRS employees made the decision to target conservative groups. By a 44% to 28% margin, more independents say the administration was involved in the IRS decision than say it was not.
Those who followed the IRS story at least fairly closely (50% of the public) express similar views about the administration’s involvement: 49% say the administration was involved while 35% say it was not. But partisan differences are wider among this attentive segment of the population; fully 78% of Republicans who have followed the story believe the administration was involved in the decision to target conservative groups, while 63% of attentive Democrats say the decision came from IRS employees.
One would expect the level of distrust for the Obama administration by Republicans to be as high as it is, as they would also expect the level to be as low from Obama's own party, the Democrats.
The level of distrust by Independents who believe the Obama administration was involved in the decision to target conservatives, 44 percent overall and 48 percent among Independents following the story very or fairly closely, is quite high.
While some recent polls show the same type of distrust, they assert that Obama's overall approval rating hasn't suffered, but since the IRS and AP scandals were brought to light just a couple weeks ago and there have been continuous new revelations each week, sometimes daily revelations, that approval will undoubtedly start dwindling when the public becomes more aware of those newly revealed details.
