Poll: 50 percent of Americans think Obama team knew of IRS targeting
By JOEL GEHRKE | JUNE 7, 2013 AT 4:00 PM
Half of the American people believe that senior members of President Obama’s team knew that the IRS was inappropriately targeting conservatives between 2010 and 2012, according to a new Gallup poll that finds most Americans disapprove of the president’s response to the issue.
“More than seven in 10 Republicans believe that top leaders in the Obama administration (72 percent), as well as at the IRS (84 percent), were aware that conservative groups’ applications for tax-exempt status were targeted for greater scrutiny. Just over half of independents also hold these views,” Gallup reports today. “By contrast, the slight majority of Democrats, 53 percent, believe Obama administration officials were not aware of the practice, while they are evenly split on whether high-ranking IRS officials were aware.”