What's a Scandal Anymore?

A bit over a decade ago, a massive scandal hit the Obama White House: the IRS, possibly at the direction of Obama himself, had targeted conservatives for audits in the leadup to the 2012 election. It was argued in the Wall Street Journal that not only had conservative nonprofits been singled out, but Republican donors and activists had suddenly found themselves subjected to audits for the first time, in some cases shortly after criticizing Obama publicly.

The allegations made headlines across the country. Conservative columnist Peggy Noonan said it was “the worst Washington scandal since Watergate.” It was “not even remotely possible” that this was an accident, per Noonan: it was an orchestrated attack on opponents of the Democratic Party. Journalist Terry Moran called it a “truly Nixonian abuse of power.” Speaker of the House John Boehner suggested that it would end with someone in prison. Even elected Democrats joined in on calls for IRS officials to resign.

If you only vaguely remember this, it’s probably because it turned out that none of it was really true. What actually happened, according to a Treasury Department report released in 2017, was that the IRS used political key words to select nonprofits for further scrutiny (the intent was to examine political organizations that may have been skirting tax exemption rules). The key words used weren’t biased to one viewpoint: they included words like “tea party” and “patriots,” but also “progressive” and “occupy.” The practice wasn’t directed by the Obama administration: it originated in 2004. The Republican activists who claim to have been targeted were simply speculating, and no evidence was ever uncovered to support their claims.

But the idea that the IRS had been weaponized against conservatives still has purchase in right-wing circles. Even after it was clear that no political targeting occurred (the New York Times reported that left-wing groups were equally impacted as early as 2013), right-wingers spoke about it as though it were an uncontested truth. In 2018, a Wall Street Journal op-ed described the scandal as “unresolved.”

In response to all of this concern, Trump promised in 2019 that he “will never allow the IRS to be used as a political weapon.” That promise hit a snag recently, when the administration crafted plans to use the IRS as a political weapon. The agency is reportedly planning to start targeting left-leaning organizations. Per the Wall Street Journal, “[a] senior IRS official involved in the effort has drawn up a list of potential targets that includes major Democratic donors.”

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