An expression that simply refuses to die, it’s the passive-voice way of acknowledging a political screw-up while at the same time steering clear of taking total responsibility for it.
William Safire credits the American Enterprise Institute’s William Schneider for creatively describing the expression as the “past exonerative.” The most recent -- but by no means the last -- prominent figure to use it was Julia Pierson, who before resigning as Secret Service director in the wake of an embarrassing White House security breach told a congressional committee last week: “It is obvious that mistakes were made.”
Though the expression often is attributed to Richard Nixon’s administration during Watergate, its history goes back even further. In his final annual report to Congress in 1876, President Ulysses S. Grant summarized his scandal-ridden tenure by writing: “Mistakes have been made, as all can see and I admit.”
The specific use of “mistakes were made” harkens back to the Iran-Contra scandal during Ronald Reagan’s administration. In his 1987 State of the Union address, Reagan took responsibility for selling weapons to Iran so that U.S. hostages could be released, but lamented the use of the money from the sales to finance Nicaraguan rebels. “We did not achieve what we wished, and serious mistakes were made in trying to do so,” the president said.
“Mistakes were made” is one member of the family of non-apology apologies. Its siblings include “poor choice of words” and “I misspoke.”