Subscribe to Receive the Daily Report

Monday, February 14th, 2022

Fewer Americans now say Trump bears a lot of responsibility for the Jan. 6 riot

Author:     Bradley Jones
Source:     Pew Research Center
Publication Date:     8 February 2022
 Link: Fewer Americans now say Trump bears a lot of responsibility for the Jan. 6 riot
Stephan:   We are undergoing a major cultural transformation. The rightwing uber-rich have been funding scientists and physicians for years, and from their research have learned that fear can be politicized and weaponized through spewing dis- and mis-information out as news. They learned that conservative Americans particularly are easily manipulated in this way, particularly in an environment in which we are becoming a majority minority nation, and there is already a lot of fear about that amongst about a third of the White people. To anyone who deals with facts not fantasies it is becoming increasingly clear that the entire country is being played by a small group of kleptocrats seeking to change American to an authoritarian country they can control.

A little more than a year after the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, Americans remain deeply divided about the events of that day and the ongoing congressional investigation into what happened.

Last year, in the immediate wake of Jan. 6, about half of U.S. adults (52%) said Donald Trump bore a lot of responsibility for the violence and destruction committed by some of his supporters that day. Today, 43% say this. The share of adults who say Trump bears some responsibility has changed little since then, but more Americans now say Trump bears no responsibility for the mayhem caused by his supporters that day (32% today vs. 24% then). The new survey was conducted Jan. 10-17, prior to several developments involving the Jan. 6 investigation and Trump’s actions following the 2020 election.

Among both Republicans and Democrats, there have been declines in the shares who say Trump bears responsibility for the violence and destruction at the Capitol. The share of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who say he bears a lot of responsibility has declined from 18% a year ago to 10% today. Nearly six-in-ten Republicans (57%) currently say he has no responsibility at all for the violence, up from […]

Read the Full Article