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A new national poll shows that nearly half of Americans believe that former President Donald Trump should be charged with a crime for his role in storming the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
According to a survey by the Associated Press’s NORC Center for Public Affairs, 48% of adults across the country say Trump should be charged with his role in the deadly attack by right-wing extremists and other protesters who targeted to violate Congressional certification of President Biden’s now-winning Electoral College in 2020. Thirty-one percent of respondents said the former president should not be blamed, with one in five saying he doesn’t know enough to forms an opinion.
The poll was conducted on June 23-27 after five public hearings by a House of Representatives-dominated House Democratic Party commission investigating the Capitol riot – which aims to testify about Trump’s potential criminal guilt in fueling the attack. But the poll was conducted before Tuesday’s last-minute hearing by a commission that included former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, whose testimony became national headlines this week.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a chief aide to Mark Meadows when he was White House chief of staff in the Trump administration, testified before the House Election Commission on Tuesday, Jan. 6, Capitol Hill, Tuesday, June 28, 2022. (Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post via Getty Images)
There was an expected guerrilla divide over whether Trump should be charged with a crime, with 86% of Democrats polled saying they should, but Republicans saying they shouldn’t, with a 68% -10% difference. Independents were more divided, with 38% unsure, 36% saying the former president should be blamed, and a quarter insisting he should not be blamed.
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In a separate question, 58% of all respondents said that Trump bears much or much responsibility for the attack on the Capitol.
The former president has repeatedly denounced the commission and its testimony on social media this month. Trump attacked the commission as a “highly unelected committee” and accused witnesses of telling “lies and fictional stories” with “a completely fake story.”
President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a rally near the White House on January 6, 2021 (AP Photo / Jacquelyn Martin)
According to the survey, 42% of Americans say they have watched or listened to the hearings, and 57% say they do not watch or listen. Two-thirds of independents and just over seven in 10 Republicans say they have not watched or listened to the hearings.
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The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs surveyed 1,053 adults across the country for the survey with a total sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points.
Paul Steinhauser is a political reporter based in New Hampshire.
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