House Select Committee hearings on Jan. 6 reinforced the views of some voters who once supported former President Trump and now believe he should face criminal prosecution, according to our latest Axios Engagious/Schlesinger focus groups.
The news: 10 of 14 Wisconsin voters last week said Trump should be prosecuted for trying to overturn the 2020 election and his role in the attack on the Capitol; 10 of 13 Arizona voters participating in collections last month said the same.
Why it matters: The findings follow bombshell testimony from former White House aides and lawyers. Committee members have anticipated upcoming revelations about potential witness tampering.
- The focus groups follow a national poll showing more than half of Americans think Trump should face criminal charges.
How it works: Engagious/Schlesinger conducted two online focus groups Tuesday with 14 Wisconsin residents who voted for Trump in 2016, then Joe Biden in 2020. They included 12 independents, one Democrat and one Republican.
- Although a focus group is not a statistically significant sample like a poll, the responses show how some voters think and talk about current events.
Details: Eight participants said they watched at least part of the Jan. 6 hearings so far. Several said the hearings were helpful for “accountability” but that the committee already had “their evidence” of what happened that day.
- Those who believed Trump should face criminal prosecution did not back down, even when the moderator hit back and said it would be unprecedented, potentially putting future presidents at risk of being prosecuted for political reasons.
- Voters were adamant that such a step would help deter similar attempts by someone else in the future to “overthrow the government.”
What they say: “He is our president and a president should never have done anything to provoke what happened. Many people were injured. Look at how many lives you put on the line because you let this happen. And he was happy about it,” said Samantha O., 39.
- Andrew R, 59, said: “We need to show other people that this just can’t be done in the future. [Prosecution] will be the price you have to pay if you try to stage a coup again – and that’s exactly what it was, a coup.”
- Others likened what happened that day to the politics of “third world countries”.
- Jaime M., 36, said what happened on January 6 “was too extreme and something has to be done about it to prevent it from happening again,” otherwise “it just opens a floodgate for what anyone else is allowed to do.”
- Another voter said prosecuting Trump would ensure that “trust in the judicial system is preserved.”
- “Ironically, most of these Wisconsin voters believe that the very president who led the ‘lock her up’ chants should be imprisoned for his actions on January 6,” said Rich Tau, president of Engagious, who moderated the focus groups.
What to watch: These voters have more than January 6 on their minds. Many said federal gun legislation was among their top three priorities this cycle, but several others told us their November vote would not be affected by the abortion issue.
- They hardly knew much about Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), but those who did weren’t too happy. One voter said she was a “Trump puppet” and another said she was “pretending to care” just to “gain popularity.”
- All but two said they did not want either Trump or President Biden to run for president again in 2024.
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