Americans increasingly believe former President Donald Trump was not responsible for the January 6, 2021 riot by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol, and 35% of Americans believe too much attention has been paid to the attack, according to a Pew Research Center study published Tuesday, which revealed sharp partisan division on almost every aspect of the riot.
From January 2021 to January 2022, the proportion of Americans who believe Trump held no responsibility for the riot grew from 24% to 32%, while the proportion who believe he held “some” responsibility grew from 23% to 24% and the proportion who believe he held “a lot” of responsibility shrank from 52% to 43%.
This trend was seen in all quadrants of the political landscape, as the proportion of people who believe Trump held “a lot” of responsibility for the riot declined from 18% to 10% among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents and from 81% to 70% among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents.
Researchers uncovered overwhelming partisan division on nearly every aspect of the riot, with 65% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents saying that too much attention has been paid to the riot, compared to 11% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents.
Views on the House committee investigating the attack were similarly skewed, with only about 21% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents expressing confidence the committee would investigate fairly and reasonably, compared to 65% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents.
Republicans who believe Trump was definitely the true winner of the 2020 election held particularly extreme beliefs, with 82% saying he held no responsibility for the riot, 87% saying too much attention was paid to the riot and 71% saying they were “not at all” confident the House committee would be fair and reasonable.
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