As the one-year anniversary of Jan. 6 approaches this week, news outlets are out with a spate of new polls showing how the siege of the Capitol has affected American politics.
THIS IS BAD — Roughly 4 in 10 Republicans and independents say that violent action against the government is sometimes justified, according to a startling new WaPo-University of Maryland poll.
Overall, “the percentage of Americans who say violent action against the government is justified at times stands at 34 percent, which is considerably higher than in past polls by The Post or other major news organizations dating back more than two decades,” write WaPo’s Dan Balz, Scott Clement and Emily Guskin. “Again, the view is partisan: The new survey finds 40 percent of Republicans, 41 percent of independents and 23 percent of Democrats saying violence is sometimes justified.”
THIS IS BAD, PART II — A new CBS/YouGov poll finds that 68 percent of respondents see the Jan. 6 attacks as “a harbinger of increasing political violence, not an isolated incident,” write CBS’ Anthony Salvanto, Kabir Khanna, Fred Backus and Jennifer Depinto. “That leads to larger misgivings. When people see it as a sign of increasing violence, they’re more likely to think violence is a reason democracy is threatened.”
— “There is 12% of the country, and a fifth of Trump’s 2020 voters, that want Trump to fight to retake the presidency right now, before the next election. … [A] third of the people within that 12% say he should use force if necessary. While that only amounts to 4% of the population, it still translates into millions of Americans effectively willing to see a forceful change in the executive branch.”
The CBS crosstabs about what happened that day are equally telling:
— Among Democrats, 85 percent call the riot an “insurrection” in which people were “trying to overthrow government.”
— Among Republicans, only 21 percent said the former and 18 percent the latter. GOP voters were more likely to say that the rioters were motivated by “defending freedom” (56 percent) and “patriotism” (47 percent). More on the results
THIS IS SURPRISING — On Capitol Hill, Republicans overwhelmingly oppose the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.But in the rest of the country, it’s a different story. That’s one topline of a new POLITICO/Morning Consult survey that finds 40 percent of Republican voters approve of the Jan. 6 committee, while 44 percent disapprove and 16 percent have no opinion.
“Overall, three-fifths of those surveyed backed the Jan. 6 committee, and two-thirds said it was important that the federal government probe the events surrounding the attack on the Capitol,” writes Nick Niedzwiadek.
Other key takeaways:
— Who do voters blame for Jan. 6? While 59 percent of voters said DONALD TRUMP was “somewhat” or “very” responsible, there were actually two entities they blamed equally or more: the news media (59 percent) and social media companies (66 percent).
— Who do voters think attacked police and broke into the Capitol on Jan. 6? Sixty-two percent correctly characterized the rioters as Trump supporters, while 14 percent IDed them as Trump opponents. Nearly one-in-four voters, 24 percent, said they didn’t know.
— Will Jan. 6 affect who they vote for in the midterms? Forty-seven percent said it will have “no impact at all,” 22 percent said it’ll have a minor impact, and 31 percent said it’ll have a major impact. The topline results… the crosstabs
THIS IS WHERE WE ARE — Per a new ABC/Ipsos poll, 65 percent of Americans believe that President JOE BIDEN’s 2020 victory was legitimate, down slightly from the 68 percent who believed that in a ABC/Ipsos survey last January.
— Among Republicans, 71 percent believe Trump’s false claims that he is the rightful winner. More from ABC’s Brittany Shepherd … the toplines