WASHINGTON (AP) – A majority of Americans say former President Donald Trump bears at least some blame for the Capitol uprising, and about half say the Senate should vote to condemn him at the end of his impeachment process.
This is shown by a study by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research it also shows that many Republicans continue to believe – contrary to all evidence – that President Joe Biden’s election was illegal.
It’s the latest sign that Trump has waged his month-long disinformation campaign could have long-lasting consequences for Biden as he seeks to rule a broken country and underscores the deep partisan divisions that will last longer than Trump’s presidency. But it also shows some degree of consensus, with even many Republicans saying Trump was at least partially responsible for the deadly storming of the Capitol by his supporters on Jan. 6. in an effort to reverse the results of the November election.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that Trump bears at least modest responsibility for the Capitol violation, including half who say they wear a lot or quite a bit. Just over a third say they bear little or no responsibility.
Most Republicans dismiss him from blame, but about 3 in 10 think he bears at least modest blame for the events.
Fewer Americans, 47%, think the senate should vote to condemn Trump after his impeachment trial, which begins next week. Another 40% say they should not be convicted, and 12% are unsure. Trump became the first president in the country’s history to be impeached by the House last month, but it seems unlikely that Democrats will have enough votes to condemn him in the upper house.
Opinions on the trial fall along partisan lines, with more than 8 in 10 Democrats saying the Senate should condemn, versus only about 1 in 10 Republicans. While those who believe he carries a great deal of responsibility generally feel he should be convicted, among those who say he is only moderately responsible, significantly more say the Senate should vote against than condemnation, 54% to 19 %.
‘I think it’s a bit ridiculous. Are we going to start impeaching all the former presidents we don’t like? said Bill Stokes, 67, who lives in Casper, Wyoming, who voted for Trump in November, describing him as the “lesser of evil.”
While Stokes allowed Trump to “perhaps” bear some responsibility for the events of January 6, he said, “I don’t think this warrants impeachment. Maybe disapproval, if so.”
‘I really don’t feel like he triggered a riot. He asked them to go there for a peaceful protest. Maybe he didn’t understand the psychology of the mafia, but I think his responsibility is there – they are trying to impose more on him than there really is, ”he said.
In interviews, other Republican respondents blamed Trump for urging the crowd – and some felt he should be held accountable in some way – but didn’t think impeachment was the answer, as Trump has already left office and, they said, they were unlikely to ever be elected again.
At the same time, the poll finds that many Republicans agree with the idea, championed by those who stormed the Capitol, that Biden’s election was illegal. Overall, 66% of Americans say Biden was legitimately elected president, but 65% of Republicans say he wasn’t.
They include Dolores Mejia, 71, who lives in Peoria, Arizona, and claims that if all the votes were counted, “I think Trump would have won, I really believe that.”
A lifelong Democrat who changed her party registry to vote for Trump in November, Mejia cited everything from debunked conspiracies to friends’ accounts to explain her concerns.
“I don’t care what the Democrats say. They stole the election. There’s just no way, with the amount of support we saw, watching the rallies on TV, things like Truckers for Trump … there’s no way they didn’t steal the election, ” she said.
Others were more ambivalent. Mark Richardson, a Republican living in High Point, North Carolina, who has voted for Trump twice, said he understood why measures had been taken to allow postal voting during the coronavirus pandemic but argued that they should never be used again.
“It leaves too much room for questions,” he said. But Richardson, 39, who works in the electric car industry, said the issue of “legitimacy” is more nuanced.
“So I think it depends on how you phrase the question,” he said. ‘Do I think every vote he received was legitimate? No. But do I think he is legitimately the president? Yes.”
“Joe Biden is the president,” he said. “And I think that’s okay.”
GOP officials in several battlefield states that Biden carried, including Arizona and Georgia, have said the election was fair. Trump’s claims were outright dismissed in the courts, including by judges appointed by Trump and his former Attorney General, William Barr..
Overall, the poll shows that Americans have a more negative than positive view of Trump’s presidency and its impact on the country, but opposition among Republicans is limited. Only 36% of Americans say Trump was a great or even a good president, while 50% say he was poor or terrible.
By contrast, in late 2016, when Barack Obama left office, 52% of Americans called him a good or great president, while 28% said he was poor or terrible.
While most Republicans say Trump was a good or great president, 15% just call him average and 11% say he was a bad or terrible president.
Americans are more mixed on how the Trump years affected them personally. In fact, more are calling themselves better off than worse off than when Trump took office, by a margin of 38% to 27%.
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The AP-NORC survey of 1,055 adults was conducted January 28 through February. 1 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the US population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.
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Online:
AP-NORC Center: http://www.apnorc.org/.