Multiple polls show most Americans aren't buying the GOP's spin on Jan. 6

Several polls released on Monday show that despite Republican attempts to minimize rioting at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, by supporters of then-President Donald Trump, a majority of Americans continue to see it as an attempt to undermine democracy, and they blame Trump for instigating the riot.

Trump was impeached for a second time on Jan. 13, 2021, by the House of Representatives, which found that he “engaged in high Crimes and Misdemeanors by inciting violence against the Government of the United States.” A majority of the Senate later voted for his conviction, but he was acquitted because the vote did not meet the two-thirds’ majority required.

On Monday, a poll released by ABC News/IPSOS showed 72% of respondents describing the attack as “threatening democracy.” In the same poll, 58% of Americans said that Trump bore a “great deal” or “good amount” of responsibility for the attack.

CBS News released a poll in which 68% said the attack was a “sign of increasing political violence,” while 66% said that democracy in the United States continues to be “threatened.” In the poll, 62% of those surveyed said that Trump should not seek the presidency again, while 26% said he should run for president again and 12% said he should fight to be made president right now.

A poll from PBS showed that 53% of respondents say Trump is responsible for the attack, which, while still a majority, is down from the 63% who held the same position in its immediate aftermath.

In the year since the rioting at the Capitol, Trump and Republican elected officials have played down its severity. In December, the fact-checker website PolitiFact called their falsehoods about what happened on Jan. 6 the “2021 Lie of the Year.”

In a March appearance on Fox News, Trump said the riot was “zero threat, right from the start, it was zero threat,” adding, “Some of them went in, and they are hugging and kissing the police and the guards.”

Republican leaders in Congress such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who initially condemned the attack, later in the year attacked efforts to establish a congressional investigation into the incident.

“There is no new fact about that day that we need the Democrats’ extraneous ‘commission’ to uncover,” McConnell said in a statement, while McCarthy claimed the committee was too partisan.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, who was targeted by the attackers with chants of “Hang Mike Pence,” later described the attack as merely “one day in January.”

In a May hearing, Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) inaccurately described footage of the Capitol attack as showing “people in an orderly fashion staying between the stanchions and ropes taking videos and pictures,” adding, “If you didn’t know the TV footage was a video from Jan. 6, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.”

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) claimed on several occasions that the attackers were not armed, but multiple court documents have detailed considerable evidence of weapons being wielded as the Capitol was breached.

Other Republicans, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA) and Matt Gaetz (FL), promoted conspiracy theories that blame the attack on the FBI, falsehoods that were also spread by Fox News.

National polling continues to show that while many Republicans have accepted their party’s attack-related distortions, a majority of Americans are not falling in line with its lies.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.