A majority of Americans also think the Select Committee has been fair –
In this Jan. 6, 2021, file photo, supporters of then-President Donald Trump amass outside the Capitol building in Washington, D.C.: NAJ Screen Shot
Staff Report –
Nearly 6 in 10 Americans believe former President Donald Trump should be charged with a crime for his role in the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll.
The same number say the committee is conducting a fair and impartial investigation.
The public opinion survey found that 58 percent of Americans think Trump should be charged with a crime for his role in the inciting the insurrection, up from 52 percent who said that in late April before the Select Committee hearings began and 54 percent who said Trump should be charged with a crime for inciting a riot in January, 2021.
In other breaking news, Politico is reporting a scoop on a subpoena of a documentary filmmaker with more documented footage inside the Trump administration before and on Jan. 6
The House select committee investigating Jan. 6 sent a subpoena last week to ALEX HOLDER, a documentary filmmaker who was granted extensive access to President DONALD TRUMP and his inner circle, and who shot interviews with the then-president both before and after Jan. 6. The existence of this footage is previously unreported.
Attitudes on whether Americans think Trump is responsible for the attack on the U.S. Capitol remain stable over time, according to the survey, which showed that 58 percent of Americans say Trump bears a “great deal” or a “good amount” of responsibility for the attack on the Capitol, a number that is unchanged from similar polls in December 2021 just after the attack in January 2021.
The poll shows the partisan divide, with 91 percent of Democrats saying Trump should be charged with a crime compared to 19 percent of Republicans. On whether Trump bears a “great deal” or a “good amount” of responsibility for the attack, 91 percent of Democrats and 21 percent of Republicans say he does.
Among self-described independents, 62 percent say Trump should be charged and 61 percent say he bears a “great deal” or a “good amount” of responsibility.
The ABC News/Ipsos poll was conducted after the committee held its third of seven public hearings scheduled for this month, which detail what the committee says was a “sophisticated, seven-part plan” by Trump and his supporters to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden.
On Friday, Trump lambasted the hearing, calling the panel “con artists,” while continuing to air false claims about the 2020 election.
“There’s no clearer example of the menacing spirit that has devoured the American left than the disgraceful performance being staged by the unselect committee,” Trump said at a conference hosted by the Faith and Freedom Coalition in Nashville, Tennessee.
They survey also showed that 60 percent of Americans say the committee is conducting a fair and impartial investigation while 38 percent say it’s not. That was evenly divided at 40 percent in the April ABC News/Washington Post poll, which also found that 20 percent of Americans had no opinion on the matter just two months ago.
When it comes to the fairness of the committee, Americans are again divided along party lines in the latest poll, with 85 percent of Democrats finding the investigation fair and impartial, compared to 31 percent of Republicans. Independents’ views fall in-between at 63 percent.
Democrats are more likely to be following the hearings. Overall, 34 percent of Americans say they are following the hearings very or somewhat closely, with 43 percent of Democrats and 22 percent of Republicans saying they are paying attention.
Only 9 percent of Americans say they are following the hearings “very closely.”
On whether the investigation will have an impact on public opinion, just over half (51%) of Americans say that what they’ve read, seen or heard about the hearings has made no difference in who they plan to support in this November’s election. Meanwhile, 29 percent say they are more likely to support Democratic candidates and 19 percent say they are more likely to support Republicans.
The bipartisan committee, led by chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and vice-chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., is in the midst of summing up its 11-month-long investigation into the attack. So far the hearings have largely focused on how Trump pushed the “big lie” of a stolen 2020 race and the pressure campaign on then-Vice President Mike Pence.
The panel has also shared never-before-seen footage from the riot and interviews with Trump administration and White House officials.
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This ABC News/Ipsos poll was conducted using Ipsos Public Affairs‘ KnowledgePanel® June 17-18, 2022, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 545 adults. Results have a margin of sampling error of 4.5 points, including the design effect. Partisan divisions are 28-26-40 percent, Democrats-Republicans-independents.
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