Most Americans say Trump is at least partly to blame for Capitol riot, polls show
Most Americans say President Donald Trump is at least somewhat responsible for last week’s violent siege on the U.S. Capitol, according to two new polls.
In a poll released Friday from ABC News and The Washington Post, 71% of respondents cast some level of blame on the president.
Another 28% said Trump had no responsibility at all, and 1% said they had no opinion, according to the poll, which surveyed 1,002 people from Jan. 10 to Jan. 13.
A poll from the Pew Research Center showed similar results.
In that poll, 75% of people said the president was at least partly responsible for the events that unfolded at the Capitol. Another 24% said he wasn’t to blame, results show.
Both polls show a drastic split along party lines when it comes to blaming Trump, who told supporters on Jan. 6 to walk to the Capitol where Congress was preparing to certify the Electoral College votes for President-elect Joe Biden.
Soon after, rioters stormed into the Capitol, breaking windows, damaging the building and injuring police officers. Five people died as the events unfolded.
In the Pew survey, which included responses of 5,360 people from Jan. 8 to Jan. 12, 95% of Democrats said Trump had responsibility for the riot. Among Republicans and independents who lean Republican, 52% said the same.
The results are also split in the ABC News and Washington Post poll, with fewer than half — 42% — of Republicans blaming the president for the events that unfolded on Jan. 6.
“That rises sharply to 72 percent of independents and 93 percent of Democrats,” according to the survey findings.
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday voted 232 to 197 to impeach Trump on a charge of “incitement of insurrection.” Ten House Republicans sided with Democrats for the vote.
In the ABC News and Washington Post poll, 56% of people said Congress should remove Trump from office and make it impossible for him to serve again.
As he prepares to leave office on Wednesday, Trump’s approval rating is 38%, the poll finds. Another 60% disapprove of the job he’s doing, matching a record low last seen in August 2018.
Earlier this week, FiveThirtyEight labeled Trump’s approval rating at 39.8%, down from 45.5% when he first became president.
In its recent poll, Pew Research Center found 29% of Americans approved of Trump, an all-time low during his presidency. The margin of error was “plus or minus 1.9 percentage points,” according to Pew.
The ABC and Washington Post poll was conducted by phone, and the margin of error was 3.5 percentage points, according to the results.
This story was originally published January 16, 2021 at 9:04 AM with the headline "Most Americans say Trump is at least partly to blame for Capitol riot, polls show."
