Fewer Americans think Trump ‘responsible’ for Jan. 6 after hearings, 40% would still back 2024 run

This summer’s much-hyped congressional hearings on last year’s Capitol riot haven’t convinced Americans of former President Donald Trump’s culpability — with 40% indicating they would still back the 45th president if he ran again in 2024, according to a new poll.

The Monmouth University survey released Tuesday also found that only 38% of Americans believe Trump was “directly responsible” for the violence on Jan. 6, 2021, compared to 42% who felt the same before the eight televised hearings held by the House select committee. 

Another 26% said Trump was not directly responsible, but encouraged the rioters and 32% said he did nothing wrong — up one and two percentage points from before the hearings, respectively.

“The sensational revelations during the hearings do not seem to have moved the public opinion needle on Trump’s culpability for either the riot or his spurious election fraud claims,” Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said in a statement. “This continues to give political cover to Republican leaders who avoid addressing the damage done to our democratic processes that day.”

Over the hearings, two of which took place during prime viewing hours on the East Coast, the committee of seven Democrats and two Republicans detailed Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election result — as well as his lack of activity when hundreds of his supporters breached the Capitol and interrupted the joint session of Congress certifying Joe Biden’s victory.

One of the hearings, on June 28, featured live testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows who alleged that the 45th president raged at his security detail when they refused to take him to the Capitol to join his supporters on Jan. 6 — then attempted to grab his SUV’s steering wheel and lunged at a Secret Service agent. 

Despite the lurid claims, fewer than one-quarter of the poll respondents (23%) said they were following the hearings “a lot,” while 77% said they were only keeping abreast of developments “a little” or “not at all.”

The Monmouth survey did find that a plurality of Americans – 41% – favor charging Trump with crimes related to Jan. 6. Another 34% said they opposed potential charges, while 25% said they were unsure. 

Almost as many Americans – 40% – said they would “definitely” (23%) or “probably” (17%) vote for Trump if he made a third consecutive White House run. Another 8% said they would “probably not” vote for him and 48% said they would “definitely not” support him.

Despite the skepticism of a potential Trump prosecution, 61% of Americans said they had at least some trust in the panel to conduct a fair investigation — up from 56% who felt the same in June.

The committee is scheduled to resume its public hearings in September. 

The Monmouth survey was conducted from July 28 to Aug. 1 among a sample of 808 adults and carries a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.5 percentage points.