How public divide over Jan. 6 could shape 2024 – and beyond
In the three years since the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Congress has issued nearly 1,000 pages of official reports about it. Police attacked by rioters have published memoirs. Media outlets have devoted millions of words to the subject.
More than 1,200 cases have been chugging through federal courts, producing reams of additional evidence.
But while America may be swimming in facts about Jan. 6, Americans don’t agree on the meaning of that day. Polls show that Democrats and Republicans have always viewed Jan. 6 differently – and those differences have only grown wider with time. A new survey out this week finds that while a narrow majority of Americans think Jan. 6 was “an attack on democracy that should never be forgotten,” only 24% of Republicans hold that view, compared with 86% of Democrats. The percentage of Republicans saying that then-President Donald Trump bears responsibility for the riot has dropped by nearly half since 2021, and fewer agree today that Jan. 6 protesters were “mostly violent,” according to the poll, jointly conducted by The Washington Post and the University of Maryland.
With a possible Biden-Trump rematch on the horizon, this widening schism could have direct repercussions on this year’s presidential election and beyond. How Americans think about Jan. 6 – in particular, how serious a
