WASHINGTON (AP) – About half of Americans say the Senate should vote to condemn former President Donald Trump at the end of his impeachment trial, although most think he has at least some blame for the Capitol insurrection.
This is according to a survey by the Associated Press-NORC Public Affairs Research Center which also found that many Republicans continue to believe – contrary to all evidence – that the election of President Joe Biden was illegitimate.
It’s the latest sign that Trump’s month-long disinformation campaign may have lasting ramifications for Biden as he tries to rule a divided country and highlights the deep party divisions that will survive Trump’s presidency. But it also shows some degree of consensus, with even many Republicans saying that Trump was at least partially responsible for the deadly invasion of his Capitol supporters on January 6. in an attempt to overturn the November election results.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that Trump bears at least a moderate part of the responsibility for violating the United States Capitol, including half of those who say he carries too much or too little. Just over a third say they have little or no responsibility.
Most Republicans absolve him of his guilt, but about 3 in 10 think he carries at least a moderate amount of guilt for the events.
Fewer Americans, 47%, believe the Senate should vote to condemn Trump after his impeachment trial, which begins next week. Another 40% say he should not be convicted and 12% are unsure. Trump last month became the first president in the country’s history to be twice accused by the House, but it seems unlikely that Democrats will have enough votes to convict him in the upper house.
Opinions about the trial follow party lines, with more than 8 out of 10 Democrats saying the Senate should condemn it, against just about 1 in 10 Republicans. While those who believe that he has great responsibility generally believe that he should be sentenced, among those who say he is only moderately responsible, significantly more say that the Senate should vote against it than by conviction, 54% to 19%.
“I think this is a little ridiculous. Are we going to start accusing all the previous presidents that we don’t like? ”Said Bill Stokes, 67, who lives in Casper, Wyoming, and voted for Trump in November, describing him as the” lesser of evils “.
Although Stokes admitted that Trump “maybe” had some responsibility for the January 6 events, he said, “I don’t think it justifies impeachment. Maybe censorship, if that. “
“I don’t really feel like he incited a riot. He asked them to go there for a peaceful protest. Maybe he didn’t understand the psychology of the mafia, but I think his responsibility there – they are trying to put more into it than it really is, ”he said.
In interviews, other Republican respondents blamed Trump for inciting the crowd – and some thought he should be held accountable in some way – but they didn’t think impeachment was the answer, given that Trump has already stepped down and, they said, it was unlikely that he would be elected again.
At the same time, the poll shows that many Republicans agree with the idea, espoused by those who invaded the Capitol, that Biden’s election was illegitimate. Overall, 66% of Americans say Biden was legitimately elected president, but 65% of Republicans say no.
Among them is Dolores Mejia, 71, who lives in Peoria, Arizona, and says that if all the votes had been counted, “I think Trump would have won, I really believe that.”
A longtime Democrat who changed her party record to vote for Trump in November, Mejia cited everything from unmasked conspiracies to reports from friends to explain her reservations.
“I don’t care what the Democrats say. They stole the election. There is no way, with the amount of support we were seeing, watching the rallies on TV, things like Truckers for Trump … there is no way they did not steal the election, ”she said.
Others were more ambivalent. Mark Richardson, a Republican who lives in High Point, North Carolina, and voted for Trump twice, said he understood why steps were taken to allow postal voting during the coronavirus pandemic. but he argued that they should never be used again.
“This leaves a lot of room for questions,” he said. But Richardson, 39, who works in the electric vehicle industry, said the issue of “legitimacy” is more nuanced.
“So I think it depends on how you ask the question,” he said. “Do I think that all the votes he received were legitimate? No. But do I think he is the president, legitimately? Yes.”
“Joe Biden is the president,” he said. “And that’s fine with me.”
Republican Party officials in several battlefield states that Biden carried, including Arizona and Georgia, said the election was fair. Trump’s allegations were flatly dismissed in the courts, including by judges appointed by Trump and his former attorney general, William Barr.
Overall, research shows that Americans have a more negative than positive view of Trump’s presidency and its impact on the country, but opposition is limited among Republicans. Only 36% of Americans in general say that Trump was a great or even a good president, while 50% say he was a bad or terrible president.
In contrast, in late 2016, when Barack Obama was stepping down, 52% of Americans considered him a good or great president, while 28% said he was poor or very poor.
Although most Republicans say Trump was a good or great president, 15% call him average and 11% say he was a bad or terrible president.
Americans are more confused about how the Trump years impacted them personally. In fact, more people consider themselves better off than worse off than when Trump took office, by a 38% to 27% margin.
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The AP-NORC survey of 1,055 adults was conducted from January 28 to February 28. 1 using a sample taken from the NORC probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which was designed to be representative of the US population. The sampling error margin for all respondents is about 3.8 percentage points.
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AP-NORC Center: http://www.apnorc.org/.