Most Republican voters still believe that President Joe Biden did not legitimately win the 2020 election, even with the new commander-in-chief sitting in the White House after his victory was confirmed by Congress earlier this month.
A new YouGov poll and The Economist found that 72% of Republican voters – almost three out of four – believed that Biden’s victory was illegitimate. Former President Donald Trump has tried to cast doubt on the results for months, making baseless claims about massive electoral fraud.
Among those who voted for Trump to have a second term in the Oval Office, 78% considered the victory of the newly installed president to be illegitimate, while 22% believed that his victory was fair.
Democrats were much more likely to believe that Biden legitimately won the election. Ninety-eight percent told researchers that he won fairly, while only 2% believed his victory was illegitimate.
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Most independent voters were also convinced that Biden had won the election fairly. A little less than two-thirds of the independents (65 percent) said their victory was legitimate, while the remaining 35 percent believed the president’s victory was illegitimate.
Overall, two-thirds of all voters (66%) told researchers that Biden won the election fairly, while 34% considered his victory illegitimate.
YouGov interviewed 1,500 American adults, including 1,245 registered voters, between January 24 and 26 for their latest poll. Their overall margin of error is 3.4 percentage points.
The researcher released the new data after Republican senators indicated that they probably would not vote to condemn Trump in his second impeachment trial, which is scheduled to take place in the week beginning February 8.
Only five Republican senators broke with their party to vote against a motion by Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), arguing that it would be unconstitutional for the former president to face an impeachment trial because he was no longer in office. Seventeen Republicans would need to vote with Democratic senators in order for Trump to be convicted of inciting insurrection earlier this month.
In the highly unlikely event that the former commander in chief is convicted during his impeachment trial, he may be prevented from holding public office in the future.
House lawmakers approved an impeachment article against Trump earlier this month, accusing the former president of inciting the insurrection because of comments he made at a “Stop the Steal” rally attended by his supporters before the Capitol riots took place. on January 6.
After telling his supporters to march to the Capitol building, Trump said “they would never take our country back weakly” and also called for a show of strength while repeating baseless claims about electoral fraud.