The BulleTin • Wednesday, January 5, 2022 A13
Poll: Minority of GOP considers Capitol siege very violent
Overall, about two-thirds of Americans described
the events on Jan. 6 as very or extremely violent
BY FARNOUSH AMIRI
associated Press
WASHINGTON — The fighting
— so primitive and ferocious that one
Capitol Police officer described it as
“medieval” and another as a “trip to
hell” — left more than 100 law en-
forcement personnel injured, some
beaten with their own weapons.
Video cameras captured the vio-
lence live, with rioters clubbing of-
ficers with flag polls and fire extin-
guishers, even squeezing one between
doors as he begged for his life.
Yet nearly a year after the Jan. 6
siege only about 4 in 10 Republicans
recall the attack by supporters of
then-President Donald Trump as very
violent or extremely violent, accord-
ing to a new poll from The Associated
Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs
Research. About 3 in 10 Republicans
say the attack was not violent, and
about another 3 in 10 say it was some-
what violent.
Their views were a distinct mi-
nority as overall about two-thirds of
Americans described the day as very
or extremely violent, including about
9 in 10 Democrats.
The findings reflect the country’s
political polarization, with a false por-
trayal of the siege taking hold despite
extensive footage that shows the ran-
sacking of the building in harrowing
detail. Trump and some allies in Con-
gress and conservative media have
played it down, falsely characterizing
the attack as a minor civil disturbance.
It’s a view that is shared by many
Republicans, though few go so far as
to defend the rioters themselves.
“My understanding was that a lot
of it was pretty peaceful,” Paul Bender,
a self-described conservative from
Cleveland, told The Associated Press
in a recent interview. “I’ve seen some
video of the people just like marching
in through a velvet rope.”
Bender, who said he didn’t keep
up with the news coverage, added,
“There were certainly outlier peo-
ple who were not peaceful and were
breaking through the windows and
stuff like that, but I wasn’t aware of
overt violence.”
Meanwhile, the percentage of
Americans who blame Trump for the
Jan. 6 riot has grown slightly over the
past year, with 57% saying he bears
significant responsibility for what
took place. In an AP-NORC poll
taken in the days after the attack, 50%
said that.
The uptick is seen among Repub-
licans as well, even as relatively few
think Trump bears significant re-
sponsibility. Twenty-two percent say
that now, up from 11% last year. Sixty
percent say he had little to no respon-
sibility.
“I don’t believe that he actively was
like promoting people to do anything
other than a peaceful protest,” Bender,
53, said. “However, once things got
out of hand, I think that it would have
been appropriate for him to have re-
acted sooner, whether that was a state-
ment or going on the radio or TV or
whatever.”
The insurrection was the closing act
of Trump’s desperate effort to over-
turn his election loss to Joe Biden.
After Trump’s baseless claims of voter
fraud were soundly rejected in the
courts, he shifted his focus to the
Electoral College certification on Jan.
6, publicly pressuring then-Vice Pres-
ident Mike Pence to stop Congress
from naming Biden the winner. Pence
did not have that power under the
law, as the vice president’s function is
largely ceremonial.
Trump promoted the Jan. 6 rally
that preceded the attack, predicting it
would be “wild,” and in a speech that
day urged his supporters to “fight like
hell” as Congress convened to certify
the election results. The attack halted
that process for hours as rioters occu-
pied the building.
Still, while few Republicans blame
Trump, Republicans and Democrats
alike overwhelmingly say that the in-
dividual rioters had a great deal or
quite a bit of responsibility for their
actions during the riot.
“I think there were strong sup-
porters of President Trump that were
there, but I think the people that
caused the attacks might not have
been true Trump supporters,” said
Mary Beth Bell of Jacksonville, Flor-
ida. “Because I know a lot of Trump
supporters, and they see what hap-
pened on Jan. 6 as disgusting as I do.”
Jose luis Magana/aP file
Rioters loyal to former President Donald Trump rally at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6.
About 7 in 10 Americans also say a
House select committee should con-
tinue its investigation of the attack,
while about 3 in 10 say it should not.
Robert Spry, a Democrat in King-
man, Arizona, said the congressional
investigation is crucial for getting at
the truth.
“We need a comprehensive report
of that day. It has got to come to light
what those people did to police and to
that building,” Spry said.
The 63-year-old, who used to vote
Republican but now considers him-
self a conservative Democrat, said the
protest-turned-attack appeared cha-
otic at first but the committee’s find-
ings are making it “more and more
clear that it was planned in advance.”
Forty-one percent of Republicans
agree with Spry that Congress should
continue to investigate, while 58% say
it should not.
Bell said a federal investigation into
what she saw as “a terrorist attack” is
appropriate, but she objects to the way
the nine-member panel has been con-
ducting the investigation since July of
last year.
“They’re not listening to all the in-
formation. I feel like it’s one-sided
more or less than trying to investigate
everything,” she said of the commit-
tee, composed of seven Democrats
and two Republicans. House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi chose all the members
of the committee after rejecting the
choices of House GOP leadership.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, Demo-
cratic chairman of the committee, said
it’s important for Americans to know
that Democrats first tried to create a
bipartisan commission with an equal
number of members from each party.
But Republicans in the Senate blocked
it from passage.
“Only because Republican leader-
ship failed this country did Speaker
Pelosi have to step up and do what’s
in the best interest of the country to
make sure that we produce a commit-
tee that looks into the facts and cir-
cumstances of Jan. 6,” Thompson said.