A new poll suggests that more than 60% of Americans think that the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol was planned rather than spontaneous, including nearly 50% of Republicans.
The survey, released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University, shows that 64% of Americans believe that the attack was planned, including 84% of Democrats and 61% of independents. Among Republicans, the response is divided, with 49% saying it was planned and 46% believing the insurrection was spontaneous.
The release of the survey came one day before the House Jan. 6 panel was set to hold its fifth public hearing, this one focused on former President Donald Trump’s efforts to pressure Justice Department officials to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
While a majority of Americans — 59% — believe that former President Trump bears responsibility for the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, those surveyed are split about whether or not he committed a crime for his efforts to overturn the election.
Among those surveyed, nearly six in 10 Americans believe Trump bears “some” (18%) or “a lot” (41%) of responsibility for the Jan. 6 attack, though those figures are largely split along party lines — 69% of Republican respondents believe that Trump bears little-to-no responsibility for the attack, compared to 92% of Democrats and 60% of Republicans who believe the former president is responsible for the insurrection.
Forty-six percent of those surveyed say that Trump committed a crime in his attempts to change the results of the 2020 election, including 85% of Democrats and 43% of independents, while 47% say he did not, including 81% of Republicans and 48% of independents.
Wednesday’s survey follows an ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday, which showed that 58% of Americans think Trump should be charged with a crime for his role in the insurrection. The ABC News / Ipsos poll also showed that 58% of Americans think Trump bears either a great deal or a good amount of responsibility for the attack on the Capitol, similar to the results from the Quinnipiac poll.
A majority of Americans (58%) say that they are following news of the hearings either very closely (26%) or somewhat closely (32%), according to the Quinnipiac survey. Of that figure, 18% of Republicans say they are watching the hearing very closely and 33% somewhat closely; 74% of Democrats and 56% of independents say they are following the hearings.