Majority condemns Jan. 6 attack, says Trump at least partially to blame

A majority of Americans condemn the Jan. 6 riot and believe that former President Trump bears at least some responsibility for that violent attack on the Capitol.

An ABC News-Ipsos poll found that 72 percent of Americans said the people involved in the riot were mostly threatening democracy, while 25 percent said they were mostly protecting democracy.

The poll also found that 58 percent of people surveyed said Trump bore a great deal or good amount of responsibility for the Capitol riot, while 41 percent who said he bore no or just some responsibility.

A majority of Americans also said they believed that Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory was legitimate, with 65 percent of Americans agreeing. Still, one third — 33 percent — said they think Biden’s victory was not legitimate nearly one year after he was inaugurated.

The top-line findings started to diverge along partisan lines, ABC reported. For example, 45 percent of Republicans believed that the people involved in the attack on the Capitol were threatening democracy, while 52 percent felt they were protecting democracy.

In comparison, 96 percent of Democrats believed those involved in the attack were threatening democracy, ABC reported.

The new poll comes just before the one-year anniversary of the riot in which Trump supporters ransacked the Capitol to contest the election and tried to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s victory.

The ABC-Ipsos poll was conducted between Dec. 27 and Dec. 29, 2021 among 982 adults. The margin of error is 3.5 percentage points with a 95 percent confidence level.

Updated at 10:59 a.m.