Declining share of Americans see Trump as primarily responsible for Jan. 6

A declining number of Americans say former President Trump bears primary responsibility for the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to new data from the Pew Research Center, a trend accompanied by a growing number who say he was not at all to blame for the riot.

The results from Pew show that 43 percent of respondents view Trump as being primarily responsible for the attack, a drop from 52 percent last year. The surveys were taken shortly after the attack and its anniversary.

The decrease in those who put the onus on Trump was seen among both Democrats and Republicans.

The number of Republicans who say Trump bears no responsibility at all for the attack grew from 46 percent to 57 percent over the last year, while the share of Democrats who see Trump as having “a lot” of responsibility for the attack dropped from 81 percent to 70 percent.

The survey also found the public largely divided over how much attention should be paid to the Jan. 6 attack and its impacts, with roughly a third of those surveyed responding that too much, too little and the right amount of attention has been given to reviewing the day.

The poll was conducted between Jan. 10 and Jan. 17 among 5,128 U.S. adults. It has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.