Last week, the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol hosted its final hearing. Polling by the Economist/YouGov conducted in the days after the hearing shows Americans are divided in their opinion of how the investigation has been handled: 40% approve of the committee's handling of the investigation, while 39% do not. While the vast majority of Democrats (74%) approve of the investigation, a mere 12% of Republicans do. Independents are more closely divided: 31% approve and 37% disapprove.
There is broader support for the committee’s vote last week to authorize issuing a subpoena to former President Donald Trump to testify before it. Nearly half of Americans (46%) approve of the subpoena, and even more — 53% — want Trump to testify. Most Republicans disapprove of the committee and its recent action. But the sentiment isn't unanimous: One in five Republicans approve of the subpoena and one in four think Donald Trump should testify.
Fewer Americans (39%) say Trump bears “a lot” of responsibility for what took place on Jan. 6 — slightly lower than the 44% who said this immediately after the Capitol takeover. Assigning blame is partisan: 71% of Democrats say Trump has a lot of responsibility for what happened on January 6, compared to just 9% of Republicans.
Most Americans do not believe Trump will ever be charged with any crimes related to the Capitol takeover; just 22% think he will. More would like to see an indictment, but this also divides the country: 76% of Democrats want Trump charged in relation to January 6, compared to 12% of Republicans. Independents are evenly divided.
More Americans say Trump really believes he won the 2020 election (52%) than personally think the Biden win was illegitimate (40%). People who view Biden’s victory as illegitimate overwhelmingly believe the president agrees with them on this (72% do; 8% don't). But even people who recognize Biden's 2020 victory are closely divided when it comes to what they believe Trump thinks.
– Carl Bialik contributed to this article
Polling by the Economist/YouGov was conducted on October 16 - 18, 2022 among 1,500 U.S. adult citizens. Explore more on the methodology and data for this Economist/YouGov poll.
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